All Horses & Riders Tested Negative at Tokyo Olympics for 3rd Straight Clean Games
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Sept. 13, 2021
All humans and equines tested at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games have been confirmed as negative for the third straight Games.
“I am very proud to be able to confirm that, for the third Games in succession, all human and equine samples taken during the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games have returned negative,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos said.
“This should, of course, be business as usual, but it would be naïve to think that clean Games are guaranteed in any sport. Of course, as with all sports in the Olympic Movement, the samples–including the equine ones–will be kept in storage for up to 10 years for potential retesting as improved processes are developed to test for substances that were not reliably detectable at the time of sampling.”
In addition to clean sport campaigns undertaken by international and national federation, pre-arrival and elective testing of horses has been applied to ensure clean competition.
The previous two Olympics with “clean” records were Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and London in 2012.
In 2008, jumper horses from Germany, Brazil, Ireland and Norway and an American dressage horse were disqualified for drug offenses. At the 2004 Olympics, the German show jumping team and an individual Irish jumper rider were stripped of gold medals after horses tested positive for prohibited substances.
