IOC sanctions one athlete for failing anti-doping tests at London 2012

The protection of clean athletes and the fight against doping are top priorities for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as outlined in Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement. The IOC has been conducting additional analyses on the samples collected from the Olympic Games London 2012. This programme, which uses the latest scientific analysis methods, aims to test samples for all the substances prohibited in 2012.

The IOC has delegated the selection of samples to be reanalysed and the results management to the International Testing Agency (ITA), and the ITA thus brings forward these cases.  

The notification sent by the ITA to the athletes concerned when initiating proceedings gives them the choice to have their case heard before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) or before an IOC Disciplinary Commission. This choice is given as the Anti-Doping Rules (ADR) for the Olympic Games London 2012 still apply for cases that arise from the current reanalyses. In the case at hand, the athlete did not choose to go to the CAS, and so the case was automatically handled by the IOC Disciplinary Commission.

As part of this process, the IOC today announced that one athlete has been disqualified from the Olympic Games London 2012. The details follow.

Erol Bilgin, 33, of Turkey, competing in the men’s 62kg weightlifting event at the Olympic Games London 2012, in which he ranked 8^th, has been sanctioned. Re-analysis of Bilgin’s samples from London 2012 resulted in a positive test for the prohibited substances Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (Oral Turinabol) and Stanozolol.

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed for this case of Messrs Denis Oswald (Chairman), Juan Antonio Samaranch and Ingmar De Vos, decided the following:

I.The athlete, Erol Bilgin:

i.is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation pursuant to the IOC Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London in 2012 (presence, and/or use, of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers in an athlete’s bodily specimen),

ii.is disqualified from the event in which he participated upon the occasion of the Olympic Games London 2012, namely the men’s 62kg weightlifting event, in which he ranked 8^th and for which he was awarded a diploma,

iii.has the diploma obtained in the men’s 62kg weightlifting event withdrawn and is ordered to return the same.

II.The IWF is requested to modify the results of the above-mentioned event accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.

III.The Turkish Olympic Committee shall ensure full implementation of this decision.

IV.The Turkish Olympic Committee shall notably secure the return to the IOC, as soon as possible, of the diploma awarded in connection with the men’s 62kg weightlifting event to the athlete

V.The decision enters into force immediately.

The full decision is available here.

This is part of the IOC’s efforts to protect clean athletes and the integrity of the competition. The IOC has been storing samples from the Olympic Games since Athens 2004, and has reanalysed them systematically. The fight against doping is a top priority for the IOC, which has established a zero-tolerance policy to combat cheating and to make anyone responsible for using or providing doping products accountable.

You can find at the following links the full list of anti-doping rule violations at the Olympic Games, established during or after each edition and the detailed results of the IOC reanalysis programme from 2004 to today.

Please note that, for legal reasons, the IOC will not give detailed information on possible cases. This would follow in due course.

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