Olympic athletes face many doping, virus tests in Beijing

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Alongside the daily collection of coronavirus samples, the athletes at the Beijing Olympics also have to contend with the usual doping tests — both in and out of competition.

The 2,900 or so competitors at the Winter Games have to make themselves available for unannounced doping control visits, putting them at greater risk of catching COVID-19 and possibly ruling them out of their event.

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The International Testing Agency, which oversees sample collection at the Olympics, said Wednesday the daily tests, which everyone in the Olympic bubble must do, add extra psychological weight and uncertainty.

"There is a lot of attention when they go through the doping control process to go through all the COVID measures," said Matteo Vallini, the ITA head of testing. "It puts them under pressure."

The ITA, which designed the Olympic athlete testing, and World Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees the rules and the testing laboratory in Beijing, detailed their plans on the first day of competition, two days before the opening ceremony.

OMICRON CHALLENGES

The wave of COVID-19 cases caused by the recent omicron variant has added to the ITA’s work.

Late and unpredictable team selections because of athletes testing positive meant their replacements were less of a priority in pre-Olympic testing plans.

The agency said Wednesday it still hit a target of about 80% collected of the 5,400 samples recommended to sports bodies.

The ITA and WADA draw confidence in hoping for a clean Olympics after more tests were done on athletes training in 2021 away from their competitions than in the last pre-pandemic year of 2019.

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