Beijing Olympic Games 2008

The organizers of the Beijing Olympics have said that test samples from athletes competing at the Games will be kept for eight years for possible doping retests, national media reported on Monday.

Chen Zhiyu, head of the Beijing anti-doping division, said the samples could be reexamined as more advanced testing techniques are developed, the China Daily said.

Previously, samples that tested positive were stored for 90 days and those that tested negative for 30 days, according to the anti-doping rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The 29th Olympic Games in Beijing are due to see a record 4,500 doping tests, some 25 % more than at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and 50% more than in Sydney in 2000.

China opened the world’s biggest and most advanced anti-doping laboratory specifically for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Chinese authorities spent $10 million on the new laboratory, including $2.7 million on state-of-the-art testing equipment. The lab employs 100 experts from 10 countries.

Seven Russian female athletes, including five selected for the Beijing Olympics, were recently suspended for providing false urine samples and “tampering” with doping control procedures.

source: rian.ru

Two athletes from North Korea and Vietnam have been caught for doping at the Beijing Olympics.

A 19-year-old Vietnamese gymnast tested positive for a prohibited substance that was likely to be a result of poor advice on what medicine she could take.

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies says the North Korean shooter Kim Jong-su who won a silver and bronze medal, tested positive for beta blockers which help steady athletes’ hands.

“In testing he came forward with a positive test for Propanalol. And as a result of this has been excluded from the Games, disqualified for the results he achieved in the 10 metre and 50 metre events. His medals and diplomas will be withdrawn and his Olympic identity and accreditation also immediately withdrawn and cancelled.”

from: radioaustralia.net.au

Australian head swim coach Alan Thompson has predicted the Americans will use Jessica Hardy’s positive doping test to galvanise them for the Beijing Olympics.

The former world record holder will appeal her positive test for the banned substance clenbuterol but her status for the Beijing Games remains uncertain.
Thompson expected the breaststroker’s doping violation to initially prove a distraction for members of the world No.1 swimming team but believed it would stiffen their resolve by the time the swimming program begins in Beijing on August 9.
“They will then focus on their individual performances, there’s no doubt they will use this as a strengthening factor for their team,” Thompson said today as the 43-strong Australian team departed for its pre-Olympic training camp in Kuala Lumpur.
The Dolphins will spend a week training in Malaysia before flying into Beijing on Sunday week.
Australia and the US have been tipped to dominate in the pool at the Water Cube, having collected 29 of the 40 gold medals on offer at last year’s Melbourne world championships.
However Thompson warned it wouldn’t just be a two-horse race in Beijing.
He believed it would take the fastest times in history to win medals and expected several countries to be stepping onto the podium.
“I think there’s going to be the biggest spread of medals (ever at an Olympics) - France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden,” he said.
For the first time the Olympics have added the 10km open water event to the program with former ironman star Ky Hurst representing Australia in the men’s event.
The 27-year-old said while it was disappointing that he wouldn’t be joined by good mate Grant Hackett in the marathon event, he was ready for any rough house tactics.
“The more physical it is, the better it is for me,” he said, confident after years of being race hardened through surf races.
“The tougher and harder the race conditions and the environment, the better it is for me personally.”
Meanwhile freestyler Craig Stevens confirmed the three fractured ribs he suffered a couple of months ago had healed and wouldn’t be a factor in Beijing.

from: foxsports.com.au

Reigning Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin was noticeably absent when the USA’s track and field team for Beijing was officially named on Monday.

Gatlin, who is serving a four-year ban for using steroids, tried unsuccessfully last month to get the US courts to permit him to compete in the US Olympic trials.
Gatlin won’t be going to the Beijing Olympics but several US athletes who have failed doping tests and served suspensions did make the team, including triple jumper Kenta Bell.

Bell was slapped with a three-month ban last year by the US Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for methylpredinisolone at the 2007 US Track and Field Championships.

Joining Bell on the US team is female hurdler Damu Cherry, who placed second in the 100m hurdles at the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon.

Cherry served a two-year suspension beginning in 2003 after testing positive for a nandrolone metabolite. Cherry claimed the positive result was caused by taking a vitamin.

Former 100m world champion Torri Edwards will run in the 100 and 4×100m in Beijing. Edwards missed the 2004 Summer Games while serving a two-year doping suspension.

The 126-member USA team includes Cherry, Edwards, Bell and reigning Olympic champions Jeremy Wariner (400m) and Shawn Crawford (200m).

Also on the team are Tyson Gay, Bernard Lagat and Allyson Felix.

