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New anti-doping laws a hassle

Athletes have to keep WADA informed of their whereabouts at all times

So where are you going to be on Aug. 15?

The average person probably couldn’t answer this question with any accuracy. It’s a Sunday, so you could be off somewhere camping or visiting relatives, maybe. If you’re at home, you could be off mountain biking or hanging at the lake. Who really knows?

Our national team athletes, who spend most of their time on the road training and competing, don’t have the luxury of not knowing anymore.

Starting on June 15 they are expected to know exactly where they are going to be at all times, three months in advance, so that the World Anti-Doping Agency can track them down to take random drug and doping tests. If they deviate from their plan in any way they have to inform WADA – in writing no less – of their schedule change, including addresses and phone numbers where they can be reached.

Most teenagers have less supervision these days, but WADA believes the program is necessary to reduce the impact of drugs on amateur sports.

Athletes are already grumbling. In May, alpine skiing star Lasse Kjus of Norway publicly slammed the new laws in an interview with Norway’s largest newspaper, and said he would defy the rules requiring him to keep WADA informed of his whereabouts.

"They can’t demand to know where I am all the time," said Kjus. "For one thing, I don’t like to make long-term plans about where I go.

"I am totally against our freedoms being infringed on like this."

Kjus, 33, has five Olympic medals to his credit, as well as 10 world championship gold medals. In 1999 he finished on the podium in all five alpine world championship events.

Far from being past his prime, Kjus was ranked second overall in the World Cup standings this year when he was sidelined with a knee injury.

Norway’s anti-doping laws went into effect on June 1, and there is no word on whether Kjus decided to comply after all. If he does not, he likely will not be allowed to compete.

For Canadian athletes the new rules go into effect on June 15 through the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES). The WADA rules will go into effect on Aug. 13.

Alpine athletes are already subjected to drug testing by WADA and the CCES. At a typical World Cup contest the top three skiers are automatically tested, as well as two random skiers. Surprise tests are also possible outside of the World Cup circuit, although they are rare.

Whistler’s Britt Janyk, a member of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, says she wasn’t tested at all last year, and only once the year before. She understands the need for the program, but says it will be tough for her and her teammates to comply with WADA’s stringent requirements.

"For most sports, it’s fine. In most sports you don’t travel as much," said Janyk. "Alpine racers, we travel tons.

"This summer I’m home three weeks, back out to Calgary for a week, home a week, then I’m going to Collingwood… then we go to Chile. We’re really all over the place, and the summer months are when we spend most of our time in one place. In winters it will be even more difficult.

"In winter, on the road in Europe, we go form hotel room to hotel room, ski area to ski area."

General information is not good enough, says Janyk, you have to let the testers know where you spend your time in any given day and how they can reach you at a moment’s notice.

"When I’m in Calgary training, I have to say where I’m training all the time, the exact address and phone number. And when I’m in Calgary I’m training in three different gyms, and in between workouts I could be anywhere. When I’m at home I can be anywhere in town, and they need to know exactly where you are at all times."

If an athlete fails to inform WADA and CCES of his or her whereabouts, and the agency can’t reach them to perform a drug test within 24 hours, the athlete gets an automatic warning on their record. If an athlete gets enough warnings then WADA will treat them the same as if they tested positive for a banned substance, and the athlete will be automatically suspended from competing at sanctioned events.

Janyk says it is up to the athlete to comply, although Alpine Canada Alpin will help athletes to keep their information current. Other national athletes and sports organizations aren’t as lucky, and don’t get as much support.

"I understand where they’re coming from, but now we’ve got to do all this extra work in advance – get all the contact numbers and addresses where we’re going to be, going step by step, to get everything exactly how they want it," said Janyk.

Although she appreciates the need to weed doping out of amateur sport, she says she doesn’t know of anybody in alpine skiing who is taking banned substances, and resents the fact that so much work is necessary because of the actions of a few athletes in the past.

After completing a detailed schedule and going through the process of making changes, Janyk says she will be disappointed if she doesn’t get tested.

"It definitely has crossed my mind, is someone going to come and test me this summer or this winter after going through my whole schedule?" asked Janyk. "Is it going to be worth knowing exactly where I am if they’re not going to come and test me?"

Whistler’s Crispin Lipscomb, a member of the Canadian Snowboard Federation’s National Team, said the new rules were a huge inconvenience but he can live with it.

"There’s a lot of grumbles in our sport of snowboarding, which is meant to be one of freedom and freestyle and all that kind of thing, and I think people are having a hard time dealing with it," he said.

"I don’t mind it too much. It’s a huge bother to try and plan out all of my life three months in advance but we have so many plans anyway that it’s not so hard to write it down for them as well.

"It’s more irritating than anything else. When I first heard of it I ran around the house cursing and swearing and called up my fellow athletes to talk about it. The more I think about it the more I figure I might as well just sign the papers and do whatever they want me to because at the end of the day my goals are bigger than any little obstacles they put in my way."