Mark Stuart
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2006

Given the spread of Olympic venues across the mountains surrounding Turin, three separate Olympic Athlete Villages were purpose built. One Village was in central Turin and two near the mountain venues: Sestriere and Bardoneccia. Each Village had a separate Polyclinic which provided athletes with the full range of medical services including a new purpose built pharmacy on each site.

Each of the three pharmacies was open from 8am until 10pm daily with emergency overnight services. The facilities were staffed by two pharmacists at any one time, who were assigned one week periods to manage the operation of each pharmacy. Pharmacies were restocked on a daily basis, with the distribution point of all drugs being the regional Italian government pharmaceutical authority that serves the Turin region.

Mark Stuart
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2006

Implementation of the doping control program began as a challenge for the Organisers of the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin. Normally, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) disqualifies and expels athletes for doping at the Olympics, but does not issue or support criminal penalties. However, under Italy’s strict anti-doping law, athletes can face criminal sanctions for drug offences.

Drug testing at national and international sporting events in Italy is usually conducted by the Italian Health Ministry. In the months before the Games, the ministry undersecretary threatened to send police to conduct drug tests on Olympic athletes during the Games, to ensure that Italian law was being complied with and that criminal sanctions were issued when a doping offence was found. After ongoing discussions with the IOC, the Italian Health Ministry eventually backed down from its demand to conduct tests during the Games and put the IOC in charge of all testing. However, no change was made to the law imposing criminal sanctions, which the Ministry stated is aimed at protecting the health of athletes.