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Top racers in Clearwater triathlon undergo random drug tests

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Runners approach a water station during the 2008 Ironman triathlon in Clearwater.

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By MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 12, 2009

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TAMPA - Few physical tests are tougher than a half-Ironman – 70.3 consecutive miles of swimming, cycling and running.

But one challenge can stop even the greatest athletes dead in their tracks – a failed drug test.

All the professional athletes participating in Saturday's Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Clearwater know they're subject to random race-day urine and blood tests, especially if they place and win a piece of the $100,000 prize purse.

But this year's event marks the first time all the pros and elite racers also must make themselves available for drug testing 365 days a year.

Tampa-based World Triathlon Corp., or WTC, the for-profit owner of the international Ironman races, announced in September it would require its professional and elite athletes to join an international testing pool for performance-enhancing drugs.

Drug testing has been part of the endurance sport since 1987, nine years after the first 140.6-mile Ironman world championship was held in Kona, Hawaii. But long-distance triathlons have grown in popularity, making it more important that participants are clear of banned substances, from stimulants to high-test, blood-boosting hormones, said Paula Newby-Fraser, Ironman's global program manager.

Since the policy's debut, more than 50 Ironman competitors have been tested around the world, from the United States to the remote Asian island where one group trains.

"The athletes know it's there, wherever they go," Newby-Fraser said.

An eight-time Ironman world champion who was subjected to random drug tests, Newby-Fraser, said the year-round testing will improve the confidence athletes have in the Ironman races. It also will combat image problems experienced by international cycling and track and field organizations.

The Ironman international race circuit has faced allegations in the past about performance-enhancing drugs. Athlete Nina Kraft was stripped of her 2004 Ironman World Champion title after testing positive for erythropoietin, or EPO, a blood-boosting hormone. She admitted using the drug and was banned from competition for two years.

The Ironman policy piggy-backs on existing codes instituted by the World Anti-Doping Agency, a respected international organization that works with dozens of amateur and pro sports. Many Olympic-caliber athletes and professional short-distance triathletes already participate in this testing pool, including Andy Potts, the 2007 Ironman world champion and member of the 2004 Olympic triathlon team.

The pool requires athletes to declare their whereabouts every day, and to be available for at least one hour for possible testing.

Potts said the Ironman policy will now include endurance triathlon specialists who slip between the regulations of organizations such as the USA Triathlon and International Triathlon Union.

"This is nothing but a good thing. The WTC is realizing the reality of drugs in the sport of triathlon. It should clean it up," Potts said. "You may see some people drop off the radar. But you will see a cleaner sport."

Potts, who also won the 2009 St. Anthony's Triathlon in St. Petersburg, averages about 25 random tests a year. He's passed them all. The most recent came just last week, with a knock on the door of his Colorado Springs home at 7:42 a.m.

He offered the now-familiar visitors coffee, knowing they would be within his sight until he was able to give them adequate samples of urine and blood.

"You get nervous, no question," Potts said. "The quality control is good, but it doesn't eliminate the horror stories of, "What if?"… It's a healthy paranoia. "

One reason for gaps in triathlon drug testing is that national Olympic committees and triathlon federations have focused anti-doping efforts on Olympic athletes, not those in Ironman events. Also, the International Triathlon Union and 120 nonprofit governing bodies voted in 2005 against sanctioning events sponsored by the for-profit World Triathlon Corp.

World Triathlon Corp. will hold 65 Ironman and half-Ironman races around the world in 2010.

Newby Fraser said the new policy has standardized the company's procedures and helped improve cost-sharing relationships with some sport agencies, such as the German anti-doping agency and UK Sport.

Potts, a former University of Michigan swimmer and avid sports fan, said he wishes all professional athletes followed the drug bans by which he lives and trains. The National Football League and Major League Baseball, for example, have less stringent anti-doping policies, designed in part by strong player unions.

Baseball imposes a 50-game ban for failing a drug test.

"If you get a 50-game ban, I think that's a small penance," Potts said. "For us, it's for two years and my reputation would be forever tarnished. They live in a different world than I do."

Reporter Mary Shedden can be reached at (813) 259-7365.

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