Daily Times

SALZBURG: A Slovenian biathlete was the only competitor who failed doping retests from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The International Biathlon Union said Thursday that two samples given by Teja Gregorin tested positive for GHRP-2 – a banned substance which stimulates the body to produce more growth hormone – in samples taken the week before competition started. The same drug was also used by three Chinese weightlifting champions at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Gregorin didn’t win a medal in any of her four events in 2010, but she was the Olympic bronze medalist four years later in the pursuit race. The International Olympic Committee said earlier this month that only one person tested positive after 1,195 samples from the Vancouver Olympics were re-examined using newer technology. The Vancouver retesting program saw testing of 70 percent of urine samples which were stored since 2010, awaiting improved laboratory tests. Targeted tests included “samples from all medalists and all Russian athletes,” the IOC said. An IOC panel is investigating individual cases of suspected Russian doping at the Sochi Olympics. It could announce its first verdicts next month. The IOC has now closed the Vancouver reanalysis program ahead of an eight-year statute of limitations expiring in February. More than 100 doping cases, most involving track and field athletes and weightlifters from former Soviet republics, were proven in retesting of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Published in Daily Times, October 27^th 2017.