Rio de Janeiro’s accredited anti-doping laboratory has been suspended from drug testing.
The World Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees all the drug testing for the Olympic games, has suspended the lab due to a “non-conformity with the International Standard for Laboratories.”
The suspension “prohibits the laboratory from carrying out all anti-doping analyses on urine and blood samples,” according to a statement.
The Olympic games begin on August 5 and it’s unknown whether the lab will be reinstated before then.
If not, the testing of athletes’ samples will have to take place at other WADA approved laboratories, the closest of which is located in Bogota, Colombia.
But the suspended Rio lab is confident that the non-conformity issue will be resolved in time for the opening ceremony.
“The lab expects its operations to return to normal in July after a visit from WADA’s technical committee,” a statement from the lab reads.
The non-conformity issues were not specified by WADA but the suspension will come as an unwelcome distraction from the games.
“This is another severe blow,” Mario Andrada, spokesman of the Rio Games organising committee, told the Associated Press.
“We might not resolve this lab situation before the games. We might have to choose another lab outside Brazil to do the tests. But this will be under the instruction and guidance of WADA.”
It is not the first time that the lab in question has been suspended by WADA. It was also prohibited from conducting tests in 2012 and 2013, the year before Brazil hosted the World Cup, but was reinstated in 2015.
The International Olympic Committee has assured that the Rio lab’s suspension would not “affect either the integrity or the scope of the testing program” at August’s games.
