IOC warns dope cheats

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned on Saturday that anti-doping bodies can test blood and urine samples for 10 years and that drug cheats would be caught “sooner or later”.  

Arne Ljungqvist, the IOC medical commission chairman, said: “The message to the athletes is that if you cheat, if you take drugs, if we don’t find you now we may find you later and we will certainly find you sooner or later. That is an important deterrent message.”

The Sochi Winter Games are the first to be subject to the new World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) statute of limitations, extending the period of time samples are stored and available for testing from eight to 10 years.