Winter Olympic Games
Doping

In 1967 the IOC began enacting drug testing protocols. They started by randomly testing athletes at the 1968 Winter Olympics. The first Winter Games athlete to test positive for a banned substance was Alois Schloder, a West German hockey player, but his team was still allowed to compete. During the 1970s testing outside of competition was escalated because it was found to deter athletes from using performance-enhancing drugs. The problem with testing during this time was a lack of standardisation of the test procedures, which undermined the credibility of the tests. It was not until the late 1980s that international sporting federations began to coordinate efforts to standardise the drug-testing protocols. The IOC took the lead in the fight against steroids when it established the independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in November 1999.

The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin became notable for a scandal involving the emerging trend of blood doping, the use of blood transfusions or synthetic hormones such as Erythropoietin (EPO) to improve oxygen flow and thus reduce fatigue. The Italian police conducted a raid on the Austrian cross-country ski team's residence during the Games where they seized blood-doping specimens and equipment. This event followed the pre-Olympics suspension of 12 cross-country skiers who tested positive for unusually high levels of haemoglobin, which is evidence of blood doping.

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi's Russian Doping Scandal has resulted in the International Olympic Committee to begin disciplinary proceedings against 28 (later increased to 46) Russian athletes who competed at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, acting on evidence that their urine samples were tampered with.
startend:end_checker