Tight net for Olympic drug cheats in Vancouver
20.01.10
LONDON -- Whether it's fractious-country skiers using blood-boosting drugs to figure endurance or hockey players taking steroids to recover from injuries, any athletes planning to con man at the Vancouver Olympics will have to beat the most stringent anti-doping net in Winter Games depiction.
Olympic officials plan to conduct 2,000 urine and blood tests -- an extend of 800 from the number of checks at the 2006 Turin Games -- and seek the hand of suspected cheaters wherever they are. Samples also will be saved for eight years for possible retroactive testing.
Starting with the toe of the athletes' villages on Feb. 4, competitors can be subjected to surprise, out-of-striving tests at any time and any place, including training sites publicly.
Olympic officials will act on tip-offs from informants to target suspected cheaters and join forces with Canadian law-enforcement authorities to break up any doping networks.
"We keep on to apply a very strict zero-tolerance policy," International Olympic Board president Jacques Rogge told The Associated Press. "The total of tests has really augmented a lot. I think we're ready."
Source: ESPN