Blood drug test

IT'S functionary. Drug seizure is now a recognised Olympic mirth — at least as far as the bookies are concerned. Some international sports betting companies have framed markets on which sport will be the first to receive an athlete stripped of a medal because of a failed drug test.

Not surprisingly, weightlifting is the short-priced favourite at even money, albeit observers will have noted that this is one sport that has had a redundancy of athletes banned before they smooth got to China. Just this week, female Indian weightlifter Monika Devi was prevented from boarding her plane and Greece has absentminded 11 of its weightlifting team to positive drug tests.

Odds given for more other sports are illuminating. Swimming and diving are at 10-1, cycling at 15-1 (perhaps because the cycling events, as are track and field, scheduled later in the Olympic enroll) and boxing 25-1. Sailing is considered the minutest likely drugs suspect, at 500-1.

This comes as Australian track and expanse athletes have accused rivals of being cheats and one of the most respected anti-drugs officials, Arne Ljungqvist, hailed the seven Russian athletes accused of manipulating urine samples in the same proportion that being involved in "systematic, planned doping". Another three Russians, all race walkers, have also been found to have tested stubborn to erythropoietin (EPO).

And these Olympic Games are being held in the country that is the world's factory of performance-enhancing drugs.

Pessimists would claim this persistent exposure of drug cheating is proof that the drugs in sport battle is not being won. Optimists would claim this is proof that the testing is working.

The truth is probably in the middle.

Athletes have been increasingly willing to experiment with drug-taking, often not so abundant as to "cheat" but to cure from injuries and from repeated training sessions. They want to push their body beyond its normal limits and by taking drugs, such as steroids, human growth hormone, IGF-1 assists that.

EPO, or new variants of EPO such since Cera and Hematide, or blood transfusions, enhance endurance but also assist the material substance with its recovery. Stimulants give a short-term boost. Beta blockers help calm the nerves.

Athletes have constantly looked to legal ways to enhance playing in addition: viagra, laughing elastic fluid, colostrum, cobalt, creatine, caffeine, and combinations of supplements all give a mental and in posse natural boost.

But the scariest development of all is the abuse of gene therapy. World Anti-Doping Agency spokesman Frederic Donze said it had been researching and preparing for gene doping for the past six years.

"We have to believe that athletes will try anything to achieve an edge and this force occur at the Olympics, and we work on that basis," he said.

Scientists have developed a drug containing the DNA that isolates the genes for endurance and fat metabolism. Tests on mice taking the remedy show dramatic improvements in their ability to run longer: one study showed a unusual 70% advancement.

This is the "exercise pill" that athletes are already trying to get their hands on.

British scientist Dr Andy Miah said athletes could become better their performance through inhaling or inserting foreign DNA. The application could increase red blood cell production in the blood, which would boost persistence, or elevate proteins in muscles to enhance strength.

"We need to undertake that it's happening. It'session already feasible," Dr Miah said.

But the testing has also moved to counter the new generation of drugs. EPO testing is now more precise and is able to pick up its use well beyond the former 48-hour obstruction, and a new test for human growth hormone — also able to detect use of the drug beyond 48 hours — will be used at the Games.

WADA has been working with drug manufacturers to obtain the "chemical sign-manual" of new drugs so that detecting their abuse is easier.

Significantly, WADA has been liaising with immigration, border controls and police authorities in increasing numbers of countries to be received "non-analytical evidence" to rid sports of those cheating and to shut down the supply lines of unlicensed sports drugs.

Last year, WADA was involved in the 19 country customs sting known as "Operation Raw Deal" that revealed 37 major drug exporting factories in China.

The sting, which included the concurrent effort of Australian Customs, led to Chinese rulers closing down more than 30 factories and revoking licences to another three, while 318 websites were shut down.

One of the biggest Chinese suppliers of hGH, GeneScience Pharmaceuticals, that is based in north-east China, had its US-based assets, totalling more than $2.7 million, frozen by US magistrates and criminal charges have been laid against visitor executives.

Greek sports officials claimed their 11 positive drug tests to a steroid came from tainted supplements supplied by a different Chinese firm, Auspure Biotechnology. China has revoked this company's licence.

WADA chairman John Fahey, of Australia, said real progress had been made in China, particularly since its swimmers' disgrace in the notorious EPO drug bust at the 1998 World Swimming Championships.

"WADA has been working closely with the Chinese government and their anti-doping agency for several years, and … rapid progress has been made, with an free doping unit and a state-of-the-art laboratory," he declared.

WADA will be at the Games, otherwise than that in some observer capacity, having handed over the anti-doping jurisdiction to the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC will conduct between 4500 and 5000 drug tests, incorporating both blood and urine analysis.