IOC may retest 2004 samples

[steve]

This will be worrying quite a few athletes!


IOC may retest 2004 samples
The International Olympic Committee is considering retesting doping samples from the 2004 Games in Athens to catch any drug cheats who may have avoided detection. With the frozen samples set to be destroyed this summer after eight years in storage, the IOC medical commission chairman, Arne Ljungqvist, said on Tuesday that the Olympic body is likely to retest some for substances that can now be detected – including insulin and human growth hormone. "I think we will do something," he said. "In all likelihood, yes." The IOC has previously retested samples from the 2006 Winter Games in Turin and 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/08/ioc-retest-2004-athens-games

 

[swampy1970]

Sadly I'm not surprised that this thread just slipped into obscurity...

Personally, I think it's great that they're thinking of re-testing these samples. Keep atheletes under the "fear" that future advances in technology may uncover attempts to cheat but just as this might stike the fear of dread into cyclists who competed, I hope that whomever is responsible for the chain of custody for those samples has their sh1t in order, i's dotted and t's crossed.

From the Landis debacle and some of the evidence shown about the state of the lab that the samples were tested in, things weren't in top notch condition. One has to wonder about how samples destined for long term storages are handled.