For the first time in 28 years, no anti-doping rule violations were recorded at the Olympic Games, BBC Sport reports.
During this year's Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, more than three thousand samples were collected for the presence of banned substances in the bodies of 2,000 athletes participating in the competitions. However, not a single test was positive.
The 2026 Games will thus be the first since Nagano in 1998 to not have a single medal disqualified due to doping. Since 2012, 31 medals have been disqualified and 46 more have been re-allocated due to positive doping tests.
Although no positive samples have been detected in athletes' doping tests so far, this does not mean that they will not be detected in the future. Athlete samples are stored for 10 years to allow for retrospective testing in the event of new methods becoming available.
The International Testing Agency (ITA) confirmed that 92% of athletes had been tested at least once in the six months leading up to the Olympics, with the organization's CEO Benjamin Cohen calling it “the most extensive program” the ITA has ever implemented.
There has only been one recorded case of an athlete being disqualified before the start of the 2026 Olympic Games. Italian biathlete Rebecca Passler was suspended after testing positive for the substance letrozole in her sample. However, Passler won her appeal before the end of the Olympics and was able to return to the 2026 Games.