Doping Controls Pose Challenge to Milan-Cortina 2026 Games

Rome's FMSI laboratory is situated between rugby and hockey fields and fencing halls at an Italian Olympic Committee training centre north of the centre of Rome, and is under scrutiny from the world's anti-doping authority.

The Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Games are at risk because, without an accredited facility in the country, everything becomes more complicated. Currently, the only possible location is in Italy.

"We're in a race against time, and we don't have any more to lose," said the laboratory's director, Francesco Botre, in statements to AFP. "WADA carried out an inspection in 2017 and had nothing to say about the quality of our work. But they told us that our lab is too small and in too close proximity to the athletes. They told us we had two years to expand the facility, but in the meantime, the 2026 Winter Games were assigned to Milan-Cortina. There was no way the proposed expansion could have handled the increase in testing for the Olympics, so WADA gave us more time."

If there is not enough time or money to prepare the facilities on time, the sliding events could be moved to the northern Alps. © Getty Images

It is evident that with an event like the Olympic Games, the samples and controls multiply, and the need increases. For example, there will be around 150 samples per day during the Olympic and Paralympic Games (to be held respectively between February 6-22 and March 6-15), taking the number of annual analyses from the current 12,000 to 20,000.

These projections would be impossible to meet if the current structure is maintained, with such an overload and only 25 people in the 400-square-meter laboratory, significantly smaller than the 3,000 m2 available in the facilities that will be used for next year's Summer Olympics in Paris. Therefore, the forecasts indicate that improvements and modernisation will be necessary with just two years left until the Olympic event. The pandemic halted any construction and expansion, so everything has been delayed, and only this year have they started to realise the potential problem, and construction has begun.

Milan Cortina races against time to organize the Games.© Getty Images

However, it is estimated that around 11 million euros in funding will be needed, along with the purchase of a lot of technology that can raise the expense to around 20 million euros. If the organisers want to meet the deadlines, they must be installed by next summer, if they want to meet the requirements of WADA.

If doping tests have to be moved from Rome to Paris or Cologne, or we'll see, sliding competitions like bobsleigh could change countries. Money and scheduled work are needed to complete what is required. If there is not enough time or money to prepare the facilities on time, the sliding events could be moved to the northern Alps, with all that entails. Problems multiply, and time is of the essence.

Botre expressed his concern in statements to AFP. "If the Rome laboratory, including the facility, cannot deliver what is required for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and IPC (International Paralympic Committee) will need to use a different WADA-accredited laboratory or laboratories to deliver the anti-doping analysis for those events." And while the official is optimistic about a summit on the issue next month, he also acknowledges that the time is now or never: "I fear that if we miss the chance given to us by the Olympics, we will never have a new laboratory and could even end up closing."