Special Olympics to implement drug testing

A proud Special Olympian celebrates his victory before submitting to now-mandatory drug testing.

"We are committed to taking a firm anti-doping line," said Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder and honorary chairman of the Special Olympics, which now serves 300,000 developmentally disabled athletes. Shriver went on to explain that the IAAA will provide consulting to the Special Olympics to help officials spot "dopers" and advise on the most effective testing procedures.

"All winners will be automatically tested," said IAAA director Theodore Vance, reaffirming his association's commitment to its "common sense' approach to testing. "I know, I know, 'They're all winners.' But we mean the actual, technical winners of each event."

Vance also indicated that pre-event screenings will become commonplace at the Special Olymics.

"If a Special Olympian is on the starting block, ready to swim or run, and says he or she 'has to go potty,' he or she will be immediately tested," said Vance. "Water retention is a typical side-effect of Triamateren use, which is a diuretic that can mask the use of steroids."

Early urine sample screenings have so far proved "clean," although IAAA authorities attribute the unanimously negative results to doped athletes withdrawing from events in order to avoid detection. "Clean" athletes have willingly submitted to testing with only one altercation, in which sprinter Billy Robertson refused to submit after loudly explaining how he was once spanked after urinating into a soda cup.

July 2002