IOC declare drugs testing 'better than ever'

IOC president Thomas Bach said there would be no place to hide for drugs cheats before the Games and the organisation's medical and scientific director, Richard Budgett, said the process of testing has been more thorough than ever.

Representative image.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday said the quality of drugs testing before and during the Rio Games has been better than at any other Olympics.

Russia's athletics suspension and the IOC's decision not to impose a blanket ban on the European nation following the publication of the McLaren report overshadowed the build-up to the Games.

The IOC was criticised for not banning all Russian athletes after the McLaren report claimed Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme across multiple sports.

IOC president Thomas Bach said there would be no place to hide for drugs cheats before the Games and the organisation's medical and scientific director, Richard Budgett, said the process of testing has been more thorough than ever.

"We have done 2701 urine samples, 191 blood samples, 296 biological passports: 3188 altogether." said Budgett.

"The quality of the testing has been higher here than ever before and more importantly [so has] the quality of testing leading up to the Games.

"There was a special task force [here] for the first time - funded by $500,000 by the IOC run by WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) using national anti-doping operations from all five continents - to actually look at the athletes about to come to the Games, see what programme of testing they were undergoing, identifying any gaps, plug those gaps with the help of international federations and national anti-doping organisations.

"It made sure more than ever before that athletes are tested properly and there were the right deterrents leading into these Games.

"The re-analysis [programme] started a year ago and it's an ongoing programme so it will continue after these Games. About 1400 samples were reanalysed from Beijing and London, resulting in 98 adverse sample findings.

"Testing at the Games themselves started when the Olympic Village opened on 24 July and that is when the statistics started. That is the responsibility of the organising committee under our rules. More than 4000 test by the end of the Games.

"We will store samples for 10 years so I think that any athlete who is cheating should be very scared, even if they think they have got a method for doping that is not detected at the moment."