The Rio Summer Paralympics are scheduled to be held on September 7-18. IPC chief Philip Craven vowed previously to retest the samples taken from Russian Paralympians during the March 7-14, 2014, winter games.
"It is likely we will retest all the Sochi samples post the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, no exact timeline has yet been set. The IPC is also seeking further advice from the IPC Anti-Doping Committee and WADA on what measures can be taken to address the athletes associated with these samples, including results management. At this moment I do not have confirmation on the laboratory or the number of tests," IPC spokesman Pence said.
The doping scandal involving Russian athletes, simmering since 2014, escalated in July when an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commission published a report accusing Russia of having a state-run doping program and urging the International Olympic Committee to consider a blanket ban on the entire Russian team. According to WADA, among the positive doping samples that have allegedly disappeared in the Moscow testing laboratory, 35 were from Paralympic athletes.
Last Tuesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the Russian Paralympic Committee’s (RPC) appeal against its ban from participating in the upcoming Rio Paralympics.
