Anti-doping at the Rio Olympics was branded the "worst" ever at a Games on Wednesday after the process of sample collection "was compromised by a wave of no-shows and walkouts by volunteers and testers, as well as a series of security lapses," according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. Efforts to keep the first Olympics since the Russian doping scandal clean are reportedly "in danger of being wrecked by the organisational chaos to engulf the Games in Brazil." The integrity of the entire process "was under threat due to major staff shortages, with barely half the volunteers recruited to help run the event reporting for duty and several doping control officers drafted in from overseas walking out after being pushed to breaking point trying to fill the void." A senior figure in the war on drugs, with experience of several major events, said of the sample collection system in Rio, "This is by far the worst I've seen." One source said that only "very resourceful" doping control officers from countries such as the U.K. had prevented the integrity of sample collection being compromised. Another said that large numbers of volunteers had "picked up their uniforms at the start of the Games never to return," with others reporting for duty each day only to "walk out after being served their free meal." Rio 2016 Communications Dir Mario Andrada said that he had "no knowledge of any problems caused by staffing shortages but did admit volunteers had allowed security lapses to occur during doping control at certain venues" (TELEGRAPH, 8/18).
