2010 Winter Olympics: Intense drug testing aims for 'clean' Games

VANCOUVER — Years before the competition for the 2010 Olympic Games began, organizers were working to make sure these would be the "cleanest" Games in history.

"There will be more testing done at these Games than any previous Winter Games," said Mark Adams, chief press officer for the International Olympic Committee. "There will be 2,000 tests for 2,600 athletes." In Beijing, it was 5,000 for 10,500.

While drug testing has been an increasingly urgent issue for organizers, technology often aids the cheaters as much as it assists those trying to catch them.

"Every Games it's an absolute priority," said Adams. "It's a war we're never going to win, but we feel it's a battle worth fighting. The samples are kept for eight years, so we've got eight years for technology to catch up with the cheaters."

Positive drug tests that show an athlete has used a banned, performance-enhancing substance can mar a Games unlike anything else, but Adams said they'd rather deal with the bad press than the bad precedent.

"It's never good," he said of positive drug tests. "But clearly, it would be more than remiss of us not to try and catch them. … The sophistication of what we're able to test for gets better all the time."

In addition to random tests and testing the winners of events, officials are also acting on "intelligence" in deciding whom they will check.

"The drug tests are not completely random," he said. "We do act on information that comes to us."

As of Saturday, 882 athletes had been tested prior to competition. Of those, 634 were urine tests and 248 were blood tests. The number of athletes tested after competition is 629, with 530 of those being urine tests and 99 being blood tests. Halfway through the 2010 Games, no athlete has been caught cheating.

Most of the athletes don't mind the testing, although one Utah athlete had an issue four years ago. Zach Lund, who finished fifth in the skeleton competition two days ago, was prevented from participating in the 2006 Torino Games because he tested positive for finasteride, which was an ingredient in a hair restoration product he was taking. The World Anti-Doping Federation considered it a steroid-masking agent, but now it is no longer on the banned list.