The Unofficial 2008 Beijing Olympics Blog

The British Olympics committee has recently announced that all of it’s team of 1500 athletes, heading for the Beijing Olympics, will be tested for any devious substances, that might alter their sporting performances, as reported by today’s edition of The Guardian.

“Every British athlete that goes into the Olympic Village from July 27 will have been tested, educated and there can be no excuse,” Andy Parkinson, acting director of the drug-testing arm of UK Sport, told The Guardian. “We are being tougher than ever and we are saying to every athlete in his country that you are going to be tested.”

UK Sport officials said that testing of the athletes will be administered unannounced and out of competition, when most doping occurs. British sport authorities have declared a goal of having a 100 percent drug-free team at the Beijing Olympics before the Games are staged in London in 2012.

In other related news, Song Hongjuan, a Chinese racer-walker was found positive on a recent doping test. in an out-of-competiton test in Beijing on Feb. 24. She finished 14th in the 20-kilometer race at the 2004 Athens Games.

Liliana Popescu, part of the Romanian team and the holder of the fastest women’s 1,500 meters time this year was also banned from her national Olympics team, after she was  tested positive for a banned substance. Popescu was scheduled to run both the 1,500 and 800 meters at Beijing next month.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our free updates via RSS or e-mail. Find out more about subscribing here. Thanks for visiting!