Vancouver, Feb 11 (DPA) The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been told that more than 30 athletes won’t be competing at the Vancouver Games because they have been tested positive in doping controls.
The IOC Session, meeting in Vancouver, was given the figure by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president John Fahey Wednesday.
IOC director of communications Mark Adams said the IOC had heard from WADA that the athletes had “been prevented from coming to the Games because of positive tests”.
A WADA spokesman confirmed the figure given to the IOC by Fahey.
The figure “is based on notifications received by WADA from international federations and national anti-doping organisations in the weeks leading up to the Games”, the spokesman said.
“A number of adverse analytical findings are still in the results management phase. WADA can therefore not go into more details at this stage.”
The spokesman added that WADA was not responsible for the management of individual doping control results.
That was the task of international federations and national anti-doping organisations as well as the IOC during the period of the Olympic Games.
Two days before the opening of the Games, 554 drugs samples – 407 urine and 147 blood – have been tested. There have been no positive tests.
The IOC plans to test more than 800 athletes before their competition. Some 2,000 doping controls are expected during the Games.
The session agreed to set up an entourage commission to investigate more closely those behind athletes who take performance-enhancing drugs. Anyone helping drugs cheats – doctors, coaches or others – could face unspecified sanctions.
“Clearly an athlete caught doping will not be acting by himself. We really do need to check up on the people surrounding athletes who very often make a good living out of it,” Adams said.
The IOC is also stepping up efforts to combat the threat of illegal betting and match-fixing.
“Illegal betting is as serious a threat for sport as doping,” Rogge told the session.
“It’s a very serious concern for the future. We will do everything we can to guard against it.”
The IOC used football federation FIFA’s system to monitor betting patterns during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but found no illegal activity. A similar system is in place for the Vancouver Games.
The IOC’s financial reserves meanwhile stood at just over $460 million at the end of 2009, up from $422 million the previous year.
It means the IOC could continue operating for four years in the event of an Olympics being cancelled, Adams said.
In other decisions, the Chinese city of Nanjing won the bid to host the second Summer Youth Olympics in 2014.
Nanjing defeated the Polish city of Poznan 47-42 in a secret ballot. Singapore is hosting the first summer Youth Games in August this year.
Buenos Aires was chosen as venue for the IOC general assembly in 2013, a meeting which will decide the hosts for the 2020 summer Games, elect a successor to Rogge and define the 25 core sports of the summer Olympics.
rounak