Summary of the methodology development and the results obtained following the forensic examination of marks visible on the inside of the plastic caps of BEREG-KIT bottles : status following the examination of 127 questioned bottles and the comparison between them / Christophe Champod. - Ecole des sciences criminelles (ESC). - Lausanne : University of Lausanne, 2017
PFS 17.0056 / Summary of methodology and status report
Report published in Appendix-VII of the IOC Schmid Commission Report
The purpose of the report is (1) to briefly describe the methodology that has been developed by the Ecole des Sciences Criminelles (ESC), in colaboration with the Laboratoire Suisse d'Analyse du Dopage (LAD) to carry out the examination for potential marks inside the plastic cap of closed urine sample bottles from BEREG-KIT and (2) to provide an overview of the results obtained up to th 30th of November 2017 and the investigative considerations that can be derived thereof.
In particular, the results obtained on 127 questioned allowed performing a comparative analysis of the marks observed across bottles. Such an analysis was only feasible after the examination of a reasobly large number of bottles.
The results obtained after the examination of 127 questioned bottles from the Sochi games, delivered between the 1st and the 24th of February 2014 to the Sochi laboratory are the following:
- (i) Among the 127 questioned bottles, 20% of these questioned bottles presented multiple T marks (25 bottles), 14% showed isolated T marks (18 bottles), the remaining 66% showed no T marks (84 bottles);
- (ii) All bottles examined (including the single/double blind samples) were closed between 12 clicks and 15+ (the maximum possible closure) and;
- (iii) Under the assumption that bottles concluded with "multiple T marks" have been tampered with using metallic tools as alleged, for 15 bottles that were amenable to a measure, their estimated initial degree of closure is always of 12 clicks or below, meaning that they were not fully closed.
