IOC Concerned About Integrity of Doping Sample Bottles Ahead of 2018 Olympics

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday expressed concern over a potential issue regarding the integrity of the new bottles used for doping control at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
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On Sunday, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said that it has initiated an investigation into a potential integrity issue with the new generation of bottles over their potential to be opened manually while the sample is frozen.

"The IOC is very concerned about this issue. From the moment we learned about it, we immediately turned to WADA and asked them to ensure that the anti-doping tests in PyeongChang can be conducted in a credible and reliable way," the committee said.

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Earlier in the day, head of Svensk Anti-Doping Peter Strom said that Sweden intended to stop using the bottles.

"Unfortunately, our own tests have shown that it is possible to open the container after freezing, leaving no traces of manipulation. Therefore, we will stop any use of these bottles until further instructions," Strom said as quoted by svt.se.

Pyeongchang will host the Winter Olympics from February 9 to February 25 and the Paralympics from March 9 to March 18.

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