Javelin thrower Breaux Greer is the latest addition to the US team.

The bronze medalist at the 2007 Worlds, Greer finished 17th in the javelin at the trials and failed to reach the final due to a nagging shoulder injury.

Because of the shoulder problem, USA Track and Field named Greer to the team on Monday, citing a rule that an injured athlete can be selected to the Olympics.

“While it would take an incredible performance to match our medal counts of recent championships, we certainly feel that this team has what it takes to again top the medal tables,” said USATF acting chief executive Bill Roe.

A gold medalist in both the 100 and 200 at the 2007 Worlds, Gay will be competing in just the 100 in Beijing due to a leg injury suffered at the trials.

A native of Kenya, Lagat will be representing the US for the first time since becoming a citizen.

Lagat caused a stir when it was revealed he became a US citizen in 2004, just prior to the Athens Olympics, but kept it a secret so he could run for his native Kenya.

He won the silver in the 1,500m in Athens and will compete in two events after winning both the 1,500m and 5,000m at the trials.

Felix, winner in the 200m in the past two World, aims for Beijing gold in the women’s sprint after having to settle for the silver in Athens.

The United States won 25 athletics medals at the 2004 Athens Games, eight of them gold. It had a championships-high 26 medals at the 2007 Worlds, including 14 gold.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Former British Olympic champions are spearheading a campaign to stop sprinter Dwain Chambers from trying to overturn his ban for the Beijing Games.

Chambers, who served a two-year doping ban, is expected to go to London’s High Court this week to challenge the lifetime Olympic ban set down by the British Olympic Association.

He twice ran within the “A” qualifying time for the Beijing Games on Saturday, finishing in 10.06 seconds to win the 100 meters at a meet in Germany.

Five-time rowing champion Sir Steve Redgrave and two-time gold medalist track star Kelly Holmes are among more than 200 supporters of a petition backed by the BOA.

“The core foundation of the Olympic Movement is its values of fair play, respect and friendship,” the petition says. “As Olympians we are the custodians of those ideals and any athlete who has taken performance-enhancing drugs has not respected their worth.
“The highest accolade for any athlete is to be an Olympian, and we believe that allowing drug cheats the privilege of competing at the Olympic Games for Team GB is wrong.”

Redgrave added a comment next to his signature.

“If an athlete takes the risk of cheating they have to accept the penalties that go with this,” he wrote.

from: iht.com

China has ordered all pharmaceutical plants to tag medicines that contain stimulants to prevent athletes from mistakenly using banned drugs during the Olympic Games, a drug watchdog official said here on Sunday.
Drugstores were told not to sell such medicine without tags that read “athletes cautious” on the package, said Wu Zhen, vice director the State Food and Drug Administration at a press conference on the sidelines of the parliament session.
Only approved pharmaceutical plants and wholesalers are allowed to produce and wholesale protein assimilation preparations and peptide hormones, the official said.
The Chinese law also forbids the sales of protein assimilation preparations except insulin or the sales of peptide hormones, Wu added.
The moves were aimed at a fair and clean environment for the Games, Wu noted.
A catalog of drugs needed during the Olympic Games has been compiled.
China is resolute against doping and the Beijing Olympics will feature the largest number of doping tests in the history of the Games, according to officials with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).
Anti-doping requirements have been issued to all participating athletes at the Beijing Games, officials said.

from: chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-03/16/content_6540272.htm

British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Colin Moynihan said on Wednesday he would oppose any attempt by sprinter Dwain Chambers to compete at the Beijing Games.
Chambers, 29, who has returned to competition after serving a two-year doping suspension, is considering a legal challenge to the BOA’s lifetime Olympic ban for any athlete failing a drugs test.

“There will be no room for cheats in the British team as long as I am involved with the BOA,” Moynihan told the BBC.

“There are absolutely no grounds whatsoever for compromise.”

Chambers won a silver medal in the 60 metres at the world indoor championships this month but his future is uncertain after leading European promoters said he would not be welcome at their meetings.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

