The next Olympic drug crisis could be coming through the mail

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The next Olympic doping scandal could be delivered straight to your door.

A host of so-called research chemicals known as peptides, many of which are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and some not approved for human use in the United States, are available at the click of a button from online retailers. One seller is Amazon. Another is Alibaba, sponsor of the International Olympic Committee.

The drugs’ ease of access combined with their difficult-to-detect nature is precisely the toxic combination that doping regulators and Olympic officials are trying to avoid. Two months before the Milan Cortina Games, they hope to put an end to a series of scandals involving the Russians and the Chinese which have disrupted the Games, summer and winter, since 2014.

Although online pharmaceuticals and supplements have been touted as a risk by anti-doping authorities for years, the influx of certain hard-to-detect peptides — chains of protein amino acids marketed to help with everything from anti-aging and post-workout recovery to weight and memory loss — presents a tougher challenge.

“These substances have proliferated,” said Oliver Catlin, president of the Anti-Doping Science Institute, whose late father, Don, was a godfather of anti-doping research.

Most of these peptides are “research chemicals” that are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are also prohibited by the WADA code, either in its “S2” category which encompasses peptides, or in its “SO” classification, a catch-all category for “unapproved substances.”

The few substances specifically listed in the “S0” category – such as the popular BPC 157 – are placed there because the pharmacological composition of the substances does not fit neatly into another category on the banned substances list.

A tricky aspect of the “S0” category is that it includes unapproved substances that are not specifically listed because, for example, there is no way to test this drug and regulators do not want to reveal it to users.

Catlin’s research revealed hundreds of banned or illegal peptides available in the online marketplace and an ever-changing menu of articles, some of which were removed after The Associated Press began asking questions.

“It’s not like it happened overnight,” he said. “Mainstream use of peptides has exploded over the past five years.”

Dan Burke, a former FDA official who now heads intelligence and investigations at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said new age peptides are difficult to identify online because the U.S. law banning their sale dates from 1938 “and it just doesn’t work and still doesn’t work today.”

“The bad guys know this, and that’s why these things proliferate,” Burke said.

Although some peptides – insulin and the new weight loss dynamo GLP-1 are among the best examples – are proven, perfectly legal (with prescription), and effective, other substances in the category are not legally marketable, either as supplements or prescription or over-the-counter medications.

A number of them, including BPC-157, can be found on several online sites, including Amazon and Alibaba. The latter is a major sponsor of the IOC “committed to helping the IOC transform the Olympic Games for the digital age”.

Asked by AP about the link, an IOC spokesperson said Alibaba “confirmed to us that it constantly monitors its markets and does not have any substances banned for sale on the WADA 2025 list.” Contacted by the AP, an Alibaba.com representative asked for links to “problematic” drugs sold on its marketplace and, after the AP sent two, said they had removed the items.

The company said it prohibits all banned substances in accordance with the WADA Banned Substances List.

“Although some of these substances are not legally restricted in ordinary consumption contexts, we have proactively adopted stricter standards to define operational limits and our compliance efforts go beyond passive adherence and minimum legal requirements,” the company said in a statement.

Amazon told AP that it requires all products offered on its marketplace to comply with applicable laws and regulations and that it is in the process of removing products that violate its policies. Within days of being contacted by AP, the website removed some of the medications AP requested, but a number of listings remained and new ones appeared.

The current peptide boom comes about 25 years after the late Victor Conte became a household name in the sports world by developing and selling “the clear” and “the cream.”

These were the names of the so-called synthetic steroids that led to the infamous scandal that emerged from Conte’s Bay Area Lab Co-operative (BALCO) and engulfed baseball and athletics.

Like some peptides, synthetic steroids were impossible to detect at the time, but they were not easy to obtain. It took years to discover their existence, let alone analyze their effectiveness or sanction the athletes who used them.

25 years later, this new model of performance enhancers is, in some cases, just as difficult to detect but as easy to purchase as clicking a few buttons on a computer.

WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald said the availability of PEDs on websites was not within its purview, but that WADA began working with national anti-doping and law enforcement agencies two years ago to combat the illegal manufacture, sale and supply of performance enhancers of all kinds.

“The illegal manufacturing and trafficking of PEDs is not just a problem for sport: it is a societal problem that requires a multi-faceted approach,” he said.

It may take years to discover whether the proliferation of these drugs could be the trigger for the next Olympic scandal.

Like some blood-boosting drugs they claim to mimic, most peptides disappear quickly from the blood, making them difficult to detect. The IOC retains blood samples for up to 10 years to account for possible improvements in detection long after the event has ended.

USADA and other anti-doping organizations have spent years warning athletes about the potential legal and eligibility risks of using unapproved substances — whether through prescription drugs or unapproved supplements — while explaining the health risks for elite athletes and others looking to gain a little edge in the gym.

“From a consumer and buyer perspective, beware: Any time you consume or inject something without knowing what you’re taking, there is a risk of adverse health effects, and that’s concerning,” said Matt Fedoruk, USADA’s chief science officer.

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AP Winter Games: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics