GENEVA — Forty-five athletes have failed dope tests after their samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Games were reanalyzed, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Friday.
The results are from a second wave of retests and take the total number of athletes who tested positive for prohibited substances to 98, the IOC added in a statement.
Of the 45 failed tests announced Friday, 30 were from Beijing, including 23 medalists, and 15 were from London. The IOC did not say if any of the London athletes had won medals.
“The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.
The IOC stores samples for a decade in order to re-test using newer methods or to look for new drugs.
The results are part of the IOC’s re-testing of samples from past Games to keep cheats from competing at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.
The athletes are being informed, after which proceedings against them can begin. All athletes found to have infringed anti-doping rules will be banned from competing at the Rio Olympics.
The failed tests will raise further speculation about the extent of doping at the Games, just weeks before the Rio Olympics starts.
Doping scandals have plagued the build-up to the world’s biggest multi-sports event with Russia potentially facing a complete Games ban following the publication of the McLaren report Monday.
The report revealed evidence of a systematic and widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
The second wave of retests included 386 samples from Beijing, involving four sports and eight countries. There were 138 samples retested from London 2012, involving athletes from two sports and nine countries.
The third and fourth waves of tests are expected to continue throughout and after the Rio Games.
Meanwhile, Russia Friday said it expects to avoid a blanket ban at the Rio Games over state-run doping.
The IOC’s executive board are to hold a conference call on Sunday to discuss barring Russia from the Rio Games starting on August 5 over bombshell doping revelations.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) Thursday rejected an appeal by Russia’s track and field team against their suspension from Rio in a decision seen as a key indicator as the IOC debates whether to kick out the whole Russian team.
“All sportsmen who have not been convicted or are not under suspicion of doping should have the right to compete,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “That is the decision we are counting on.”
Russia has found support from some international sports bodies, with the International Judo Federation (IJF) insisting all clean athletes should be allowed to take part in Rio.
Individual Russian sports federations said they were now looking nervously ahead for the IOC to make its next move.
The IOC has appeared to back the principle that international sporting federations could clear individual athletes in case of a blanket ban but with just two weeks to go until Rio, time is slipping away.
