Now 'best time' to check for doping

The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics are still three months away but now is a key time in the battle to keep the dopers out, Wada director of intelligence and investigations Gunter Younger said on Oct 30.

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The Games in Italy run from Feb 6 to 22, with many winter sports yet to get going.

"Every doper who is intelligent knows that he gets tested (at the Games), so every doper would stop at one stage (before then)," the German told Reuters at a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) media briefing.

"So therefore now it's the best time to check them and I'm sure that our colleagues test those that are suspicious more frequently than others. For us, now it's the most important time."

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, the big doping story from the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine at the Russian national championships in December 2021.