Half of Irish athletes can expect to be tested

OLYMPIC GAMES:AT LEAST half of the Irish Olympic team of 65 athletes will be drug tested between now and the end of the Olympic Games, if the London 2012 Organising Committee are true to their word on the "biggest anti-doping operation in history of Games".

The committee has promised to test every medallist, and up to 50 per cent of all competing athletes.

The announcement comes on the day the athletes on the Irish team are technically handed over to the International Olympic Committee. From now until the end of the Games, all athletes come under the auspices of the IOC and are subject to their regulations and their testing regime.

The significance of the hand-over is the Irish team is no longer considered to be out of competition but in competition.

Out-of-competition testing is generally more limited because, during training periods before tournaments, testing laboratories look for different banned substances to those that athletes may use prior to or during competition.

For example, it would be unlikely testers would look for stimulants if athletes are engaged in heavy mid-winter training and are not competing.

“The more tests that are carried out the better, not only from an Irish Sports Council’s point of view but also it shows the testing procedures are comprehensive and that the athletes know well in advance,” said an Irish Sports Council spokesman.

“They should be aware as they have been told time after time that this is going to take place. Athletes should know there is a significant investment of time and resources put into testing and that this is a good thing for sport.”

Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to launch a multimillion-pound advertisement campaign featuring a string of UK athletes, including sprinter Marlon Devonish. They and the London organisers claim it will be the biggest anti-doping operation in the history of the Olympic Games, with the TV campaign launch running on ITV1 during Coronation Street, which regularly attracts over eight million viewers. The slogan will be: “The crowd is my only drug”.

GSK are the first private company to have responsibility for running drug testing at the Olympics, which has traditionally done by the IOC in conjunction with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

No Irish athlete has tested positive for a banned substance at the Olympic Games, although two horses have been disqualified: Cian O’Connor’s Waterford Crystal, which resulted in O’Connor handing back his gold medal in Athens, and Lantinus, Denis Lynch’s horse, which was found to be hypersensitive in its legs and was disqualified during the competition in Beijing.

Michelle Smith de Bruin’s drug- related offence occurred after the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 and she retained her three gold and one bronze medal.

A team of 150 scientists will take more than 6,000 samples between now and the end of the Paralympic Games on September 9th, with the anti-doping laboratory, the London organising committee and King’s College London staying in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

More than 1,000 people will staff the lab in Harlow, Essex, with up to 400 samples tested each day for more than 240 prohibited substances.

While Irish athletes have become used to a comprehensive testing policy in Ireland, where up to 1,000 tests are carried out each year, other countries do not have sophisticated educational and testing deterrents in place. Given the deterrents of publicity and testing levels, it is not anticipated there will be large numbers of positive results from London.

DRUGS ON THE RUN: O'Riordan poses question

If London is promising to be stringent on testing then we can sit back and bask in the heroic feats of human endeavour – or can we? This is the question The Irish Times Athletics Correspondent Ian O'Riordan asks in this evening's documentary on RTÉ1, Faster, Higher, Stronger, an open discussion with athletes about the science and technology used to enhance performance, and whether there can ever be a level playing field.

He asks what exactly is required to go "faster, higher, stronger" and if the line is clear about what's legal and what's not.

Reconnecting with Irish athlete Martin Fagan six months after he tested positive for EPO, the documentary contains a reminder of the damage done, once that line is crossed.

Faster, Higher, Stronger, RTÉ1, this evening, 9.35pm