State of the art Olympic doping lab already testing samples ahead of Vancouver Games

Doping lab already testing dozens of samples

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Vancouver’s state-of-the-art doping lab already has tested more than 200 blood and urine samples from Olympic athletes, and there have been no positives.

Dr. Christiane Ayotte, the scientist in charge of the facility, said Tuesday the new facility at the Richmond Oval aims to process about 2,000 samples — 1,600 urine and about 400-500 blood samples — during the games, which open Friday.

“We are fully ready,” Ayotte said.

Dressed in long white coats complemented by a Vancouver Olympic symbol in red, the 23 working scientists staff the facility 24 hours. Ayotte said there will be 35 scientists working once the games start.

The lab is expecting about 90 samples per day. Samples come to the lab via courier from the Olympic venues. Overnight, staff do the paperwork and initial screening of samples and put the prepared samples on the testing machines. Day staff then can analyze the data.

“Therefore we are able to report in the very short timeframe that is required by the IOC, which is 24 hours,” Ayotte said.

In the instrument room, silver tubes hang from the ceiling hooked up to mass spectrometer machines, which can separate minute elements of urine samples to look at them in fine detail.