World doping watchdog shuts down Rio Olympic laboratory

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has suspended credentials for a testing lab in Rio de Janeiro just over a month before the city hosts the Olympics, due to non-conformity with global laboratory standards.

The Rio lab’s six-month provisional suspension is subject to an appeal during a 21-day window that started on Wednesday, when WADA first informed the laboratory of its decision. The lab, which was set up to test athletes’ samples, is now prohibited from processing any urine or blood.

The lab didn’t conform to the International Standard for Laboratories, WADA said in a release.

WADA was non-specific as to the reason for the suspension officially, but outgoing WADA director general David Howman has said that the cause was “technical errors” in doping procedures, and he referred to the situation as “pretty disturbing”.

Incoming director Olivier Niggli assured that, “WADA will work closely with the Rio Laboratory to resolve the identified issue”.

Other accredited labs are located in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City in the U.S.; Bogota, Colombia; Havana, Cuba; and Mexico City.

Brazil reportedly spent $60 million to prepare its laboratory.

WADA will now send a team to review the Rio laboratory and make recommendations on its accreditation. Facilities in South Africa, Spain, China, Portugal and Russian Federation are off-line, although the lab in Moscow was recently permitted to resume blood testing only.

“This lab produced a whole list of false positives, and falsely accusing people is top of the pile of serious issues”, Howman said in 2014.

The ban was imposed because it fails to comply with worldwide standards. “Taking choices of the kind on the eve of the Olympics is insensitive negligence towards sportsmen and national groups”, Mutko said, including that competitors and nations have put in years and goliath wholes of cash to get prepared for the Rio Games. He also added that athletes should be confident in how the situation will be resolved.

“What bothers me is they chase down athletes for relatively minor offences (sometimes completely innocent)”. The suspension also opens up questions on the effectiveness of testing within Brazilian sport, he wrote.