Scandal in Paris: Five athletes caught doping at 2024 Olympics

The Paris Olympics were a true spectacle for sports fans around the world, but not everyone competed fairly in the French capital.

With just over a month since the Summer Olympics wrapped up in Paris, the International Testing Agency (ITA) has now confirmed that five athletes tested positive for doping during the Games.

The testing coverage at the Paris Games marked the highest proportion ever, with 90% of athletes screened at least once prior to or during the event. Despite the increased testing, the number of positive tests was one fewer than the Tokyo Games in 2021.

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These results emerged from an extensive anti-doping program in which 39% of the total participating athletes —4,770 individuals— underwent testing through urine, blood, and dried blood spot samples.

The athletes who tested positive include judokas Sajjad Ghanim Sehen from Iraq and Mohammad Samim Faizad (pictured) from Afghanistan, Nigerian boxer Cynthia Temitayo Ogunsemilore, Congolese sprinter Dominique Lasconi Mulamba, and Bolivian swimmer Maria Jose Ribera Pinto.

These doping cases came from sports with high levels of scrutiny, including athletics, aquatics, cycling, rowing, and wrestling. The ITA noted that additional cases might surface, as they plan to store and re-analyze collected samples in the coming years.

While these violations occurred during the games, the ITA also revealed that more than 40 other athletes were caught with doping violations in the lead-up to the Games in July.

The total number of athletes tested in Paris increased by 4% over Tokyo and by 10% compared to the Rio 2016 Games, reflecting the ITA’s intensifying efforts to uphold clean sport​

Samples collected during the Games, along with select pre-Games samples, will now be stored for a decade. These samples may be reopened and re-examined in the future as testing technology improves or if new information comes to light, according to the ITA, as reported by ABC News.

This process was completed for the London 2012 Summer Olympics and found 73 Anti-Doping Rule Violations in 2022, resulting in the withdrawal of 31 Olympic medals and the reallocation of 46 medals in wrestling, athletics, weightlifting, and canoe, as reported by The Guardian.

The ITA is currently re-testing samples from the 2016 Rio Olympics, which is expected to be completed in 2025, according to the ITA's website.

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