WADA publishes independent assessment of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games anti-doping program
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published the Independent Observer report on the anti-doping program of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games on 19 August 2026. The Games were held from 6 to 22 February at multiple locations across northern Italy, while anti-doping operations had already begun on 30 January with the opening of the Olympic Villages. The program was managed for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by the International Testing Agency (ITA), in cooperation with the anti-doping department of the Milano Cortina 2026 Organising Committee and the Italian national anti-doping organisation NADO Italia. All samples collected during the Games were analysed at WADA-accredited Laboratorio Antidoping FMSI in Rome. WADA's report assesses the program positively overall, particularly highlighting the quality of testing planning and implementation, the professionalism of personnel and the use of technology to enable more efficient operations and a better athlete experience.
The Independent Observer report is not merely a retrospective review of testing results, but part of WADA's broader system for monitoring the compliance of major sporting events with the World Anti-Doping Code and international standards. During the Games, observers monitored the distribution and implementation of tests, athlete selection, notification and sample collection procedures, the work of doping control personnel, sample transport and chain of custody, therapeutic use exemption procedures and results management. According to WADA, during the competition the team provided real-time feedback so that identified operational issues could be addressed immediately rather than only after the Games had ended. Such a model allows the report to serve simultaneously as a control mechanism and as a tool for improving future competitions. Observer team leader Thomas Capdevielle praised the IOC, ITA, organisers and NADO Italia for their cooperation and commitment to building a robust and effective doping control system.
More than 3,000 samples and athletes from every delegation tested
According to final data published by the ITA on 1 April 2026, a total of 3,053 samples were collected from 1,848 athletes during the Games period, corresponding to 63.4 percent of all participants. These included 2,180 urine samples, 768 blood samples and 105 dried blood spot samples. The ITA states that athletes from all National Olympic Committees participating in the Games were tested, while athletes from larger delegations and disciplines assessed as higher risk were most frequently subject to controls. Sports with the highest numbers of controls included ice hockey, cross-country skiing, biathlon, speed skating and alpine skiing. In-competition and out-of-competition testing was distributed approximately evenly, with each of those two categories accounting for around half of all samples collected.
Compared with the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the proportion of athletes tested during the Games themselves increased from approximately 55 to 63.4 percent, according to the ITA. However, the Milano Cortina anti-doping system was not designed as a program beginning only when athletes arrived in the Olympic Villages. A key part of it took place during the preceding six months, when international federations, national anti-doping organisations and the ITA coordinated their monitoring of a pool of athletes expected to potentially compete at the Games. Based on risk assessments, the ITA issued recommendations on which athletes and disciplines should be tested more frequently and monitored whether there were gaps in the program. This shifted doping control from an exclusively competition-based framework towards continuous monitoring throughout the period in which athletes prepare, qualify and reach peak form for the season's biggest competition.
Pre-Games testing was one of the program's key pillars
In early February, the ITA reported that more than 7,100 doping controls had been conducted on more than 2,900 athletes within the broader pool of potential participants during the six months before the Olympic Villages opened. According to those figures, at least 92 percent of the athletes who ultimately participated in the Games had been tested at least once during that period. In disciplines assessed as high risk, 91 percent of athletes underwent at least one control and 66 percent underwent three or more controls. National anti-doping organisations carried out around 63 percent of the pre-Games controls, while international federations carried out the remaining 37 percent, preliminary ITA data showed. The agency also warned that certain gaps existed because some stakeholders had not fully implemented all recommended controls, which is one of the reasons why the risk assessment system remains important during the Games themselves.
WADA's team identified this approach in the report as one of the program's important strengths. Instead of relying on a predetermined quota or a large number of random controls, the strategy used a combination of the physiological characteristics of individual disciplines, testing history, information on individual athletes, country-level risk assessments and intelligence. The ITA stated that the process incorporated information from cooperation with international federations and other anti-doping organisations, as well as data gathered through the confidential REVEAL platform for reporting suspicious activities. The aim of this model is not to test all athletes at the same frequency, but to direct available resources towards situations where the risk of doping is assessed as higher. WADA's positive assessment therefore relates not only to the number of samples collected, but also to the way in which planning connected the pre-Games period with controls carried out at Olympic venues.
Wide geographical dispersion required central coordination
Milano Cortina 2026 differed from many previous Olympic editions because of its highly dispersed competition organisation. WADA's report lists four main clusters, 23 official venues and 18 doping control stations, and the Independent Observer team managed to visit every location where anti-doping operations were taking place. The observers monitored procedures in 16 disciplines across eight sports, as well as the sample transport hub in Brescia and the laboratory operations in Rome. Such geography creates additional demands for staff deployment, sample transport, timely communication with teams and the maintenance of equal standards at venues located hundreds of kilometres apart. This is precisely why centralised ITA coordination, supported locally by the organising committee and NADO Italia, was one of the program's important elements.
For operational implementation, the ITA deployed around 20 of its own anti-doping experts in the field, together with international doping control officers, blood collection personnel and hundreds of chaperones responsible for notifying athletes and accompanying them to control stations. During the preparation phase, the ITA planned to engage approximately 150 international doping control officers and around 400 chaperones, while final requirements were adjusted to actual conditions in the field. The report particularly praised the professionalism of sample collection personnel, which is important because the quality of an anti-doping system depends not only on laboratory analysis but on every step from the moment an athlete is selected for testing. Errors in identification, documentation, sample sealing, transport timing or chain of custody can have legal and sporting consequences, making consistent procedures just as important as advanced analytical methods. In this respect, the Independent Observers' assessment confirms that complex operations across multiple clusters generally functioned in accordance with expected international standards.
