The IOC's Exec Board, meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland,
"proposed creating an independent agency" to test athletes
for drugs in and out of competition worldwide, according to
Lloyd & Allen of USA TODAY. Currently, the IOC only runs
Olympics testing, while the international governing bodies
of each sport handle other testing. IOC President Juan
Antonio Samaranch said the agency would be funded from
Olympic TV revenue. In a side-bar, Lloyd & Allen write that
the idea "is innovative and logical," but "that doesn't
necessarily guarantee its success." In order to form the
independent agency, the IOC must "convince" the individual
governing bodies "to give up their control and to
standardize their penalties and prove that an agency run by
one of its officials can be independent" (USA TODAY, 8/21).
IOC VP Dick Pound said the IOC currently invests about $20M
in drug-testing efforts and another $2M in research, but
said, "if we get some kind of agency that is acceptable to
everybody ... we could probably double or triple the amount
of money in the system" (Amy Shipley, WASH. POST, 8/21).
