30 key minutes for athletes
Members of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee’s anti-doping unit run through a mock presentation of what Olympic athletes will go through in February when they get tested for drugs.
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Updated: November 24, 2009 2:15 PM
A little bit of blood and urine — and a whole lot of questions.
That’s what athletes competing in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver can expect if they get called upon to be tested for performance-enhancing drugs.
Members of the Vancouver Organizing Committee’s (VANOC) anti-doping program were in Kamloops on Nov. 20 to Nov. 23 as part of an international training workshop.
A total of 186 volunteers, or doping-control agents, descended on the Tournament Capital to get training in the latest anti-doping technological breakthroughs and to finetune procedures ahead of the games in February — volunteers like Emmanuel Iheme.
By day, Iheme is a police officer from Ontario, but he got involved with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES) 12 years ago as a way to give back to the community and country.
The CCES administers Canada’s domestic anti-doping program and works to ensure fairness in sport.
Iheme’s role in February is a staging manager for ice hockey events at GM Place.
His responsibility is to make sure the anti-doping program runs smoothly and the players’ rights are respected.
“I expect we will have the best anti-doping program for the games, ever,” he said.
If that turns out to be the case, Kamloops can say it played a small role in making it happen.
The workshop is key to the Olympic organizers’ anti-doping strategy.
It’s expected as many as 2,000 athletes will be tested throughout the Games and another 425 during the Paralympic Games, though not everyone is tested.
Jeremy Luke, director of anti-doping for VANOC, said Kamloops was chosen for the workshop because it seemed like a good location to bring volunteers who would usually be in Vancouver.
He said the workshop will give each agent training so they know the procedures and can carry them out the same way every single time.
The entire procedure for drug testing takes about a half hour per athlete.
The announcement to hold the workshop was made last May and is considered an Olympic spinoff for the city.
