Doping Tests to Ramp Up in Swimming In Lead Up to Rio Olympics

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In a partnership announced by FINA, USADA and USA Swimming, the top swimmers in the world will face much more anti-doping scrutiny in the lead up to the 2016 Rio Olympics according to the BBC.

According to the deal created during a Lausanne meeting in January with USADA CEO Travis Tygart, FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu and USA Swimming, the top swimmers in the world can expect up to an additional seven anti-doping tests prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The definition of a top swimmer, according to the as of yet unratified deal, is any swimmer ranked in the top 10 of any of the 34 Olympic events.

“FINA deserves a lot of credit for embracing the voice of clean athletes,” Tygart said. “Partnering with independent national anti-doing organisations to implement a strategic, global pre-Rio testing plan will help protect athletes’ rights and the integrity of the sport of swimming.”

The key in the success of this added testing will be who is responsible for the testing. Many of the world’s top anti-doping agencies will ramp up testing of their own top 10 athletes, while FINA will remain in charge of the additional testing for those anti-doping agencies that refuse to implement the additional cost of these tests.

According to the BBC, the three most suspect anti-doping agencies have not been involved in the discussion as FINA will have to take care of any additional testing in Brazil, China and Russia.

Brazil has had its issues with labs being suspended, while China has faced questions that it covered up a positive test of world-record holder Sun Yang.

Russia, meanwhile, has had a multitude of anti-doping issues nationwide, including its track and field federation currently being suspended from international competition due to doping violations.

“We’re following Russian swimming very closely,” Marculescu said. “They still have two or three (outstanding doping) cases, so we are continuing to put special attention on this federation.”

A major part of the reason this deal was made is that bulk of the USA Swimming National Team all signed on to submit to extra testing voluntarily.

Full BBC article.

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