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03/02/2022 - Institutional news

The Catalonian Anti-doping Laboratory is collaborating with the Olympic Laboratory in Beijing

On 4 February, the XXIV Olympic Winter Games will be inaugurated in Beijing, which this year will be held under very strict COVID-19 control protocols.

Three scientists from the IMIM Anti-Doping Laboratory, Rosa Ventura, Sergi Coll and Lídia Requena, will be travelling to Beijing to work in the Olympic laboratory. Rosa Ventura will be involved in the management and supervision group, Sergi Coll will be working on the detection of anabolic steroids, and Lídia Requena will be concentrating on the detection of hormones (erythropoietin, growth hormone). The Beijing Laboratory will analyse 3000 samples over the Olympic Games and another 600 during the Paralympic Games. This high volume of samples requires a great deal of analytical equipment and a large number of specialised professionals organised into shifts working around the clock. 

In addition to being the lab for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the IMIM Laboratory has collaborated in all the Olympic Games since it was accredited as an anti-doping lab in 1985. Just as happened during last summer's Olympics in Tokyo, participation in these Games will once again be exceptional given the security and prevention measures necessary as a result of the pandemic. The professionals authorised to travel to Beijing will be in a bubble and will have to limit themselves to going from the hotel to the lab and from the lab to the hotel.

Despite all these restrictions, "Participating in the testing at the Olympic Games is of very special interest to us", says Rosa Ventura, director of the IMIM Laboratory. "The Olympic Laboratory brings together top international experts and, in addition to helping friends and colleagues from the Beijing Laboratory, it is a unique opportunity to keep up to date and learn about the most cutting-edge anti-doping methods."

The IMIM professionals signed the commemorative book of honour for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games that the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Barcelona will send to the Organising Committee of the Games.  

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