IOC sees more than 20,000 drugs tests in 2018 Games lead-up

LAUSANNE, Switzerland: More than 20,000 doping tests will have been conducted by the start of next year’s Pyeongchang winter Olympics as the International Olympic Committee’s pre-Games testing programme hopes to root out cheats in advance, it said on Tuesday.
Russian athletes are among those targeted most with the nation awaiting the IOC decision on its participation at February’s Pyeongchang winter Olympics following the widespread doping scandal in the country.
“It is 7,000 (total) tests so far until November on 4,000 athletes,” IOC medical chief Richard Budgett told reporters.“There will be a lot more in the coming two or three months as we are in the winter season. I suspect the total number of tests will be 20,000.”
The targeted pre-Games testing task force, jointly run by WADA, the IOC and winter and summer sports federations, advises federations and National Olympic committees to test specific athletes.