‘Gene doping’ report stuns experts ahead of Olympics

The documentary shows the reporter posing as an American swimming coach and meeting with the doctor, who was not named. The fictitious coach says he is seeking stem-cell treatment for one of his swimmers. “Yes. We have no experience with athletes here, but the treatment is safe and we can help you,” the doctor replies.

“It strengthens lung function and stem cells go into the bloodstream and reach the organs. It takes two weeks. I recommend four intravenous injections … 40 million stem cells or double that, the more the better. We also use human growth hormones, but you have to be careful because they are on the doping list.”

The hospital has not been named in the report. The documentary also shows how pharmaceutical companies in China were ready to sell steroids and the blood booster EPO.

Though the programme did not offer any evidence that the hospital had actually provided gene doping to other athletes, anti-doping officials were appalled that the treatment was so readily available. “I could not have imagined it in such a provable form,” Mario Thevis, chief of the German centre of preventive doping research in Cologne.

Another Cologne-based expert on gene doping, Patrick Diel, said he was stunned to see it. “It goes beyond my worst expectations,” Diel said.