The Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) has confirmed that four athletes have failed drugs tests at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games. Organisers of the 2015 games stated that three athletes tested positive for anabolic steroids while one tested positive for a banned stimulant. On Friday, Mexican weightlifter Cinthya Dominguez and baseball players Nelson Gomez of Puerto Rico and Javier Jesus Ortiz Angulo of Colombia all tested positive for anabolic steroids while another baseball player Mario Mercedes Castillo of the Dominica Republic tested positive for a banned stimulant.

Held between athletes from the Americas who compete in a variety of summer sports, the 14^th edition of the four-year Pan American Games started on Friday 10^th July in Toronto, Canada, and runs until Sunday 26^th July. In addition to the confirmed positive tests by the four aforementioned athletes, the Peruvian Olympic Committee (COP) released a statement from its head of Mission, Maggie Martinelli, on Thursday 16^th July confirming that it had ‘received a notification from the Pan American Sports Organization Anti-Doping Agency’ alerting them that the A sample taken on 12^th July of the Peruvian swimmer Mauricio Fiol had tested positive for the banned substance stanozolol. In accordance with the PASO Anti-Doping Rules, which comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Code, Fiol now has the option of asking for the result of the B sample and to request an appeal of the adverse analytical finding.

PASO is yet to confirm Fiol’s positive test, telling the Associated Press that it ‘did not confirm or comment on doping cases for 48 hours after receiving test results so that those athletes can have a chance to address the allegations’. The COP however announced that, according to the WADA protocol, Fiol would be ‘suspended immediately pending the final resolution, stripped of his medal and prevented from continuing participation in the Pan American Games.’ COP further stated that Fiol had met with the COP and had ‘denied consuming the substance’, and that the COP would provide all the support and advice needed. It said that the COP ‘deeply regretted the situation’ which affected ‘not only the athlete but all Peruvians.’

According to Reuters PASO have said that as of last Friday, 1,154 anti-doping tests had been processed out of a total of roughly 1,500 conducted, a rate that has reportedly been called ‘similar to what is done at an Olympic Games’, and that the results were not considered alarming. The news agency reported that PASO Vice President Ivar Sisniega had told a news conference that the positive results were considered a ‘normal range’ but that PASO was still ‘very concerned’ about the positive results, which it was ‘taking very seriously’. Eduardo de Rose, the President of PASO’s medical commission, told local media that ‘every major sporting event had a number of anti-doping violations’, but that it was ‘surprising to see this many cases so early in the Games.’

According to the PASO Anti-Doping Rules, an anti-doping rule violation occurring during the PASO Games can lead to disqualification, as is the case for the four athletes whose positive tests have been confirmed, but that responsibility for any sanctions beyond the Games itself shall be ‘referred to the applicable International Federation.’