- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Drug cheats have more chance of being caught at the Beijing Games than at any previous Olympics, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president John Fahey said today.
Beijing take government cars off the road for Olympics
The former NSW Premier, who took over from Canadian Dick Pound as the world anti-doping chief in January, says China’s preparations for the August 8-24 Games have been “world-class”.
“Will Beijing be a clean Games? I believe that the preparation has been very sound,” Fahey said in a WADA statement issued today in Montreal.
“There has been an enormous effort made by China. They have the resources, they have a world-class laboratory.
“I have little doubt that they will make a real effort, as they have over recent months in their preparation.
“All of us would hope that the Beijing Olympics are the clean Olympics.
“If the cheats turn up, I am satisfied that they are more likely to be caught at these Olympics than in any other Olympics in its history.”
Fahey says WADA’s role at the Games will be to support the Beijing Organising Committee, the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency.
“WADA will have representatives there. They will be there to give advice, to observe and to assist as and when we are asked,” he said.
“The primary responsibility goes to the International Olympic Committee and to the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency.”
Drug-testers at the Beijing Olympics need to be ready for anything, including the chance an athlete may be wearing a false penis filled with urine.
Manufactured in the United States, the Original Whizzinator is a fake penis which comes complete with drug-free urine and a heater pack to ensure it appears at body temperature.
It is available in a variety of skin tones and is popular in the US where many workers face regular drug tests.
Robert Fazekas was stripped of the discus gold medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics after the Hungarian was alleged to have been caught trying to substitute his own urine with another sample.
Retired British Olympic relay medallist Jason Gardener says drug testers “tend to stand right in front of you when you are peeing”.
“Others insist on your trousers and underwear being around your ankles so that they can see everything,” he told British newspaper the Daily Telegraph this week.
The IOC announced earlier this month 4,500 doping tests would be performed during the Beijing Games up from about 3,600 at the 2004 Athens Olympics.