Full coverage: 2016 Rio Olympics

30 athletes are in hot water for failing doping tests. The competitors are said to be big names who had their samples re-tested from the 2008 Beijing Games. The IOC says the athletes are now in danger of being banned from this Summer's Rio Olympics as a result of the findings. Dan Williams has further details.

Rio de Janeiro may well be gearing up to welcome the world to the Olympic games but not everyone will be invited to that party.

Up to 31 athletes across six sports from twelve nations could be banned from competing at the games.

It comes after the International Olympic Committee ordered the retesting of 454 selected athlete samples from the 2008 Beijing games, using new scientific methods.

In an interview last year with CCTV News, Dick Pound, the former President of the World Anti-Doping Agency, hinted towards taking such action. 

"I think it is one of the many weapons we have in the WADA arsenal that you might beat us at the time and you might get home with the medal in your luggage. But we have a ten year look back and as our technology gets better and we find out you may have been taking… now we can test for this," said Dick Pound former WADA president.

This is just the latest doping development in recent months.

In November, Russia was banned from athletics competition following a World Anti-Doping Agency report. 

While Kenya was also judged to have breached anti-doping rules and was found non-compliant by WADA.

"The whole cause of clean sport and protecting clean athletes is what WADA is all about so when people cheat and above all if it is institutionalized in any way, whether it’s a sport or whether it’s a country, then it is extremely irritating but there’s no point in just being irritated. We better do something about it," said Craig Reedie WADA president.

The results of 250 retests from the 2012 Olympics in London are expected later this month.

The IOC’s focus is on protecting clean athletes…  something the British former marathon world champion Paula Radcliffe recently addressed.

"First and foremost the job of the international federation is to protect every clean athlete out there whatever level they are at in our sport and make sure they can compete on a fair and level playing field," said Paula Radcliffe former world marathon champion.

The 12 affected national Olympic associations will be informed over the coming days. The names of the athletes will only be revealed after they’ve been told the results and alternate “B-samples” are confirmed positive as well.