The IOC said it had not detected any significant abuse of clenbuterol after finding “very low levels” of the banned substance during re-testing of samples from the Beijing Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee’s comments on Monday came one day after German broadcaster ARD reported that traces of the banned substance were found in samples provided by members of the Jamaican sprint team at the Games in 2008.
Jamaica won 10 medals in the sprint events led by Usain Bolt, who took gold in the men’s 100 and 200 meters.
In a statement, the IOC said that “very low levels of clenbuterol” were found in the cases of athletes from a number of countries and different sports. It said the athletes were innocent and could not give any more details.
Without mentioning Jamaica or the ARD allegations, the IOC said that all values were “in the range of potential meat contamination cases”.
It said it “carefully deliberated” whether or not to proceed with the cases and consulted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
According to the IOC, WADA said that it could not find “any significant and consistent pattern of abuse of clenbuterol in these cases and that it would be appropriate not to take these cases any further”.
