Nearly two dozen athletes have tested positive for banned drugs in a reanalysis of samples from the 2012 London Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said Friday.
The 23 athletes, from six different countries and from five sports, will not be identified until a final confirmation test is carried out. If the doping is confirmed, the athletes will be ineligible to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August and will have their results from the London Olympics, and any medals, stripped.
The IOC stores doping samples from blood and urine tests from athletes for 10 years so they can be reanalyzed when new testing methods become available.
Last week, the organization said 31 athletes failed doping tests when 454 samples were re-examined from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The IOC said the current retesting program is targeting athletes that could be available to compete in Rio de Janeiro.
Russia has confirmed that 14 of the positive tests from the Beijing Games involve Russian athletes, some of whom are medalists.