Digital systems accelerated communication and reduced administrative workload
The technology used by the ITA to connect anti-doping stakeholders across a large and geographically divided event received particular praise in the positive assessment. After the Games, the agency stated that it relied on a digital ecosystem developed since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, designed to coordinate controls, exchange information and support delegations and officials in the field. WADA observers recognised that such tools can accelerate operations, reduce the number of manual administrative steps and enable testing plans to be adjusted more quickly in response to new information. For athletes, this can mean shorter and clearer procedures, while for organisers it enables more precise monitoring of control status and more secure management of sensitive data. The positive assessment of technology does not, however, mean that the anti-doping process can be fully automated, because key decisions concerning risk assessment, sample collection and results management still require expert oversight and clear accountability.
Samples remain available for reanalysis for up to ten years
All samples collected during the Games were analysed at the WADA-accredited Laboratorio Antidoping FMSI in Rome, and after the program ended the ITA announced that the samples would be retained in its centralised long-term storage system for up to ten years. This means that a negative result immediately after a competition does not necessarily represent the final examination of a particular sample. If more sensitive methods are developed in the future or new information emerges that justifies retesting, selected samples can be reanalysed within the period permitted by anti-doping rules. Such a practice has a deterrent effect because an athlete cannot assume that a substance or method that is currently difficult to detect will forever remain beyond the reach of analytical science. On 1 April, the ITA stated that at that time no anti-doping rule violation had been established on the basis of samples collected during Milano Cortina 2026; according to available information published up to 25 August 2026, no more recent official information had been released that would change that status.
Analysis was conducted in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code, international standards and WADA's 2026 Prohibited List, which entered into force on 1 January 2026. The List specifies which substances and methods are prohibited, while the therapeutic use of certain prohibited substances is possible with an appropriate exemption. WADA's team therefore also monitored procedures related to therapeutic use exemptions and results management. These elements are important because athletes must have clearly defined rights and the opportunity to demonstrate a legitimate medical need. The credibility of the system depends on consistency throughout the entire process, from selection for testing to the final legal decision.
Recommendations for future Games focus on practical details
Although the program received a favourable overall assessment, the Independent Observer report includes a number of recommendations for future major events. These include the need for organising committees to increase the visibility of anti-doping education during the Games and outside central athlete engagement zones, so that information is more accessible to competitors staying and competing in more remote clusters. The observers also recommended better and more timely sharing of team training schedules, because such information facilitates unannounced out-of-competition testing without unnecessarily disrupting athletes and their preparations. The technical section of the report also includes a practical recommendation that warming aids be used at the blood collection site, when conditions require it, to facilitate optimal sample collection. These recommendations demonstrate that improving an anti-doping system often does not involve major regulatory reforms, but rather more precise operational procedures that reduce the risk of errors and improve the athlete experience.
One of the organisational recommendations also concerns the role of the national anti-doping organisation of the host country. The report proposes better use of the NADO's local knowledge while maintaining a unified and rapidly responsive operational structure. This is important at events such as Milano Cortina, where the domestic organisation understands the infrastructure, language and local procedures, while the ITA brings international independence and experience from major competitions. NADO Italia and the ITA had already established a partnership before the Games for coordination of testing, information exchange, intelligence work and education. The recommendation therefore primarily calls for a more precise division of roles and more effective integration of international and local capacities.
Independent oversight is becoming an integral part of the integrity of major competitions
WADA's Independent Observer program was developed to provide major international competitions with an additional level of external oversight of anti-doping procedures. In Milan and Cortina, the observer team consisted of experts in testing, compliance, laboratory analysis, sports integrity management and anti-doping administration, and was led by Thomas Capdevielle of the Athletics Integrity Unit. Team members did not replace the ITA or make operational decisions on behalf of the organisers, but monitored how the rules were applied and identified areas where improvements could be made. Such an approach increases transparency because the final assessment comes not only from the organisation that implemented the program, but from a separate team operating within the framework of the global regulator. At the same time, it enables lessons to be transferred from one event to the next, which is important in a system where technology, doping methods and testing approaches are constantly evolving.
Milano Cortina 2026 continued the model under which the IOC entrusts the Olympic Games anti-doping program to the ITA, which has carried out that mandate since 2018 and has already managed programs at previous Olympic editions. Following the Games in Italy, the agency identified the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games as its next major projects. The recommendations in WADA's report therefore have broader significance: they are expected to influence future pre-competition testing, local coordination, digital processes and athlete education. The report's overall message is that the program operated at a high level, but also that clean-sport standards are maintained through continuous scrutiny and improvement.
Sources:
- World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) - publication of the Independent Observer report for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games and description of the scope of oversight (link)
- World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) - official Independent Observer Report for Milano Cortina 2026, with assessments and recommendations for future Games (link)
- International Testing Agency (ITA) - final data on 3,053 samples, 1,848 athletes tested, distribution of controls and long-term sample storage (link)
- International Testing Agency (ITA) - data on the pre-Games program, more than 7,100 controls and coverage of at least 92 percent of athletes (link)
- International Testing Agency (ITA) - operational framework of the program, partner roles, laboratory in Rome and risk-based testing model (link)
- NADO Italia - partnership with the ITA for coordination of testing, information exchange, intelligence work and education ahead of Milano Cortina 2026 (link)
- Inside the Games - overview of recommendations from WADA's report for future competitions (link)