Athletes using banned drugs or violating other anti-doping rules at the 2026 Winter Olympics will face a formidable team trained to catch them.
The International Testing Agency (ITA), which oversees drug testing at the Olympics, arrives at the Milano Cortina Games with a contingent of about 800 people. That includes 20 people to oversee the operation, 150 doping control officers and hundreds of people to chaperone the athletes to doping control stations, according to the ITA.
The ITA also plans to collaborate with Italian police and conduct 2,200 drug tests, which involves collecting samples of urine and blood. The program got underway Jan. 30, when the Olympic Villages that house the athletes opened, and ITA will be testing for substances on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List.
‘The anti-doping program in itself is a deterrent factor,’ an ITA spokesperson told USA TODAY Sports on the condition the quotes be attributed to the organization, a not-for-profit based in Switzerland. ‘If you know you’re going to meet a police officer, you don’t drunk drive to go there and present yourself drunk in front of that person.
‘The fact is that you can get caught cheating a lot higher than not at the Olympics.’
Selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the ITA took over the anti-doping program at 2018 Winter Olympics. The number of positive doping tests has steadily dropped from 132 at the 2012 Summer Olympics, to 55 at the 2014 Winter Olympics to 16 at the 2016 Summer Olympics to four at the 2018 Winter Olympics, according to Statista.
The ITA has reported six anti-doping rule violations at the 2021 Summer Olympics, four at the 2022 Winter Olympics and five at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Assessing risk of doping violations
Every Olympian winning a medal at the Milano Cortina Games will be drug tested. That will require about 350 drug tests, which leaves 1,850 drug tests – about 700 fewer than necessary to test all of the Olympians at least once.
Citing limited funds, the ITA said it focuses on targeted testing. That means allocating more resources to ‘high risk’ sports in which data shows doping is more common. At the Winter Olympics, that would be endurance sports such as biathlon and cross country, according to the ITA, which said ‘low risk’ sports include team sports.
Risk assessment also takes into account participating countries and, among other factors, a country’s history of doping, testing statistics and intelligence received, according to the ITA.
‘This risk assessment is a very fine-tuned instrument that the ITA has developed and serves as an indicator to target high-risk sports and countries,’ the group says on its website.
Threat of getting caught lingers
Research studies and experience have helped change the approach to drug testing, according to the ITA.
‘It has evolved from running after the cheaters to trying to anticipate more, having long-term tool,’ the ITA said.
For example, the ITA can conduct reanalysis of testing samples for up to 10 years, potentially uncovering doping violations with more sophisticated testing tools than were available at the time the samples were collected.
A reanalysis of testing samples from the 2012 Olympics led to the discovery of 73 doping violations and the reallocation of 46 medals. A reanalysis of testing samples from the 2016 Olympics uncovered seven cases of doping but only one medalist.
‘That doesn’t mean that we are eradicate doping as much as police can’t eradicate any criminal behavior, but it has professionalized massively,’ the ITA said.
Collaborating with police
Doping by athletes is a crime under the Italian Criminal Code. The crime carries a maximum prison sentence of three years and a fine of up to about $60,000.
During the Olympics, the ITA will exchange information with the police.
‘We don’t have the same capacities to act as law enforcement does, so we need to share information mutually,’ the ITA said. ‘The police don’t do anti-doping testing and we don’t search, for instance. So we have to exchange (information) to be able to use our respective capacities as best we can.’
Italian courts have shown a willingness to enforce the law. Such as a case in 2017.
Michele Ferrari, a doctor involved with biathlete Daniel Taschler in the banned practice of blood-boosting EPO, was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence, fined about $5,500 and banned from working as a physician or trainer for 18 months.
Taschler was handed a suspended prison sentence of nine months and fined about $4,300.
Gottlieb Taschler, Daniel’s father who arranged the collaboration between Ferrari and his son, was handed a suspended prison sentence of one year and fined $4,800. At the time, Gottlieb Taschler was vice president for sport of the International Biathlon Union.
Other tools in use
Drug tests are not the only tool used by the ITA to stop athletes from doping.
The ITA said it employs former policeman to help gather intelligence, authorities share information across borders and there’s the use of biological passports, which according to WADA monitors ‘selected biological variables over time that indirectly reveal the effects of doping, rather than attempting to detect the doping substance or method itself.’
Data is used to determine how best to allocate the drug tests. according to the ITA.
‘I think data is going to be the future of anti-doping testing more and more,’ the ITA said, comparing anti-doping to ‘the matrix.’