Some 2,203 doping tests have been carried out so far in the framework of the largest ever testing programme for an Olympic Games. The tests include 1,720 urine and 483 blood tests. These tests cover the 18 day-period beginning 27 July 2008 until 13 August 2008. Athletes qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games have been tested by the World AntiDoping Agency and BOCOG under the authority of the IOC.

 

The tests include pre-competition controls, which have proved to be decisive. Out of the 2,203 tests carried out so far, 1,250 were performed pre-competition: 800 urine and 450 blood tests.

The IOC had decided to increase the number of tests up from 3,600 in Athens to 4,500 in Beijing.  As a general rule, all top five finishers plus a further two will be tested.

The new anti-doping rules applied at the Beijing Games include several new elements:

- an athlete may be notified and tested more than once during the same day;
- the fact that athletes who miss a test on two separate occasions during the Games, or on one occasion during the Games plus twice in the 18 months beforehand, will be considered to have committed an anti-doping rule violation;         
- possession of any substance from the list of prohibited substances will constitute a violation (previously only a selection from the prohibited list applied).     

As the ruling body for the Olympic Games, the IOC is delegating the responsibility for implementing doping controls to the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). They are acting under the IOC’s authority. The IOC Medical Commission is responsible for overseeing all doping control processes on-site, which are in full compliance with the IOC Anti-Doping Rules, the World Anti-Doping Code and the International Standard for Testing (ISO9001:2000).

 

The tests are being conducted at 41 doping control stations, 34 located in Beijing and 7 in the co-host cities. All venues are equipped with a standard doping control station where blood and urine can be collected. The samples are being analysed in a period of between 24 and 72 hours only, depending on the kind of test.

 

 Learn more about the IOC Medical Commission

  

Germany’s three-day eventing team made it look easy here last Tuesday when they won the first gold medal of the Olympic equestrian events convincingly from runners-up Australia. Germany finished on 166.10 penalty points, ahead of Australia’s 171.20, and Britain’s 185.70. Germany's Hinrich Romeike, on his gelding Marius, clinched the gold for his team as the last of 57 riders to take on the 13 fences. Later he also won the individual competition.

 

Over the years, equestrianism has produced more than its fair share of heroic achievements, none more so than Denmark’s Lis Hartel. Hartel became one of the first four women to take part in Olympic dressage, but in 1944, when she was 23 and expecting her first child, she was paralysed by polio.

 

Gradually she reactivated most of her muscles, remaining paralysed below the knees, and after three years of rehabilitation took part in the Scandinavian championships. In 1952 she was chosen to represent Denmark in the Helsinki Olympic Games, and responded by earning the silver medal. When gold medallist Henri Saint Cyr helped her up on to the podium it was one of the most emotional moments in Olympic history. Four years later in Stockholm, Hartel won another silver medal.

 

Equestrianism has attracted nobility and the well-connected in equal measure. In 1976, the Queen of England’s daughter, Princess Anne, was a member of the British team; while the aunt of 1952 gold medallist Hans von Blixen-Finecke Jr went by the name of Isak Dinesen and wrote Out of Africa and Babette’s Feast, both of which became successful films. New Zealander Mark Todd, a dairy farmer who sold much of his herd to finance his Olympic ambitions, also became a writer – he wrote a 112-page biography of his horse Charisma, with which he twice won the Olympic three-day event.

 

The most decorated rider of all was Germany’s Reiner Klimke, who won six gold and two bronze medals in dressage events between 1964 and 1976, while the horse with the most gold medals was Halla which, together with Hans Günter Winkler of Germany, won team jumping golds in 1956 and 1960 as well as the individual prize in 1956.

 

There are of course a number of discontinued Olympic equestrian events, such as the high jump, the long jump and, in 1920 in Antwerp, figure riding, which included jumping on and off a horse, standing on a horse and jumping over a horse. In the Hack and Hunter Combined (Chevaux de Selle) in Paris in 1900, one of the participants was Elvira Guerra of France who, according to some records, was the first woman ever to compete at the Olympic Games.

 

Sailor John Dane is 58. He will be the oldest member of the US Olympic Team in Beijing. After trying to qualify seven times since 1968, he finally made it this year. An AFPTV-voiced report. 

 

 

www.oylmpic.org meets Alyssa Roenigk, senior writer for ESPN the Magazine

When it comes to big sporting events, ESPN the Magazine senior writer Alyssa Roenigk has been to them all: the Italian Grand Prix, the X Games, the Super Bowl, US Tennis Open and her latest, the Olympic Games. As a journalist, her job requires her to travel the globe and report on the worldВ’s best athletes. Since this is her first time attending an Olympic Games as a member of the media, we thought weВ’d check in on her.

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Why do you think the Olympic Games are so popular?
I think they are popular, number one, because of national pride. And because the Games are one of the few sporting events where David really can beat Goliath. The Games are as much about individual stories as they are about competition. And it makes for compelling television.

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If you could trade places with one Olympic athlete, who would it be and why?
Tyson Gay, for 10.67 seconds. Because I want to know what it feels like to be the fastest human alive. Ever.

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What do you love most about your job?
The travel. I travel the world, meet interesting people and tell their stories.

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WhatВ’s it like to be a girl in an industry overrun with men?
I think the toughest part is dealing with perceptions. A lot of guys believe I have it easier because I am a woman: interviews are easier to land, athletes open up more to a woman and when I am in a locker room, I just look different, so athletes gravitate to me. Honestly, sometimes all of that is true. And at other times, I am called В“little ladyВ” in pressrooms, heckled at in locker rooms, denied access because I look out of place or treated like an outsider by my peers. You have to have thick skin, and IВ’ve learned that itВ’s not personal.

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Any good behind-the-scenes stories?

The day after I returned home from the Turin Games I shadowed snowboard gold medallists Hannah Teter and Shaun White as they made appearances. It was interesting to see how little the journalists knew about the athletes they had invited onto their shows. At one stop, an anchor asked Hannah how she felt about winning the gold medal after her teammate fell near the finish line. (That was a different event.) Also, both athletes had obviously been completely out of touch with international news while in Turin, but that didnВ’t stop anchors from asking about topics as silly as a dog that had been stolen from the Westminster Dog Show.