A couple of days ago, London 2012 would have been regarded as a drug free Olympics that was before shot put gold medalistNadzeya Ostapchuk (Belarus) tested positive for the anabolic steroid metenolene in samples taken both before and after her London competition. That was the first positive test by a medallist in London but two other athletes were kicked out of the Games for failing drug tests Syrian hurdler Ghfran Almouhamad and US judoka Nicholas Delpopolo. In addition, the International Olympic Committee announced a number of positive pre Olympics tests during the course of the Games.

The positive tests announced during the Games were:

Some medal hopefuls had been caught before leaving for London, such as defending 50km walking champion Alex Schwazer of Italy, Moroccan 1500m hope Mariem Alaoui Selsouliand Turkish weightlifter Fatih Baydar. Belarussian hammer thrower Ivan Tikhon, a three time world champion in 2003, 2005 and 2007, was also excluded from competing before the Games as a result of drug tests dating back to the 2004 Olympics and 2005 world championships.

Six track and field athletes suspended were caught in “biological passport” tests, which measure changes in an athlete’s blood profile. Another three were apprehended in re tests of samples from last air jordan 7 year’s world championship. Inna Eftimova, of Bulgaria, tested positive for synthetic growth hormone, while the samples of the Ukrainians Nataliya Tobias and Antonina Yefremova both contained traces of synthetic testosterone. All three have been banned for two years.

The Moroccan runner Abderrahim Goumri, who finished third in the London marathon and second in the air jordan 6 New York marathon in 2008, was among the six athletes who had irregularities in their “biological passports”. The others were: Russians Svetlana Klyuka, who finished fourth in the 800m at the Beijing Olympics; the 2011 European indoor 800m champion Yevgenia Zinurova; and Nailya Yulamanova; long distance runners Irini Kokkinariou of Greece; and Turkey’s Meryem Erdogan.

The nine suspensions came after it was revealed that the Moroccan 1,500m runner Mariem Alaoui Selsouli had also tested positive for a banned diuretic. The 28 year old had been the hot favourite to win 1,500m gold in London when she ran three minutes 56.15 seconds to win the Paris Diamond League at the Stade de France earlier this month. A silver medallist at the world indoor championships this year, she has already served a two year suspension for doping and now faces a lifetime ban under World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) rules.

Italian race walking hero tests positive for EPO

The most interesting story among this group was from Italian walker and 50km gold medallist from Beijing, Alex Schwazer, who unusually among those who test positive, admitted doping. Schwazer, told his doping tale in great, and sometimes disturbing, detail. His story clashed starkly with the athlete’s clean cut image that is highlighted in a ubiquitous Italian advertisement for Kinder chocolate bars set in the idyllic Alps where he lives.

After studying how to take and buy the drug on the internet, he said he flew to Turkey in September 2011 for three days, exchanged 1500 euros for Turkish lira, went to a pharmacy and bought EPO over the counter. He kept the drug in his refrigerator and told his girlfriend, figure skater, Carolina Kostner that they were vitamins.

He said he took the EPO only in the month leading up to the Games, that he had acted alone, and denied that he had taken performance enhancing drugs before the Beijing Games.

He gave the following description of the test that found him out. “I took the last injection on July 29, I remember because it was my mother’s birthday. I went back home to get a document I needed for the Olympics. On the 30th the doorbell rang and I was sure it was anti doping controllers. I could have told my mother to not answer or say I was not in and nothing would have happened since it’s possible to miss two in a year. But I did not have the strength to lie any more. And I wanted it all to end. I am so ashamed but I am also glad I can start my life again”.

Three Kenyan athletes also tested positive leading up to the Games including Hamburg Marathon winner Rael Kiyara for nandrolone (anabolic steroid) and 2012 Boston Marathon runner air jordan 3 up Jemima Sumgong for traces of cortisone. Sumgong was treated for a hip injury in an Italian clinic, and her use of the banned substance may ultimately be determined as inadvertent.

Mathew Kisorio, history’s third fastest half marathoner (58:46) and a fourth place finisher at the 2011 World Cross Country Championships, reportedly tested positive for an anabolic steroid atthe Kenyan Championships in Nairobi on June 14. Doping expert Hajo Seppelt, in an interview with the German media outlet ARD, translated (roughly), claimed statements by Kisorio “give the impression that not only he is affected, but it [taking performance enhancing drugs] is a common phenomenon in Kenya.”

Seppelt says Kisorio told him that doctors like the one who treated him “can be seen in places where preferred athletes live, such as in the training camps in the highlands. His observations on this practice [administering banned drugs] are, that this is not an isolated phenomenon, but is widespread all over Kenya.”

Kisorio has admitted to drug taking and “apparently hopes that he gets, through the elucidation of the facts, a reduced ban by [Athletics Kenya],” explains Seppelt. “Therefore, he has gone on the offensive and has spoken to us.”

Kisorio “claims that he was incited by his doctor,” reports Seppelt. “The doctor has apparently given him injections of banned substances and also tablets. In the competition controls only the dumbest get caught, because the [doping] products are already out of the [body] by then.” But Seppelt asserts “nonetheless, the credibility of the Kenyan athletics is shaken” and that East African distance running success cannot be attributed solely to “the highland, good food and the running culture. It also plays an important role.

Ostapchuk’s positive test in London should not have come as a big surprise. She had been competing in her third Olympics having finished fourth in Athens in 2004 and won bronze in Beijing four years ago. In the past few years, the has dominated the womens shot, beating Ostapchuk several times. Ostapchuk won the World Championship in 2005, but finished runner up behind Adams in both 2009 and 2011 and took bronze at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

In London, Ostapchuk, 31, won the shot put with 21.36 metres, 66 centimetres better than Adams’ best mark. The results raised speculation of doping as Britain’s men’s shot put competitor Brett Morse hinted on Twitter that Ostapchuk was using illegal drugs. The tweet was deleted soon after.

Adams is now the Olympic gold medallist, but has missed out on the opportunity to celebrate her victory on the day and to receive her gold medal at the victory ceremony.

Whenever there is a surprise outstanding performance involving a dramatic improvement in a short period of time, the suspicion of drug use arises. Two cases that drew a great deal of attention in London. One was the Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen who won the women’s 400 Individual Medley in world record time and famously swam the final freestyle lap faster than Ryan Lochte in the men’s event (a previously unheard of phenomenon); the other was and the Turkish 1 2 in the women’s 1500 metres (see below).

Shiwen bettered her previous PB by 5 seconds which led the US coach John Leonard to query the performance. A Chinese team mate tested positive for EPO earlier this year. The Chinese claimed Shiwen had been identified at a young age because of her large hands and feet, and her success was due to hard work.

Womens 1500 metres surrounded by drugs

Asli Cakir was banned for 2+ years as a junior in 2004 on a doping incident. She ran the 3000m steeplechase in Beijing four years ago and failed to progress from the heats. By last year’s world championships in Daegu she had dropped down to the 1500m, but failed to qualify for the final. This year has been different though. She finished third in the world indoors in Istanbul and then at the Diamond League meeting she ran 3min 56.62 sec, a 7 second personal best. Then on the eve of the Games, Cakir Alptekin won the European championships.

Silver medallist Bulut who has just turned 20 years old, virtually came from nowhere. Before 2012, Bulut was a steeplechaser with a 10:13 PB to her name and a 4:18 in the 1500, both times from 2011. This year her times saw massive drops of 39 seconds (9:34) in the steeple and 17 seconds in the 1500 (4:01). Bulut had never been at a global championship in the past, but found her way on the medal stand her in London.