New findings reveal 12 more athletes guilty of doping
International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that 12 athletes have been disqualified from the 2012 London Olympics after failing a retroactive drugs test. Seven of these 12 athletes won medals at London games. This includes the Russian Gold medallist in women's 3000m steeplechase, Yuliya Zaripova. Zaripova had already been banned by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) over a separate violation.
Why the retesting of samples?
After reports of extensive state-run doping program in Russia, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took measures which included "targeted pre-tests and re-analysis of stored samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics." IOC stores samples for up to 10 years which allows them to identify new drugs and retest the samples with improved methods. More than 1000 samples were reanalyzed in the process.
16 athletes from Beijing Olympics banned
16 athletes were disqualified in the latest round of retesting of Beijing-samples. They belonged to different countries, five from Kazakhstan, four from Russia, three from Ukraine, two from Azerbaijan, one each from Greece and Belarus. 9 of the 16 are weightlifters, 3 are wrestlers and 4 others were track and field athletes. 10 of them had won medals - 3 Silver & 7 bronze.
Most of the results tested positive for Turinabol/Stanozolol
Almost all of the disqualifications tested positive for the anabolic steroids- Turinabol, Stanozolol or both. These were the very substances that fueled East Germany's global dominance in the 1970s and 80s.
98 athletes tested positive
While the first wave of tests began in 2015, IOC recorded as many as 98 positive tests in its first two waves of re-tests from the Beijing and London games. Results from third and fourth wave are still to come. A majority of the guilty athletes belong to Russia and other Eastern European countries. At least 40 of them had won medals.
