The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced finding 23 failed drug tests reanalyzing urine samples from Olympians from the 2012 Summer Games in London.
While dopers may have succeeded in beating the drug screening in 2012, new technology caught them four years later. The IOC reexamined 265 samples, meaning that about 9 percent of the athletes they looked at failed drug tests.
The positive tests come from athletes competing in five sports from six different countries. The IOC vows to shield their identities until it can hear from accused athletes. Should the IOC determine the guilt of those who popped positive for banned substances years after the fact, it will ban the competitors from participating in Rio this summer and strip medals gained in 2012 from them.
“These reanalyses show, once again, our determination in the fight against doping,” IOC President Thomas Bach declared in a release. “We want to keep the dopers away from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This is why we are acting swiftly now. I have already appointed a disciplinary commission, which has the full power to take all the decisions on behalf of the IOC.”
The 23 failed tests follow a reanalysis of samples from the 2008 Beijing games that yielded 31 samples containing banned substances.