The Beijing Olympics scheduled for August this year here would feature the largest number of dope tests in the history of the Games, a top official of the organizing committee said.
“China is resolute against doping and would use hi-tech measures as part of anti-doping efforts“, Jiang Xiaoyu, Vice-President of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) said.
Firming the idea further, Cui Dalin, Deputy Director of the State General Administration of Sport, said that China had imposed anti-doping requirements on all the participating athletes and initiated steps to prevent them from mistakenly using banned drugs.
“As far as the Chinese teams are concerned, we would rather lose gold medals than dope,” Cui added.
The officials, both members of Chinas top political advisory body, the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, which is currently holding its annual session here, were quoted as saying official Xinhua news agency.
Meanwhile, Liu Jingmin, Vice-Mayor of Beijing and Executive Vice-President of the BOCOG, responding to political issues being linked with the Games said, “The world is vast with different voices, but we must carry on preparations for the Olympic Games as scheduled.” Cui said criticism would not dampen Chinas enthusiasm and added, “The more problems we find out now, the better the Olympic Games would be“.
Commenting on political issues surrounding games, Jiang said, “As International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said, the Games is solely a sporting gala that shouldn’t be linked with politics.”

from: ndtv.com 

British researchers have developed a new, highly sensitive, anti-doping steroid test technique using hydropyrolysis, a technique that has previously been used for oil exploration.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham has refined the hydropyrolysis technique which uses high pressure environments to investigate the chemical structure and make-up of a sample to develop highly accurate tests for detecting levels of illicit steroids in the urine of athletes, according to a press release on Wednesday by the university.
The test procedure is already in the process of being commercialized and is expected to be ready for use in the 2012 Olympics, it said.
High pressure hydrogen is used to bombard the sample at pressures of 150 atmospheres and temperatures of up to 500 degrees Celsius, leaving sample molecules in a cleaner, less degraded state than other extraction techniques, thus allowing more accurate readings to be taken, according to the researchers.
Carbon isotopes are then measured, with the results showing the ratios of carbon 12 and carbon 13 in the sample whether geochemical or biological, Colin Snape, Professor of Chemical Technology and Chemical Engineering at the University, said.
“Steroids are produced naturally in the body, but they have a different ratio between carbon 13 and carbon 12 to those that have been introduced illicitly. By refining the measurements of these two isotopes we can produce a very accurate test for the presence of illegal steroids in athletes,” he said.
“We are currently working with the World Anti-Doping Agency ( WADA) to develop the technique for trial and have entered into partnership with Strata Technology, a London-based company with expertise in high pressure equipment, to commercialize the technique,” Snape said.
The technique is also being used to refine current radio carbon dating processes, which use the carbon 14 isotope to measure the age of an archaeological sample.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

The Presidents of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, and of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Hon. John Fahey, met today at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, to discuss cooperation between the two organizations and enhanced strategies in the fight against doping in sport. This was the first official meeting between the two leaders since the commencement of Mr Fahey’s term as WADA President on 1 January 2008. The meeting took place in the presence of the Presidents of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) as well as the Chairmen of the IOC Athletes’ and Medical Commissions.
“The IOC has been wholeheartedly supporting WADA and will continue to do so in the future. Mr Fahey can count on the total commitment of the Olympic Movement in the fight against doping,” said the IOC President. “WADA has come a long way with the establishment of the WADA Anti-Doping Code, for example, but challenges remain. Efforts are still needed to allow the full implementation of the Code by the Olympic Movement by 1 January 2009 and the adhesion by governments to the UNESCO Convention. I am confident that Mr Fahey will significantly help to move things forward”, he continued.
“The IOC itself continues to enforce its zero-tolerance policy against doping through a comprehensive program of testing during each edition of the Olympic Games — 4,500 in- and out-of-competition tests will be carried out next summer in Beijing — by calling upon the cooperation of governments, by imposing financial penalties on NOCs and athletes, and by denying participation in the next Olympic Games for athletes and their entourage who have been sanctioned for more than six months”, Rogge added.
“The IOC President and I had a very productive meeting that focused on the next steps to be taken to further strengthen the fight against doping in sport,” said the WADA President. “The IOC was instrumental in WADA’s inception in 1999 and, under President Rogge’s leadership, has always shown tremendous support to WADA and an unwavering commitment to the fight against doping in sport. President Rogge assured me of his full and continued support to WADA’s work.”
“WADA is a unique partnership between the sports movement and governments of the world,” continued Fahey. “As the first government representative to serve at the helm of WADA, it is important for me to meet with the leader of the Olympic Movement to discuss several areas in which the fight against doping can be advanced. For one, I will be focusing much attention on maximizing the role of governments for enhanced cooperation and sharing of information between governmental and law enforcement agencies and sports authorities. High-profile doping cases and investigations underscore the fact that no sport and no country are immune to the threat of doping, as well as the critical need for strong collaborative sport-government efforts in confronting doping.”
WADA is funded by and composed in equal parts of the Olympic Movement and governments of the world. Under the Agency’s Statutes, the WADA Presidency and Vice-Presidency alternate between the sports movement and governments.

source: beijing2008.cn