Athletes asked for daily 1-hour doping test window

By EDDIE PELLS – 13 hours ago
DENVER (AP) — Revised anti-doping guidelines call for athletes to provide authorities with a daily one-hour window during which they must be available for testing or risk being penalized for missing a test. The World Anti-Doping Agency modifies its testing guidelines every few years. The 60-minute window is one of the most significant changes in the 2009 standards. Under current guidelines, athletes fill out forms listing their whereabouts each day and can be tested at any time. Normally, a phone call from an anti-doping worker before the test is all that is needed to set up the test.The new 60-minute window will enhance the no-advance-notice feature of the tests, which is considered the strongest part of the out-of-competition testing model. Athletes still will be subject to testing during any part of the day.Erin Hannan, spokeswoman for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said the revision "ensures harmonized, no-advance-notice testing around the world." "It incorporates into the standards the kind of best practices many of us are already primarily operating under," she said. "Without a phone call notifying them, it's a true no-advance-notice scenario," Hannan said. Four times a year, athletes fill out forms notifying anti-doping agencies of their schedules; they can update them at any time. Under the new rules, they also must designate an hour in each day during which they must be available for testing, without need for a phone call in advance. Normally, any combination of three missed tests and what is known as a "whereabouts failure" — when the athlete isn't where he says he'll be — can constitute a positive doping test. A report issued earlier this year by independent observers said 102 of 205 countries at the Beijing Olympics failed to tell organizers where their athletes were so they could be tested outside of competition. It was one of the most glaring failures of the anti-doping system, according to the report. Hannan said the new rule wasn't necessarily a response to the report. Often, the new rules are being drafted several months before they go into effect. Another big change is a rule that allows for more flexible sanctions — up to four years for first-time cheaters who commit particularly bad offenses, but also more leeway for athletes who get caught on technicalities or use banned substances that aren't meant to enhance performance. The current standard for first-time offenders is a two-year ban no matter the violation.There are also new guidelines on therapeutic-use exemptions, which caused some confusion leading up to Beijing — most notably among those who used asthma medicine. USADA announced Tuesday it now requires athletes in the testing pool to complete an online tutorial, in large part to help prevent inadvertent violations.