Instructor gears up for Olympic drug testing

By Ken Anderson, Sport Science Department Coordinator

During the Olympics, I’ll be working as a Doping Control Officer. I feel very lucky to be stationed at Canada Hockey Place (GM Place, home of the Vancouver Canucks), which means I will be conducting drug testing for all men’s hockey events including practices leading up to the Games, round robin games as well as both the bronze and gold-medal hockey games.

Due to the specialized nature of this position, the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) contacted the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) who oversees all sport-related drug testing in Canada. I am certified as a Doping Control Officer and regularly perform sport-related testing for the CCES. There are about 70 of us in Canada and there will be another 20 or so working with us from other countries to perform all drug testing leading up to and including both the Olympic and Paralympic games.

All Doping Control Officers are certified and must follow excruciatingly-detailed rules about how athletes are contacted and monitored, and how samples are collected and handled. A single mistake in the chain of custody can invalidate the process when a lab finds an “adverse analytical finding” — in other words, a positive test.

Unfortunately I am not able to discuss process and procedure relating to anti-doping protocols but my role is to acquire and to process both urine and blood samples from the men’s hockey players. These samples will be taken from players immediately following games and practices and sent that same day to the drug-testing laboratory located at the Richmond Olympic Oval with results available the following day.

I feel it is a big and very important role in making sure all the athletes are competing fairly. Many athletes are appreciative when testing occurs, however they do encounter the temporary inconvenience of going through the process of sample collection. The urine and blood sample collection procedure has to go step by step in a very specific order, so no matter how many athletes I test or when I test them, everything is done the exact same way every time.

I think my biggest challenge will be providing instructions to athletes who are not fluent in English, which at the Olympics is very likely. I have no say on who I test - those decisions are made by the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation, who relay that information to the VANOC Anti-Doping Staff. Once the names are given to me, I will notify the athletes after the game or practice and collect the samples at that time.

Despite ice hockey being a high-profile event at the Games, with the level of scrutiny which comes with it, I am excited to have the opportunity to work closely with some of the best hockey players in the world.