Olympics-IOC to retest Beijing Games blood tests

The decision comes days after a string of positive cases involving the frozen samples of cyclists from the Tour de France in July.

The IOC will especially be looking for EPO CERA, a new performance-enhancing drug that the cyclists tested positive for, it said.

"The IOC intends to retest the samples collected this summer during the Olympic Games in Beijing," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said. "Substances that will be tested for across all sports include EPO CERA."

Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator is a form of EPO that has a longer lasting effect in improving the blood's oxygen delivery system.

"All samples are currently being repatriated to the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency)-accredited laboratory in Lausanne where Olympic samples are usually stored after the Games," Moreau said.

"The details of the retesting procedure are currently being discussed with WADA."
Moreau said the new test developed to trace EPO CERA was a blood test so initially only blood samples from Beijing would be retested.

"We will initially retest blood samples based on intelligence we have," she said.

The IOC collected about 1,000 blood samples and about 4,000 urine samples during the Games in Beijing.

Once a urine test for the substance is available the urine samples will also be tested.

The IOC saw only a handful of positive drugs tests in Beijing after extensive efforts to crack down on doping and avoid having the Games marred by cheats.

It implemented the biggest Olympic anti-doping testing program to date with more than 5,000 tests during the Games and many more prior to the event, conducted on a national and international level.