5 Athletes Caught by Paris Olympics Anti-Doping Program

The anti-doping initiative for the Paris Olympics identified five athletes violating the rules during the Games. This was reported by the International Testing Agency (ITA) on Thursday. The program, which earlier discovered 40 violations among likely participants, collected 6,130 samples from 4,150 athletes between July and August. The samples included urine, blood, and dried blood spots. The five positive results in Paris—for anabolic steroids and a diuretic—were found among judo, track and field, aquatics, and boxing athletes. Athletes from Afghanistan, Bolivia, Congo, Iraq, and Nigeria were either removed ahead of their events or had their results nullified.

Disciplinary proceedings are currently underway, managed by respective sport's governing bodies. The ITA noted that nearly 39% of athletes were tested, representing a 4% increase from Tokyo 2020 and a 10% rise from Rio 2016. The most tested nations included the United States, France, China, Australia, and Britain. Almost 90% of competitors underwent testing at least once before the Games commenced. All samples will be stored for 10 years for potential re-analysis when advanced testing methods become available. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP)