International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge expects "possibly" seven more positive doping cases from the Beijing Games, according to a report here Sunday. Speaking at a function in Vienna to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Austrian Olympic Committee, Rogge said it would take about six weeks before the final doping results of the Games were available.
"We had 39 cases in the run-up to the Games, eight during the Games and seven more possibly coming up," Rogge is quoted as saying in the Sunday Times. With less than a dozen positive cases compared to 26 at Athens in 2004, the Beijing Games were held up by the IOC as proof that they were winning the war on drugs.
But suspicion that more athletes may also have been cheating in Beijing, where over 1,000 blood samples were taken as part of over 5,000 anti-doping controls, remains.
The IOC announced last month it would undertake fresh analyses of samples from certain athletes who competed in Beijing to detect the use of CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator), a new generation of banned blood booster EPO.
CERA was first detected in July in the urine sample of Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco. Since then three other cyclists, including Austria's third place Tour de France finisher Bernard Kohl, have been caught using CERA.
Three weeks ago IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said a dozen urine samples from the Beijing Games were suspect but could not be considered doping cases as they do not correspond to WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) guidelines.
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