Olympic Medalists to be Retested

The games are over, but the drug testing isn't

Beijing Closing Ceremony
rich115 (CC Licensed)

Olympic cheaters better hide those gold medals deep in their sock drawer. The International Olympic Committee has confirmed they will begin retesting samples from Beijing, just months after the flame was extinguished.

A new test used by the French Anti-Doping Agency recently detected CERA, a next-generation erythropoietic-stimulating agent, in samples from the 2008 Tour de France. The IOC holds its samples for up to eight years, keeping them subject to re-testing any time the labs catch up with what's on the street. The IOC has yet to determine how many of the more than 5,000 samples they'll test, but they will likely focus on endurance events where CERA would provide a benefit. Beijing was a relatively dope-free event, with only six athletes disqualified and another three still pending.

This isn't the first retroactive Olympic testing. In the wake of the BALCO scandal, the IOC retested samples from the 2002 Olympics for THG, but didn't find any positive results. Something tells us this time might be different.