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AOC unaware of any Aussies testing positive for drugs

18th May, 2016
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Australian Olympic hierarchy are unaware of any Australian athlete being caught doping by retrospective drug tests from the Beijing Games.

The Australian Olympic Committee has welcomed the re-testing of samples from the 2008 Games which has found another 31 drug cheats from 12 nations.

“We maintain a zero tolerance to drugs and the fact that more drug cheats have been unearthed is a good thing,” an AOC spokesman told AAP on Wednesday.

The AOC was “unaware of any Australian involvement” in those caught by the re-testing, he said.

The IOC said retrospective testing, using newer methods or looking for new substances, focused on athletes at the Beijing Olympics who could potentially take part in the Rio Games this August.

Some 454 doping samples from Beijing were re-tested, with the IOC finding positive drug results in 31 athletes from 12 nations, across six sports.

Those athletes could now be banned from the Rio Games.

“The aim is to stop any drugs cheats coming to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro,” the IOC said.

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It said no names would be made public until athletes in the 12 countries had been informed and a second sample, known as a B-sample, was re-tested as well.

The IOC also planned to re-test a further 250 samples from the 2012 London Olympics, and also start re-testing samples from the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics after claims of tarnished samples surfaced last week.

The IOC had called on the World Anti-Doping Agency to launch a “fully fledged investigation” into allegations that testing during the Sochi 2014 Games by the on-site accredited laboratory had been subverted.

The former head of Russia’s anti-doping agency Grigory Rodchenkov claimed last week that the Sochi lab had tampered with samples.

IOC president Thomas Bach said the re-tests were a “powerful strike against the cheats we do not allow to win”.

“The re-tests from Beijing and London and the measures we are taking following the worrying allegations against the laboratory in Sochi are another major step to protect the clean athletes, irrespective of any sport or any nation,” he said in a statement.

“By stopping so many doped athletes from participating in Rio we are showing once more our determination to protect the integrity of the Olympic competitions, including the Rio anti-doping laboratory, so that the Olympic magic can unfold in Rio de Janeiro.”

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