Anti-doping lab for the Rio Olympics lost its accredidation
By Hunter Cooke
A mere six weeks before the Rio Olympics, the anti-doping lab set to provide services for the Olympics lost its accreditation.
The Rio Olympics has had many setbacks, and we haven’t even begun the games yet.
The 2016 games have been plagued with the outbreak of the Zika virus in Brazil, causing many athletes and nations to reconsider attending the games at all. On June 17th, Rio de Janeiro’s state government declared the city in a state of “public calamity”, and said that emergency actions would need to be taken to ensure public safety. This is all coming on the heels of a two-year recession, two bodies of water reportedly being used for the games that are polluted, and issues with the infrastructure of their venues.
The latest setback comes in the form of their anti-doping lab losing their WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) accreditation.
The Rio lab already had several incidents, as it was shut down in 2013 preceding the World Cup held in Brazil. Due to its suspension, the Rio de Janeiro lab will not be able to test any blood or urine samples for any performance enhancing drugs Olympic athletes might have taken.
WADA has shut down one other lab in recent history: the anti-doping lab in Moscow, Russia. The allegations made multiple nations petition to bar Russia from the Rio games, and their track and field team was banned. Currently, 27 other Summer Olympics organizations are watching Russia and Kenya, the other country with doping allegations, very closely.
For more Olympics news, visit our Olympics hub.