Drug testing at national high school meets

well, it caught out Marion Jones all those years ago...

So what's the discussion? Are you asking if we think high schoolers should be tested? I'm all for ridding the sport of drugs but testing all high schoolers at every meet. I don't think so. But perhaps if school records are at stake then maybe. It is high school you know. Let's not get carried away here.

I'm talking about the big national high school meets like footlocker cross country and Nike Outdoor Nationals. I'm certain most runners are clean but I would bet some are not.

How much does drug testing cost?

What about college coaches? Can they request a drug test before offering money?

I could be mistaken but for one thing I think one would need parental consent and I don't think all parents would agree to that.

I think parents should WANT it to make sure everyone else is clean. If everyone knows going in that there will be a drug test I don't see the problem.

I think what Locknload means is that if an athlete is being administered drugs by their parent or any other reasons (be it religious preference, etc.) then of course the parent will refuse consent. This refusal of consent could cause a cloud of suspicion about the athlete and whether their performances were tainted or not. Of course this would be avoided by disclaimers clearly saying that an athlete must submit to a drug test prior or post to placing in such event.

Assuming that there was drug testing at major national hs meets, you would need to go through the IAAF and USADA rules of TUE's. Not a great process or one that is done quickly...particularly for HS athletes, coaches, and parents who have no clue that their asthma inhaler or ADHD medicine needs to be cleared. Many of the top athletes performing at these meets are coming from obscure places where it's dubious that they would even be aware of it.

Personally, I think the cost outweighs the benefit. In a perfect world, I'd love the idea of it. Maybe I'm naive, but I've been around plenty of national hs meets the last ten years with athletes I coach and about the worst thing I've heard of is the Brad Prins debacle at Rockford several years ago. Very minor in the world of doping scandals.

The tests for EPO and the designer drugs is expensive (I think something like $400+ a pop). Who would pay for this?

Wouldn't the high schooler be caught eventually? Or would they just keep using drugs all through college too? Or are you suggesting that they take these drugs to just get in to college?

Those meets are not part of the HS season. If they are USATF sanctioned they should be tested, in accordance with USATF policy. I don't think parents have any legal right to prevent a test in a meet that is not NFHS sanctioned. If a kid does not want to be tested don't go to the meet.

LMFAO ain't no f***ing high school runners on EPO

More HS throwers than you might think use steroids (not the expensive designer stuff). I have seen more than a few great HS throwers completely disappear when they went on to college and my guess is that the NCAA's drug testing program might have something to do with it. On top of that, remember what WaPo found out a few weeks back when they had supplements tested. I'd bet there are HS kids who think they're being honest by shopping at their local GNC but might fail a drug test. For example, there was a Ohio girls' discus champ a few years back who was quite open about using a legal supplement called "Russian Bear", but I'll bet there was something in it she wasn't counting on.

beep2me wrote:

Those meets are not part of the HS season. If they are USATF sanctioned they should be tested, in accordance with USATF policy. I don't think parents have any legal right to prevent a test in a meet that is not NFHS sanctioned. If a kid does not want to be tested don't go to the meet.

If it is a USATF meet, the competitors are subject to doping control.

Juniors are tested regularly in sports like cycling (when a spot on a Worlds team is at stake) or in gymnastics or figure skating. Some of these athletes are even in the out of competition pool since the athletes tend to be pretty young.

A parent could refuse to have his/her kid tested, but then that could be counted as a positive (refusing a test) and sanctions could be applied.

The cost of testing the samples is one thing; the real cost lies in adjudicating the cases. Paying the lawyers to defend the sanction is the expensive part.

I would be interested to see USADA's budget to look at the costs of the testing (including the staffing) and the legal affairs budget.

What program does the NCAA have? Is it just for the championships?

I think big high school national meets should at least test for the easy stuff, whatever those things are.