Organisers Defend Paralympic Drug Policy

Paralympic organisers have defended their decision not to drug-test every medal winner at the London 2012 Games, insisting that the procedures are tight enough to prevent the participation of dope-cheats.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said they expected to carry out 1,250 tests at the Games – an increase of 25% from Beijing four years ago – however unlike the Olympics, where every medallist was required to give samples, not every medal winner will undergo testing for the Paralympics.

Speaking at a news conference, the president of the IPC’s anti-doping committee Jose Antonio Pascual said analysing samples from every medallist would be impossible, as there were 503 golds on offer compared to around 300 at the Olympics.

Pascual commented: ‘The IPC anti-doping programmes, as in previous Games, (tries) to cover all countries and all sports. But the fact is that at the Paralympic Games, we have a lot of medal events… around 500.’

‘That makes testing for every single athlete having gold, silver and bronze not possible.

 Pascual said that as well as testing at least one medallist, there were also random testing of other competitors, which he insists are a strong enough deterrent to prevent doping violations.

‘They know that if they get a medal they have a high probability of being tested but it’s not 100%.’

A total of 207 tests have been conducted in the first three days of competition, with 476 before the start of the Games last Wednesday. 

So far, no athlete has tested positive for banned substances.

Drug tests are being carried out at 20 facilities at competition venues and at the athletes’ village, with 363 doping control officers and other staff from 33 countries worldwide.