The First Olympic Drug Testing Occurred at the 1968 Winter Games

Drug testing at the Olympics began relatively recently in the history of the Games. The first tests were conducted at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. The International Olympic Committee had grown increasingly concerned about the use of performance-enhancing substances, particularly amphetamines and other stimulants. The initial testing was primitive by today standards, focusing mainly on narcotics and stimulants rather than anabolic steroids. The first athlete to be disqualified for doping at an Olympics was Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, who tested positive for excessive alcohol consumption. Since then, drug testing has become far more sophisticated, with thousands of tests conducted at each Olympics and athletes subject to year-round out-of-competition testing.