To the 2008 Beijing Olympics athletes, to be stripped of medals is a bad, bad way to start 2009. Our advice to them? Take in all in stride. Look at the four riders in this year’s Tour de France who tested for CERA long after the cameras flashed and the medals awarded. Their collective sigh was: C’est la vie!

The International Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday about 500 samples will undergo retroactive testing in January. Of that number are about 400 blood tests to be retested for third-generation drug CERA, while 100 are urine samples which will be tested for insulin. A WADA lab in Cologne, Germany will handle the retesting of the urine samples. According to AP report, the lab has come up with a reliable test for insulin which, like anabolic steroids, is considered a performance-enhancing drug.

IOC’s statement said the tests “will primarily target endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics.” The test results are expected to be in by the end of March.

It was in October when IOC has announced its plan to carry out retroactive testing subsequent to AFLD’s (French anti-doping agency) statement that it will retest samples from the 2008 Tour de France riders. AFLD has developed a more effective method to test blood samples for new generation performance boosters like CERA. The new testing method caught four riders.

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As they say, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

This seems to be the case with the anti-doping testing at the 2008 Olympics. Although the international games have already commenced and concluded in August, there are still tests being carried out by the International Olympic Committee to determine who among the participants in Beijing had used the third generation blood booster known as CERA, or continuous erythropoiesis receptor activator.

IOC president Jacques Rogge himself confirmed that the number of doping cases in this year’s Olympics is expected to climb.

“There were 39 cases before the Olympics, while there were eight cases during the Olympics and seven cases are still in the pipeline, so there could be 15 cases in total,” Rogge told Austrian news agency APA.

“But we are going ahead very carefully. I expect results in four to six weeks.”

The IOC has been implementing strict anti-doping policy to deter athletes from using anabolic steroids and other prohibited compounds. Rogge, however, emphasizes a lifetime ban for first time offenders is too harsh.

“No court in the world would approve that. Any athlete would win a civil court,” he said.
“I think doping with anabolic steroids and EPO should be followed by a four-year ban.

“But first-time offenders can’t be banned for life. Criminals are also not shot the first time they are caught.”

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics more than 5000 urine samples have been taken, including more than 1,000 blood samples.

Testing for CERA is found to be more accurate when using blood samples.

The IOC had announced in October that they are going to retest blood samples taken from the participants in Beijing. The announcement came after the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) has developed a new method to effectively test for CERA. AFLD had also implemented retroactive testing for the 2008 Tour de France blood samples.

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London is under pressure to toughen its stance on use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Will the 2012 Summer Olympics host city give in?

Presently, the International Olympic Committee is yet to receive any definitive action by the British government regarding legislation that will outlaw possession, supply and distribution of performance enhancing drugs.

The IOC would prefer that Britain should follow the path other European nations have taken. Countries like Sweden, Italy, Greece, and Germany have stricter doping laws where violators and suppliers can be imprisoned.

IOC’s chairman of medical commission Arne Ljungqvist, said he would be pushing for a change in the British law.

“I think legislation is very important that criminalizes certain offenses as detailed in the WADA code because it allows public authorities to intervene where we cannot,” Ljungqvist said, who is also a board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“We as sports authorities have our limited possibilities regulated by our code. We can do testing but we cannot do searches,” Ljungqvist added.

Britain is expected to have a new independent anti-doping agency in place by next year but it is still recalcitrant as far as criminalizing doping.

“This is on my agenda so that Britain does have a law in place at the time of the Games which will allow them to take the same action as the Italians did if a similar situation occurred,” Ljungqvist said.

Ljungqvist was referring to the incident at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin when the Austrian cross-country skiing team was exposed of practicing blood doping. Italian police conducted search on said team’s accommodations and came up with banned substances and paraphernalia.

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Looks like game’s not yet over for those dopers in Beijing Olympics. From TopNews:

Oslo - More alleged doping cases connected to the recent Beijing Games are pending, a Norwegian member of the International Olympic Committee said Thursday.

Gerhard Heiberg’s remarks were made on the eve of a meeting of the Olympic movement’s ruling body in Lausanne, Switzerland this weekend.

The cases concern ’several people from several nations’ and several different events, Heiberg told broadcaster NRK, adding he was ‘not surprised.’

‘We had expected more to be caught during the games. Luckily there weren’t more, but I said that more were due and we are going to consider them,’ Heiberg said.

The IOC member said he could not name the athletes but said the IOC would meet with the athletes suspected of doping. The cases were based on tests of both A- and B-samples.
Heiberg said the names likely would be disclosed after the IOC meeting in Lausanne this weekend, the report said.

In the recently concluded 2008 Summer Games, the International Olympic Committee had conducted the most rigorous drug-testing program in the history of the Olympics. There were 4,500 screenings for banned substances during and in the months leading up to Beijing, a 25% increase on 2004 Athens Olympics.  Among the tests carried out involved the top five athletes and two random finishers in every competition. It was also the first time that kits were made available to test for human growth hormone but no athlete had tested positive for said compound.

