The IOC "stood accused" on Monday of "failing to investigate a wave of positive drugs tests -- including by male Jamaican sprinters -- during its reanalysis of samples from the 2008 Olympics," according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. German broadcaster ARD, which "famously exposed the Russian doping scandal," claimed the IOC and WADA had "chosen to take no action over the presence of banned steroid clenbuterol in the urine of several unnamed athletes." The network said that the discovery "occurred during last year’s retesting of samples from the Beijing Games" but that the IOC and WADA "did not pursue the matter after deeming the levels of clenbuterol low enough to have come from contaminated meat." WADA founding President Dick Pound "nevertheless alleged that due process had not been followed over a substance for which there is no legal threshold in the agency’s code." He said, "It seems highly unusual to me that the correct procedures were not followed in this case." Pound's "misgivings" were echoed by the director of Germany's WADA-accredited laboratory in Kreischa, Detlef Thieme, who said, "Suspicious facts and circumstances always have to be confirmed" (TELEGRAPH, 4/3). The AP reported the IOC "denied Monday that it covered up doping cases." The organization said that it "concluded there was no pattern of organized cheating" after consulting WADA. In a statement, the IOC said, "After careful consideration, WADA informed the IOC further to the pattern analysis that the IOC had conducted that WADA could not find any significant and consistent pattern of abuse of clenbuterol in these cases and that it would be appropriate not to take these cases any further." China has a "reputation for using clenbuterol in livestock farming to increase animals' muscle, and Olympic athletes were warned of contamination risks before going to Beijing" (AP, 4/3).
JAMAICAN FINDINGS: In London, Martyn Ziegler reported WADA General Dir Olivier Niggli said that he "accepted that the cases should not have been made public because of the levels involved." He said, "I am aware of the fact that there are Jamaican cases with very low levels of clenbuterol. If the amounts found are relatively low compared to direct intake of the substance, WADA accepts that such cases are not announced." There is no suggestion of "any wrongdoing on the part of the Jamaican athletes found with these low levels of clenbuterol." According to ARD, the IOC has confirmed that “very low clenbuterol levels” had been detected in “several athletes from several countries and in several sports” in retroactive testing from samples taken at the 2008 Games (LONDON TIMES, 4/3).
