Jamaica could lose medal from Beijing Olympics
Published:Wednesday | June 1, 2016 | 12:00 AMAndre Lowe
There is growing anxiety among local track and field authorities as news of the results of B sample tests is expected to be made public by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) within days, following strong reports that a Jamaican is among the athletes who returned adverse analytical findings in the retesting exercise of doping samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Gleaner has been reliably informed that the experienced athlete, who cannot be named at this point given the pending outcome of the athlete's B sample test results, is among 31 athletes, spanning six sports and 12 countries, who had their retested A samples from the Beijing Olympics showing the presence of a banned substance.
While the nation's biggest global superstars in the sport are not being implicated at this point, this is still set to have serious consequences for the country's track and field programme, with at least one medal from the Beijing Olympics now in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, our international sources have confirmed that testing of the
B samples was conducted at a WADA-accredited lab in Lausanne, Switzerland, over the past 48 hours.
IOC to identify athletes
It is also expected that the IOC, which today started a three-day executive board meeting at the Palace Hotel in Lausanne, will be confirming the cases and identifying the athletes whose B samples corroborate the results found in the A samples.
It is further understood that the Jamaica Olympic Association was notified last week, but officials from the organisation have so far offered no comment on the reports, with Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association president Dr Warren Blake also noting that his organisation had not been notified.
At its meeting today, the IOC did, however, reveal that they had put together a special committee, which will oversee the cases with full authority.
The organisation, which consulted with individual international federations ahead of this retesting exercise, also revealed that it is extending its programme of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games and will now be including all medal winners from those games.
This will cost the IOC an additional US$500,000 (J$62.1 million).
Russian state media had already revealed that 14 of their athletes, including 10 medallist, from the Beijing Olympics, were among those, who tested positive in the reanalysis.
Spanish hurdler Josephine Onyia was also revealed to be among the 31 athletes.