Doping control analysis at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games

This paper summarizes the results obtained from the doping control analyses performed during the Summer XXXI Olympic Games (from 03 to 21 August 2016) and XV Paralympic Games (from 07 to 18 September 2016). The analyses of all doping control samples were performed at the Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory (LBCD), a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A new facility at Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ) was built and fully operated by over seven hundred professionals, including Brazilian and international scientists, administrative staff and volunteers. For the Olympic Games, 4,913 samples were analysed. In 29 specimens, the presence of a prohibited substance was confirmed, resulting in adverse analytical findings (AAFs). For the Paralympic Games, 1,687 samples were analysed, twelve of which were reported as AAFs. For both events, 82.8% of the samples were urine, and 17.2% were blood samples. In total, more than thirty-one thousand analytical procedures were conducted. New WADA technical documents were fully implemented; consequently, state-of-the-art analytical toxicology instrumentation and strategies were applied during the Games, including different types of mass spectrometry (MS) analysers, peptide and protein detection strategies, endogenous steroid profile measurements and blood analysis. This enormous investment yielded one of the largest Olympic legacies in Brazil and South America.