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What’s It Like to Be Drug-Tested? We Asked Three Olympic Runners.
It will never feel normal, athletes said, to have a stranger knock on your door and ask for a vial of your blood. Or some urine.
Late-night visitors armed with syringes and vials. Apps that track your location. Phone calls from mysterious numbers.
Ever wonder what drug testing entails for Olympic track and field athletes? Consider the experiences of three runners — Ciara Mageean of Ireland, Emily Mackay of the United States and Olli Hoare of Australia — who are among those who have grown accustomed to one of the kookier parts of their shared profession.
“Nobody,” Mageean said, “will have poured urine into bottles on your own kitchen table as much as athletes.”
Ciara Mageean, Ireland
At this stage of her career, Mageean is intimately familiar with the various drug-testing protocols and the many minor inconveniences that they create.
For example, athletes must provide their “whereabouts” via a smartphone app to authorities like the World Anti-Doping Agency or, for Americans, the United States Anti-Doping Agency so that they can be tested without advance notice in an out-of-competition setting. That includes a one-hour window each day in which they must provide their exact locations in case a stranger needs to turn up to draw blood or (more uncomfortably) stand there while they urinate into a container.
