MUNICH, Germany, January 17. BASED on a documentary by ARD, a German public broadcasting network that aired a piece Wednesday on missed doping tests by German athletes, Thomas Bach has called for an investigation into the report. Bach, the German Olympic sports head, wants to know, as stated in the documentary, whether 400 athletes missed doping tests last year without punishment.
According to Deutsche Welle, Lars Riedel, the Olympic discus champ, missed five tests in 2006. There is no clear indication that any swimmers missed tests, but Bach wants NADA, Germany's anti-doping organization, to look into the report. According to NADA's rules, an initial missed test calls for a warning with subsequent missed tests calling for suspensions.
The documentary indicates that of 4,500 German athletes, 400 dodged tests at some point. The piece states that seven athletes are Olympic champs, 32 are world titlists and 28 are European champions.
Special thanks to Craig Lord of SwimNews.com for pointing out this news in his piece posted today.