Despite further improvements, the doping testing program before the Paris Olympic Games showed some major gaps. The International Test Agency (ITA) comes to this conclusion in its final report. Accordingly, a total of 10.3 percent of athletes were not tested at all in the six months before the Summer Games, including 67 later medal winners. The “Sportschau” first reported.
“The testing program remains patchy,” the ITA concluded. Recommendations were followed in some areas; improvements were needed, among other things, in the predictability and range of tests. Before the Tokyo 2021 Games, almost 15 percent remained untested. The number of tests in the six months before the Games had increased by 45 percent compared to the previous six months. According to experts, tests are particularly useful during this period. The national anti-doping agencies are responsible for the tests before the games. There are big differences here. Only one athlete from the Olympic teams of China, the USA or Germany remained untested. For New Zealand it was 40, which corresponds to 21 percent. With ten gold medals, New Zealand recorded its most successful Summer Games. Of the largest European nations, Great Britain and France had the largest gaps with seven and six percent of untested athletes respectively. Of the 67 untested medalists, 66 came from team disciplines or sports considered low risk by the ITA. Many small countries also have large testing gaps, which is also due to cost reasons.
Of the 14 high-risk sports according to the ITA, swimming stood out. Here, 18 percent of the participants were not tested in the six months before Paris. None of the untested people won a medal. A total of 31,896 tests were taken from 10,720 athletes. So far there are five known doping cases from the Paris Games. All samples were frozen for later analysis.
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