Only six athletes ha tested positive for steroids and other banned compounds during the Beijing Olympics. Several athletes, however, were disqualified before the commencement of the Games last month. American swimmer Jessica Hardy was among the athletes who had failed their drug screening. It was reported on July 23 that the female breaststroke specialist had tested positive for clenbuterol, a banned compound known as a weight-loss drug.

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‘Tis the season of fingerpointing once again in the doping world. This fingerpointing incident, however, might interest many as matrimonial bliss is now at stake in this latest steroid-related scandal.

Lyudmila Blonska, one of the unfortunate few who got caught by the anti-doping officials in Beijing, points toward her husband (we bet you with her ring finger) Sergei Blonsky. Poor Blonsky, he did not utter a protest or else he would face cold nights on the floor.

Blonska was stripped of her silver medal on Friday because she tested positive for the steroid methyltestosterone. The test was conducted at 2am following her second-place victory in the heptathlon last Saturday. Fellow Ukrainian Nataliia Dobrynska won the gold.
The International Olympic Committee has reportedly asked Blonska to hand back the silver medal after her failed doping test.

According to an AP report, Blonska was temporarily suspended by the IOC on Thursday and her medal was officially removed Friday by the IOC executive board.  The IOC has also asked the International Association of Athletics Federation to adjust the event’s results and deliberate further on Blonska’s case. Blonska could receive additional sanctions which could likely include a lifetime ban from the sport. This is strike two for Blonska as she tested positive for another banned compound stanozolol five years ago. She was suspended for two years for that first offense. (It seems to Blonska steroid use is such a hard habit to break).

Blonska was also dropped from Friday’s long jump final after finishing third in the qualifying that took place earlier in the week. Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare competed in her lieu and won the bronze medal in the final event.

Reports say that Blonska expressed “shock” at the doping results saying she could not understand how the steroid wound up in her system. Blonska said she offered apologies to anti-doping officials and felt ashamed. She then blamed her husband for the failed doping test. Blonsky has been her coach for five years.

“She expressed that she trusted him to take care of her training and diet,” the IOC said. “She indicated that they had expressly agreed that she would not take any prohibited substances. However, her relationship with her husband was currently conflictual.” (We think “conflictual” is the euphemism for matrimonial bloodbath).

The Ukrainian team officials are likewise understandably unhappy with the positive test results. Blonska’s B sample came back positive on Thursday. The officials apologized for the positive results and described the incident as an “extraordinary case” because of her husband’s role. As such, the Ukrainian officials scheduled a meeting next Friday to hear out the case according to the IOC.

There is, however, the happy lot who welcomed Blonska’s disgraceful exit from the Olympics. One of whom was Carolina Kluft, the 2004 Olympic heptathlon champion who finished ninth in the long jump Friday.

“She doesn’t deserve my thought,” the Swede said. “I am just happy she got caught and is out of the sport forever.”

Britain’s elite long jumper Kelly Sotherton, who moved up to fourth in the heptathlon results due to Blonka’s, had continuously complained that Blonska should be disqualified from the Olympics because of her previous doping record.

“It’s great news, even if it’s quite negative,” she said. “It’s great news for my event and the other girls, especially as there was a medal on the line and hopefully that’s the last of her. I won’t have to talk about her again or compete against her again.”

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On the heels of Lyudmila Blonska’s steroid scandal at the Beijing Olympics is another steroid-related case with another Ukrainian athlete. This time around it’s weightlifter Igor Razoronov who has been kicked out of the Beijing Olympics because he tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.

Razonov became the number 6 athlete to be ejected from the Games due to doping. Many doubt the integrity of the current Summer Games because so far only six athletes have been caught with doping infringements. If you’re to compare it to the last Olympics in Athens four years ago, that’s a paltry figure. Twenty-four athletes were thrown out for doping violations during the Athens Games, wherein three athletes were stripped of their gold medals. The Athens doping statistics is the highest ever in the history of the Olympics.

Currently, the International Olympic Committee has initiated 4,600 doping tests in Beijing and the number is expected to reach more than 5,000 up to the Games’ closing ceremony on Sunday.

The 38-year-old Razonov tested positive for the banned compound after competing in the 105kg-division Monday. He finished sixth in said event. According to the IOC, the weightlifter’s sample was more then a four times over the permitted threshold for the nandrolone. Razoronov did not ask testing for his B sample.

Ukrainian team officials, meanwhile, ‘apologized’ saying the positive result may be due to medication Razonorov was taking. They said Razonorov recently underwent elbow and knee surgery due to injuries.  This claim, however, was disproved by IOC medical director Patrich Schamasch. Schamasch said it was unlikely that such medical treatment would result to the presence of nandrolone in the sample. Further, Razonorov did not make any request for an exemption for use of medications.

The IOC has instructed the International Weightlifting Committee to make adjustments to the competition results and to further deliberate the case for any additional sanctions. Razoronov could face a two-year ban from his sport.

Razoronov’s compatriot heptathlete Blonska has tested positive for the steroid methyltestosterone. Blonska was stripped of her silver medal she won on Saturday.

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