Where did this number come from??? Please provide details and attribution.
I believe that the tests run between $500 and $800. We have 60,000 members. Do the math.
So the tests are on the honor system? Please pee in a cup and send your sample to a testing lab.
Or does the $500-$800 include doping control and administrative expense. And what about the cost of stationing doping control personnel at all sanctioned swim meets? Is this factored in?
My understanding is that most of the costs associated with a doping program are related to the actual tests themselves. I suspect that USATF and USA Cycling would be willing to share what they have learned with USMS.
Testing everyone who sets a national record would require drug testing in place at every sanctioned or recognized event, since national records can be set at any of these.
What about the person who has to explain to the 90 yr old lady that they need to watch her pee in a cup since she swam so fast.
I don’t think anyone will argue that doping is good for our sport, or any sport. To me the question is how much money and effort should be diverted from our mission to address this endeavor.
When masters swimmers break national or world records, require drug testing in order for those records to count & stand.Testing everyone who sets a national record would require drug testing in place at every sanctioned or recognized event, since national records can be set at any of these. I believe this would be cost prohibitive, at least for most event hosts. I run a small meet and I know there is no way I could pay thousands to handle drug testing and I doubt my participants would want to spend an extra $20-$40 in entry fees to cover this expense.
Does anyone know the particulars of this program?Apparently the answer form this forum is no. But even if someone did, it would be comparing apples to oranges. T&F Masters is under USATF, while USMS is an independent organization. USATF is a USOC member and USADA signatory, USMS is neither. For USMS to have a similar program we would need to disband and be absorbed into USA Swimming.
There has been a suggestion of random testing at Nationals, which on the surface might work. The issues I see are that any competent drug cheats will have flushed their system prior to the event so the only people caught will be those on prescribed medicines and those who don’t know what’s in the supplements they take. The other issue is that there would be huge expenses with setting up a doping control infrastructure; since we are not under WADA/USADA and FINA doesn’t support testing Masters Swimmers we would be on the hook for what could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’d guess WADA/USADA have spent millions of not billions so far.
It seems like the simplest most cost effective solution is to remove the incentive to cheat. If Masters would just stop keeping records and Top 10’s, then the cheaters would have 1 less reason to cheat and everyone who is offended by cheaters taking records away from clean athletes wouldn’t need to worry. WIN – WIN.
Pilot the program at nationals. Testing swimmers who break world records makes sense (since the rest of the world might actually care). Random testing of other swimmers could be an effective deterrent, with the number of tests determined by a prespecified budget.
When masters swimmers break national or world records, require drug testing in order for those records to count & stand.
It's not clear to me how this would work. Consider an admittedly extreme case. Suppose Phil Dodson's 95+ yo mom sets a new national record for the 50 free at YMCA nats. Is someone going hop on a plane to Sarasota and get a urine sample from her? Would someone go to Y nats just in case a national record is broken? Or would USMS (or some other organization) contract with a local lab? What's the maximum time after a swim during which a sample could be collected?
More generally, most LMSCs host quite a few swim meets each year. As long as the meet is sanctioned and the pool measures correctly for record-setting purposes, national records could potentially be set at any of those meets. Based on the relatively small number of records broken each year, it would seem to be a small cost, but covering all the potential meets, just in case, could get expensive.
Finally, if USMS sets up to collect samples at a meet (just in case), and no national records are broken, do we call that a "false positive?" ;)
Is someone going hop on a plane to Sarasota and get a urine sample from her? Would someone go to Y nats just in case a national record is broken? Or would USMS (or some other organization) contract with a local lab? What's the maximum time after a swim during which a sample could be collected?Current doping control protocols call for the doping control officer to maintain contact with the test subject from the time she completes her swim until the time she produces the sample. The DCO's generally try to get the sample within a few minutes after the swim, but it can take longer.
