For the first time in 28 years - no positive doping tests at the Winter Olympics

Not a single case of anti-doping rule violations was recorded at the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, the BBC reported.

More than 3.000 samples were collected from nearly 2.000 athletes during the Games held in February and no anti-doping rule violations were reported.

These are the first Winter Olympics since the 1998 Games in Japan where there was no positive test during the competition.

In the years following the 2021 London Olympics, 31 medals were stripped and another 46 were reassigned due to positive doping tests.

The McLaren report, commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), later revealed that Russia operated a state-run doping program from 2011 to 2015, a period that included the 2012 London Games and the 2014 Winter Olympics.

However, just because there have been no positive tests does not mean there may not be in the future. According to the BBC, athletes' samples are kept for ten years to allow for new testing when new techniques become available.

"This means it may be too early to write off these Games as the 'cleanest'," the BBC stated.

One of the reasons for the decline in positive results is the significant increase in testing ahead of major competitions.

The International Testing Agency confirmed that 92 percent of participants were tested at least once in the six months leading up to the Games in Milan and Cortina, with director general Benjamin Cohen describing it as "the most comprehensive program ever implemented."

Pre-Games testing yielded only one alleged positive result. Italian biathlete Rebecca Pessler was provisionally suspended after testing positive for letrozole just four days before the Games began.

She appealed the suspension imposed by the Italian Anti-Doping Agency and was cleared to compete at the Games. WADA said the decision was provisional and that the Italian anti-doping agency would request a hearing at a later date.

"Previously, we only tested athletes when they arrived at the Olympics. Today, the system is completely different. We monitor athletes over a much longer period, actually the most sensitive period, when athletes want to qualify for the Olympics," Cohen told the BBC.

"This wasn't done 20 years ago. Athletes know this and I think that's why there are fewer and fewer positive doping tests during the Olympic Games," he added.