It’s really a shame that it’s come to this. I wonder who will be checking the athletes in these games. Someone not biased, I would hope, but I’m not betting on it.
Its complicated but cheating can originate anywhere along the line. Testing for banned substances in big international events is similar to DNA testing. Once a sample leaves the stadium/arena it is supposed to be protected, a “chain of custody”, if you will. Mislabeling can happen, cross contamination can happen, sloppy lab work happens. Then, sometimes a banned drug is hard to detect or can be disguised. Sometimes a competitor slips something in another athlete’s food or beverage to eliminate them from a competition. There is a whole list of banned over the counter medications but ocassionally one that is not on the list turns up. If an athlete is unaware that an OTC med has a miniscule trace of an illegal substance and take it too close to their competition the test will come back positive.