From Inside the Games

Gene testing could be introduced in time for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announced here today.

It could be accompanied by dried blood spot testing (DBS), another significant new weapon in the war against drug cheats, Bach told the opening session of the fifth World Conference on Doping in Sport organised by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) here.

“With research on genetic sequencing progressing well, this new approach could be a ground-breaking method to detect blood doping, weeks or even months after it took place,” Bach told an audience of 1,600 delegates from the Olympic Movement, national anti-doping organisations and government agencies.

“If approved by WADA, such new gene testing could be used already at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

“These new methods will again strengthen deterrence.

“We want the cheats to never feel safe, anytime or anywhere.”

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