None of the athletes who competed at the Milan Cortina Olympics tested positive for doping violations, according to an analysis of more than 3,000 samples collected during the Winter Olympics. Future tests could change the Games’ clean record, but as it stands, this was the first Winter Olympics since the 1998 Nagano Games to not have a positive result.
The International Testing Agency (ITA) released its final assessment Wednesday, noting that the findings reflect results for 1,848 athletes, or about 63.4 percent of all participants. ITA conducted multiple test periods leading up to and during the 2026 Winter Olympics, with 92 percent of participating athletes undergoing at least one test in the six months before the opening ceremony. So far, none of those results have indicated violations of anti-doping policies.
This year’s test pool covered a larger share of the competitors than the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Only 55 percent of the participants at those Olympics completed ITA testing, and four athletes tested positive for banned substances, all of whom were ruled ineligible to compete. The Beijing Games marked the first time ITA began screening athletes during qualification events rather than solely at the Olympics. Every nation that competed in Milan Cortina submitted samples.
Of the samples ITA tested for Milan Cortina, 2,180 were urine samples, 768 were blood samples and 105 were dried blood spot samples (DBS). Whereas regular blood tests are drawn directly from athletes, DBS testing is a process in which drops of blood from small skin pricks are dried on filter paper and shipped to labs for remote analysis.
ITA-collected samples were analyzed at a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited lab in Rome and will be stored at a centralized facility for up to 10 years. The long-term retention is to allow for reanalyses if more advanced testing technology becomes available.
“Following the successful delivery of the Milano Cortina 2026 anti-doping program, the ITA will continue its work to strengthen the Olympic anti-doping program and looks ahead to the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026 and the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028, where it will once again implement comprehensive and intelligence-led clean sport measures,” ITA said in its report.
The sole blip
While none of the samples drew a red flag, there was one pre-Olympics test that led to a brief suspension.
Italian biathlete Rebecca Passler tested positive for the drug Letrozole four days before her home country’s Olympics opened, prompting Italy to suspend her provisionally. Passler appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but it said it lacked jurisdiction because she hadn’t had a hearing before Italy’s national anti-doping body.
Italy’s Rebecca Passler was cleared to compete at the Olympics after contesting her positive doping test, which officials ruled was from unintentional exposure. (Michael Steele / Getty Images)
The 24-year-old biathlete, who was looking to make her Olympic debut, contended that the positive test was due to cross-contamination from sharing a spoon with her mother, who is being treated for breast cancer.
Letrozole reduces estrogen levels and is commonly used to treat breast cancer, but it can also mask the presence of steroids in certain quantities. Passler’s explanation that she used her mom’s spoon to eat Nutella the day before the test was enough to sway the Italian Winter Sports Federation (FISI), which attributed the test result to “the involuntary intake or unconscious contamination of the substance in question.”
FISI provisionally cleared Passler to race, but she was left off the final Italian relay team and did not compete at the Olympics.
“These have been very difficult days,” Passler said in a statement after the FISI decision. “I have always believed in my good faith. I want to thank everyone who helped me — from the lawyers who followed my case, to the Italian Winter Sports Federation, to my family and friends.”
Biathlon had the third-highest number of athletes sampled of all the sports at the Milan Cortina Olympics, ranking behind hockey and cross-country skiing. Speed skating and alpine skiing rounded out the top five.
How testing has evolved
Drug testing at the Olympics has undergone significant changes over the last decade. The 2012 London Summer Olympics saw 31 medals withdrawn and 46 medals reallocated due to doping violations — all discovered upon reanalysis years after the competition. Investigations into the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics later led to severe sanctions for Russia, which was found to have built a massive, state-sponsored doping program involving dozens of athletes.
Of the 31 revoked medals in 2012, 15 were initially won by Russians. Four more medals were revoked due to Russian doping at the Sochi Games, and another during the 2016 Rio Games. Russian sports officials were fined and banned from various posts by the International Olympic Committee, and the country was required to contribute $15 million to ITA’s creation in 2018.
Russia’s sanctions were set to expire in 2022, but the nation launched its invasion of Ukraine that February. That act of aggression led to a new slate of Olympic penalties that remain in place. As a result, Russian athletes had to compete in Milan Cortina as “Individual Neutral Athletes” and could not wear or display the Russian flag. The Russian national anthem was banned from podium ceremonies, and the medals athletes won were left off the nation-by-national medal table.
ITA’s latest report could indicate other nations have taken note of what not to do if they want to retain Olympic prestige.