they test for drugs at the olympics by urine and blood testing.
how do they test for drugs at the olympics?
urine and blood testing
in the late 1990s, the ioc took the initiative in a more organized battle against doping, leading to the formation of the world anti-doping agency (wada) in 1999. the 2000 summer olympics and 2002 winter olympics have shown that the effort to eliminate performance-enhancing drugs from the olympics is not over, as several medalists in weightlifting and cross-country skiing were disqualified due to failing a drug test. during the 2006 winter olympics, only one athlete failed a drug test and had a medal revoked. the ioc-established drug testing regimen (now known as the "olympic standard") has set the worldwide benchmark that other sporting federations attempt to emulate. during the beijing games, 3,667 athletes were tested by the ioc under the auspices of the world anti-doping agency. both urine and blood testing was used in a coordinated effort to detect banned substances and recent blood transfusions. while several athletes were barred from competition by their national olympic committees prior to the games, six athletes failed drug tests while in competition in beijing.
doping at the olympic games
when an employer requests a drug test from an employee, or a physician requests a drug test from a patient, the employee or patient is typically instructed to go to a collection site or their home. the urine sample goes through a specified 'chain of custody' to ensure that it is not tampered with or invalidated through lab or employee error. the patient or employee’s urine is collected at a remote location in a specially designed secure cup, sealed with tamper-resistant tape, and sent to a testing laboratory to be screened for drugs (typically the substance abuse and mental health services administration 5 panel). the first step at the testing site is to split the urine into two aliquots. one aliquot is first screened for drugs using an analyzer that performs immunoassay as the initial screen. to ensure the specimen integrity and detecting possible adulterant, some other parameters such as, urine creatinine, ph, and specific gravity are tested along in this initial test. if the urine screen is positive then another aliquot of the sample is used to confirm the findings by gas chromatography—mass spectrometry (gc-ms) or liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry methodology. if requested by the physician or employer, certain drugs are screened for individually; these are generally drugs part of a chemical class that are, for one of many reasons, considered more abuse-prone or of concern. for instance, oxycodone and diamorphine may be tested, both sedative analgesics. if such a test is not requested specifically, the more general test (in the preceding case, the test for opioids) will detect most of the drugs of a class, but the employer or physician will not have the benefit of the identity of the drug.
drug test