The Hospital del Mar Institute for Medical Research (IMIM) will once again be Olympic. Two of the Anti-Doping Laboratory of Catalonia professionals at IMIM will work at the Olympic Games Laboratory in Tokyo, which starts this July 23. Sergi Coll and Lídia Requena will travel to Tokyo to work there until August 10. Sergi Coll specializes in detecting anabolic steroids, and Lídia Requena specializes in detecting hormones (erythropoietin, growth hormone ...) and blood transfusions.
In addition to being the Laboratory of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, staff from the IMIM Laboratory have collaborated in all the Olympic Games since it was accredited as an anti-doping laboratory in 1985. But this time, the participation has a very exceptional touch given the security and prevention measures by the COVID-19, which forced to postpone the celebration of the Games for a year. As with other professionals authorized to travel to Tokyo during this sporting event, IMIM professionals will work in a bubble and have to limit their mobility to their accommodation and workplace, using the transportation provided by the organization.
Despite all these restrictions, "participating in the anti-doping controls of the Olympic Games is of exceptional interest to professionals dedicated to anti-doping control," says Rosa Ventura, director of the Anti-Doping Laboratory of Catalonia. "The Olympic Laboratory brings together the best professionals in the world and, in addition to helping friends and colleagues at the Tokyo Laboratory, who need the support of specialists from other laboratories to ensure the required analytical quality with a volume of such large samples. It is a unique opportunity to catch up and learn on the most current anti-doping methodologies," he adds.
The Tokyo Laboratory will analyze 5,000 samples during the Olympic Games and another 1,500 during the Paralympic Games. This high volume of samples makes it necessary to have a lot of analytical equipment and many specialized professionals organized in shifts to cover 24 hours a day. In addition, the Olympic Laboratory will have implemented the latest generation of anti-doping methodologies, including the detection of gene doping and the detection of substances for doping in dried blood samples.
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