Athlete’s Representative Shines Light on Out of Competition Testing

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 8. LAST week, Swimming World began a series of conversations with USA Swimming athlete's representative Trent Staley. With the continual news coming out about positive tests, we felt that it would be informative to understand the testing process from that athlete's viewpoint.

Last week, we started with a look into the actual sample acquisition process that takes place during competitions.

This week, Staley talks about how out of competition tests go down.

The next two chats will be about what happens to the samples after they are acquired up until a positive or negative is produced. Then, we will close out the series about what happens when a sample comes up positive.

[Jason Marsteller, Swimming World] What is the selection process for out of competition tests?

[Trent Staley] Hello again, Jason. Well, the out of competition testing isn't much different than the in competition as far as logistics go. Same way you select materials and show identification. The big difference is in how you are selected. For the in competition testing, it is based on swimmers' finishes. For the out of competition testing, it is based upon world rankings.

I believe swimmers in the top 100 in their event are eligible for testing, and as the swimmer moves up the rankings, they will in theory be tested more often. Most often, the tester will arrive unannounced during swim practice, though I recall being woken up bright and early one Sunday morning and being asked to provide a sample. So, really it can happen any time.

[Jason Marsteller, Swimming World] Can you explain the process by which swimmers have to keep the testers informed of where they are – including the 3 strikes (misses) and you are out policy?

[Trent Staley] Sure. Every three months every swimmer who is on the testing list must login to a secure website and update all their information – most importantly their location forms.

These forms tell testers where you will be every day of the next three months, 24 hours a day. If you decide to change plans and do something like go skiing for the day or anything like that, you have to go back in and update your forms to show the deviation from the original plan.

Not to say that testers won't try to track the athlete down, but it is the responsibility of the swimmer to be where they say they will be.

If the tester cannot find the athlete after calling them, their back-up contacts and waiting it out then the swimmer will be given a missed test. If a swimmer has three missed tests in an 18-month period (that means 18 months from the first to the third) then it will be counted as a positive test for the athlete.

This way, testers ensure that athletes are not dodging tests so as not to be caught using illegal substances.

[Jason Marsteller, Swimming World] How soon does someone need to file a deviation? Let's say someone has an unexpected emergency like a funeral to attend, but they happened to be up for testing that weekend. Can they make a change that day, and still not receive a miss?

[Trent Staley] As long as the change is filed prior to the tester coming, the athlete would be good. I know from experience that a friend updated his file on a Friday night, but then was not where he was previously expected to be on Saturday morning.

We all thought he would have a missed test, but then when the file was checked, he had covered himself ahead of time and the particular tester just hadn't gotten the update.

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