2024 Paris Games: Anti-Doping Policies and Testing
INSIGHTi
2024 Paris Games: Anti-Doping Policies and
Testing
July 24, 2024
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) were
responsible for establishing anti-doping policies and testing regimes for the 2024 Summer Games in
Paris. As they did for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, IOC has delegated management of the program to the
International Testing Agency (ITA), while IPC manages its own program. Other partners involved in the
anti-doping program include the local organizing committee for the Games, Paris 2024, and France’s
national anti-doping agency, the AFLD. Prevention and detection of doping are a matter of long-standing
concern across the sporting world, including in the Olympics.
While a variety of institutions, including the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), have been established
to address doping, clean competition has remained an important issue, especially in international
competition. In the leadup to the 2024 Paris Games, WADA’s response to test results for 23 swimmers
competing for the People’s Republic of China has proven controversial, including with the U.S. Anti-
Doping Agency. It has also drawn the attention of Members of Congress interested in ensuring that
athletes, including Team USA, can compete on a level playing field and that anti-doping programs have
sufficient transparency. This issue was the subject of a hearing titled “Examining Anti-Doping Measures
in Advance of the 2024 Olympics” in the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House
Committee on Energy and Commerce on June 25, 2024.
This Insight provides a broad overview of international anti-doping rules and the testing procedures in
place for the 2024 Paris Games.
Testing During the Games
The anti-doping rules for the Paris Games apply to “all Athletes entered in or preparing for the Olympic
Games Paris 2024 or who have otherwise been made subject to the authority of the IOC in connection
with the Olympic Games.” Additionally, a number of rules apply to other individuals, including coaches,
trainers, and operations staff for the Games.
Athletes seeking to qualify for and participating in the 2024 Olympic Games were subject to testing under
IOC’s anti-doping policy beginning in April 2024 and will continue to be so through the close of the
Games. IOC’s anti-doping rules are “in accordance” with the World Anti-Doping Code, which includes
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technical and procedural rules for the administration of anti-doping programs, the prohibited substances
list, and standards for testing laboratories, among other things. In addition to testing and related
requirements for athletes, other participants are barred from supporting doping, evasion of testing, and
manipulation of test results.
As signatories to the Code, IOC and IPC are each responsible for ensuring that their events are conducted
in compliance with WADA’s anti-doping requirements. A principal component of that obligation is the
collection of biological samples from athletes that can be tested for banned substances. While IPC
administers its own testing program, IOC has delegated this responsibility to ITA for the 2024 Games.
ITA is an independent organization created in 2018 by IOC and WADA to manage testing programs for
international sports federations and major events.
IOC’s anti-doping rules require athletes to submit to testing based on WADA’s International Standard for
Testing and Investigations, which allows the collection of both blood and urine samples to test for
prohibited substances. According to the organizers, the anti-doping program for the Paris Games will
include over 1,000 workers and an “anti-doping control space” at each venue where ITA and AFLD will
collect samples. Following collection, AFLD will test samples.
What Happens If an Athlete Has a Positive Test?
It is possible that one or more athletes will test positive for a prohibited substance during the Paris Games.
During the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, WADA reported 10 “adverse analytical findings” (six of which
were found to be violations) out of a total of 6,200 tests covering over 4,200 athletes. An adverse
analytical finding is a lab result indicating the presence of either a prohibited substance or a masking
agent in an athlete sample. Such a result triggers a review but does not necessarily mean that an athlete
has violated the Code.
First, ITA investigates to determine whether there is a circumstance that would justify the presence of the
banned substance or invalidate the testing result. If ITA’s review finds any of the following, then there is
no violation and the matter does not proceed:
• The athlete already has or is eligible for a “therapeutic use exemption” for the substance;
• There is an “apparent departure” from the WADA standards for testing laboratories that
“caused” the adverse analytical finding; or
• The ingestion of the substance is allowed through certain “permitted routes” and it is
“apparent” that the athlete ingested the substance in an allowed manner.
If ITA’s review does not find that one of these circumstances applies, then the athlete and other
stakeholders are notified, and the athlete is provisionally suspended in most cases. At this stage, the
athlete may request that his or her “B sample” be tested, which may or may not confirm the original test
results. At this point, the athlete also has the right to appeal the provisional suspension, including an
expedited hearing before the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS ADD).
CAS ADD may lift the suspension if the athlete can establish that the test result was due to a
contaminated product, that the athlete was not at fault, or that the alleged violation has “no reasonable
prosect of being upheld.”
Potential Consequences for Positive Tests
In addition to a provisional suspension, if an athlete tests positive for a prohibited substance during the
Games, IOC is empowered to take the matter before the CAS ADD to establish whether an anti-doping
rules violation has occurred. In these cases, IOC has the burden of proving to the “comfortable
satisfaction” of a CAS ADD hearing panel that a violation occurred. Should that burden be met, the
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athlete may be disqualified from the Olympic Games and forfeit his or her results, including any medals
won. Additionally, an athlete may receive a longer suspension, during which he or she is ineligible to
compete.
Author Information
Ben Wilhelm
Analyst in Government Organization and Management
Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
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