Rio Doping Lab Reinstated By WADA In Time For Upcoming Olympic Games

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On Wednesday the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced that they will be lifting the provisional suspension of accreditation of the Rio Laboratory (Laboratorio Brasilerio de Controle de Dopagem). The lifting of this suspension will allow the lab to resume anti-doping analysis on urine and blood samples immediately.

The suspension, which began on June 24th, was due to a non-conformity with the International Standard Laboratories (ISL), a non-conformity which was never fully outlined by the ISL. WADA and the ISL note that with the non-conformity now being met that there is no reason to further suspend the lab.

Director General of WADA, Olivier Niggli, commented,

WADA is very pleased to announce that the Rio laboratory’s acreditation has been reinstated. All parties worked diligently to resolve the identified issue so that the Laboratory could be up and running optimally for the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games that start on 5 August. Athletes can be confident that anti-doping sample analysis has been robust throughout the Laboratory’s suspension; and, that it will also be during the Games.

The reinstatement of the lab comes just in time for the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Without the lab all samples would have needed to be shipped out to another accredited lab for testing, hindering the process for checking samples and running a clean Olympic Games.

This is not the first time the Rio Laboratory has come under fire as they also received a suspension in 2013.

The Rio lab is not the only lab to come under fire in recent months. Labs in Madrid, South Africa, Beijing have been just a handful of other laboratories that have been suspended due to various violations.

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