A Journey through Olympic Drug Testing Rules: A Practitioner\u27s Guide to Understanding

While many top U.S. Olympic-caliber athletes have been drug tested throughout their careers, few truly understand the drug testing process. The ever-changing rules and regulations, as well as the increase in the number of doping control programs have proven to be confusing and sometimes inconsistent, despite appearing to assist in the fight against doping in sport. Many organizations cannot interpret their own rules, nor do they fully understand the jurisdictional issues that arise with respect to every sample taken, until they are caught in a crisis. This Article attempts to untangle the web of rules and regulations and provide athletes, coaches, and athlete representatives with a working knowledge of: 1) when an athlete is subject to drug testing, 2) which organizations oversee doping control, and 3) the potential problems that arise when more than one organization is involved