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DOPING

IOC doubles anti-doping budget ahead of Rio

Olympic medallists from the Beijing and London Games will be targeted as a priority as the reanalysis of old samples is reinforced, the Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Wednesday.

IOC doubles anti-doping budget ahead of Rio
IOC president Thomas Bach. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/ADP

The IOC also said its budget for anti-doping tests is being doubled to $500,000 (447,000 euros) between now and August's Olympics in Rio.
   
“The re-analysis programme for the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and London 2012 will be further extended,” the IOC executive board said in a statement.
   
“Together with WADA, we will target medallists from both Olympic Games for possible re-analysis.”
   
The Board, which said “the fight against doping is a top priority”, is holding a series of meetings in Lausanne until Friday.
   
It said it had established a “zero-tolerance” policy in order to “protect clean athletes” in Rio.
   
More than 50 new doping cases have come to light so far from the reanalysis of samples from the Beijing and London Olympics.
   
The Board said it would “not hesitate to punish anyone” within its reach involved in doping or providing doping products and methods.
   
“The budget for the pre-Olympic testing programme is now doubled,” said the IOC statement.
   
“The programme comes on top of the extensive programme already being carried out by International Federations and National Anti-Doping Organizations.
   
“Special focus will be put on countries where the testing programme is non-compliant — Kenya, Russia and Mexico. A special focus will also be put on those sports which WADA has declared most affected.”
   
A meeting will be held in Lausanne on June 21st in order to “coordinate and harmonise the approach” of international federations towards the “eligibility of athletes” at future Games, the IOC said.
   
The meeting will be attended by the IOC, international federations and national Olympic committees.
   
There will also be a post-Olympics summit in October to review the doping programme from the Rio Games.
   
“The IOC will continue to push for all testing independent from sports organizations and to harmonise national and international testing under the leadership of a new entity,” said the statement.
   
“The IOC will lead by example and establish such an independent process, working with WADA, to be in place for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.”

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SPORT

Nurse weeps as tells German court of her blood doping role

A nurse, one of the co-defendants in the trial of a German sports doctor accused of masterminding an international blood-doping network, described on Friday how she helped athletes dope with illicit blood transfusions.

Nurse weeps as tells German court of her blood doping role
Mark Schmidt talks to his lawyer in court. Photo: Peter Kneffel/AFP
Sports physician Mark Schmidt, 42, and four co-defendants who allegedly aided him, stand trial in Munich accused of helping at least two dozen athletes undergo blood transfusions to boost performance.
   
So far, 23 athletes — mainly skiers and cyclists — from eight countries are known to be involved.
   
If found guilty, Schmidt and his co-defendants face jail for up to 10 years under anti-doping legislation introduced in Germany in 2015.
   
One of the accused, named only as Diana S., told the court how she first helped Schmidt in December 2017 when she travelled to Dobbiaco, Italy, to administer a blood transfusion before a skiing competition.
   
Blood doping is aimed at boosting the number of red blood cells, which allows the body to transport more oxygen to muscles, thereby increasing stamina and performance.
   
 
“It was about transportation, blood and athletes, but at first I didn't know what was behind it,” she is quoted as saying by the German media.   
 
“The treatments were always such that before the race the blood was taken in and after the races, the blood came out.”
   
She claimed to have been given precise instructions “via WhatsApp or by phone calls” where to go, which car to take, who to treat and how much blood to take or inject.
   
The trained nurse, who often sobbed while speaking, was told to dispose the bags of used blood on her way home after the “treatments”.
 
The single mother of three said she was motivated to earn extra money, having been told she would earn 200 euros ($237) per day.
   
At one point, she claims she told Schmidt that she wanted to stop.
   
“I told him that I was too agitated and too scared” to keep doing the clandestine work, because a sense of “panic travelled with me”, but Schmidt convinced her to stay involved. “It is also true that I simply had a shortage of money.”
   
Schmidt is alleged to have helped skiers who competed at both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics and cyclists who raced at the 2016 Rio summer Olympics, as well as the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana.
   
He was arrested in Germany as part of Operation “Aderlass” — or “blood letting” in German — which involved raids at the Nordic world skiing championships in Seefeld, Austria in February 2019.
   
A verdict in the trial is expected by late December.
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