Multiple Olympic athletes expelled after failed drug tests

Colombian 400m runner Diego Palomeque has become the latest in a long line of athletes to formally be excluded, banned or disqualified from the 2012 London Olympics after a failed drugs test. Palomeque gave a urine sample that tested positive for testosterone. He has stated that the result was caused by him injecting himself with a homeopathic product that he believed included no banned substances.

“It’s always a sad day when a cheating athlete is caught… the message is very clear: If you’re doping we’re going to catch you,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told the Associated Press before the start of the Games. More than 5,000 blood and urine samples were tested for banned substances at this year’s Olympics, more than any previous games. The testing took place about 20 miles away from the competition sites, at the laboratories of GlaxoSmithKline in the town of Harlow as part of a collaboration between GSK and the Drug Control Center at King’s College London. So far, at least nine other athletes have been expelled from the Olympics due to failing a drug test, either before – or during – the Games. “This is about the integrity of London’s Games,” Olympics minister Hugh Robinson told The Telegraph in January. “Anybody who watches in person or on television wants to know that what they are seeing in front of them is a true and fair contest.” After winning the 100 meters final in Seoul in 1988, a reporter asked the Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson, what was more precious: a world record or the gold medal? Johnson chose the latter. “Why?” the reporter asked. “Because it’s something nobody can take away from you,” he replied. The message coming from London 2012 organizers this year was, “Yes we can, and we will.” It seems like they fulfilled that promise.]]>