July 29, 2010 – The WADA Independent Observers (IOs) report from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games was published last week. The overall conclusion of the IOs was that the doping control program at 2010 Olympic Winter Games was well run and it was very effective. Some of the challenges highlighted by the report included the identification and notification of the randomly selected athletes whose selection is based on their final competition rank and the relatively long time that it could take for an athlete to complete the doping control process.

The WADA experts who monitored the anti-doping program at the 2010 Games also recommended that the IOC might reduce tests in the so-called lower risk sports and expand the number in select other sports. ”Conducting tests during every round of a curling event may be unnecessary,” the WADA observers wrote. ”Some of these tests may be better used as target tests for other higher risk sports.”

The report also concluded that all samples in higher risk sports – both in-competition and out-of-competition — should be tested for EPO. Whilst all urine samples collected in Cross-Country Skiing and Nordic Combined were analyzed for EPO in Vancouver, only half the samples in other ”medium risk” sports such as Biathlon and Speed Skating were tested for the drug, notes report.

Read more HERE.