The list includes Fabrizio Donato, the 2012 European triple jump champion and Olympic bronze medallist from the London Games.
At a hastily arranged press conference Donato said: “I am really sad and disheartened, I never imagined something like this could happen. I have been accused of avoiding controls, I want to laugh. It is ten/12 years that every day of my life is spent between my house, the track and my house again. So I don’t understand how I can possibly avoid checks.”
Also among the list of athletes was Andrew Howe, who won the European long jump title in 2006 and a world silver medal the following year.
The 26 now face trials at the Italian Olympic Committee’s anti-doping court in a bid to clear their name.
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