Olympic
athletes face tests for human growth hormone used in performance
enhancement.
Posted
on Mon, Apr. 05, 2004 / By Cathy
The
Dallas Morning News GRAPEVINE, Texas -(KRT) - Doping authorities
served notice Monday that athletes at August's Athens Olympics
will be subject to drug tests for human growth hormone - a substance
prohibited by the International Olympic Committee for which
no test so far has been validated.
Freezing
and storing blood samples will be the key to catching drug cheats
in one of the trickiest areas, the officials said.
Dr.
Larry Bowers, the senior managing director of the U.S. Anti-Doping
Agency, said blood samples would be collected from Olympic athletes
and stored until a valid test could be implemented. The IOC
plans more than 3,000 drug tests during the Aug. 13-29 Olympics.
Bowers
did not confirm that scientists currently have a test that has
passed the required levels of international peer review to implement
by the Games' start.
"We don't intend to make a public announcement that on
this day growth hormone testing will be done," Bowers said.
"This is all about leveling the playing field."
Seventy-eight
scientists and lab directors from 19 nations met for two days
at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center to discuss
abuses of human growth hormone in sports at the third annual
USADA Research Symposium.
Bowers
said that growth hormone, a controlled substance that occurs
naturally in the human body, is prescribed legitimately for
individuals of abnormally small stature in their developmental
years. A benefit is a reduction of fat tissues, said Dr. Olivier
Rabin, the World Anti-Doping Agency's director of science.
Bowers
said anti-doping officials were most concerned about fairness
in sports and athletes' longterm welfare.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Service.
Source
©
2004, The Dallas Morning News.
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