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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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Nagano doping lab 'better' than Lillehammer
The doping control laboratory which gained fame for nailing 11 Chinese athletes at the Hiroshima Asian Games four years ago is back in action for the Nagano Winter Olympics.
And this time, it has a brand-new weapon never before used at any Olympic Games, summer or winter -- a carbon isotope ratio machine which can trace hard-to-detect steroids using a completely new method.
The Centennial Summer Games of Atlanta in 1996 saw the introduction of a high resolution mass spectrometer, an expensive machine which measures the concentrations of muscle-building substances in a urine sample.
Steroid use dating back as far as three months can be detected, and two of those machines are in place at the Nagano lab, which was open to journalists for inspection Wednesday.
But the latest device -- the gas chromatograph combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometer -- takes a radically new approach by looking at the molecular structure of a substance, such as the male hormone testosterone, and determining whether it came from inside the body or from outside.
According to lab director Makoto Ueki, steroids which occur naturally in the body derive from eating meats such as beef or chicken.
Artificial steroids, however, are produced using protein-containing vegetables such as soybeans. The chemical makeup between these two steroid types is different, and Ueki said any unusual ratios between these two can serve as evidence for doping.
Does this mean a clean athlete who is a vegetarian may produce a positive test because the steroids found in his body are made solely from vegetables?
''No, there is no problem if a vegetarian eats many different things, not just soybeans alone,'' Ueki told Kyodo News. ''I don't believe there are any athletes who only eat soybeans.''
Lab officials warn, however, that the isotope ratio device will not be used alone in sniffing out drug cheats. And unfortunately, it cannot test for human growth hormone or erythropoietin -- two banned performance enhancers said to be used by athletes ranging from swimmers to cross country skiers.
''The machine is more than a experiment, but its use is being controlled,'' said Don Catlin, a member of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission. ''The data will be managed.''
According to Catlin, between 500 and 600 urine samples will be tested during the 16-day winter games which begin Saturday. Among those samples, only those which reveal an unusually high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone will be examined by the isotope ratio machine.
Security for the laboratory, located near the IOC hotel headquarters in Nagano, will be guaranteed by a single entrance which uses an electronic fingerprint checking system and by guards patrolling the place around the clock.
Many of the machines and personnel were brought from the IOC-accredited doping lab in Tokyo, the same one which inspected urine samples at the 1991 world athletics championships in Tokyo and the 1995 World University Games in Fukuoka.
Perhaps the lab's biggest accomplishment was detecting the muscle-building hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT) among seven Chinese swimmers, including three world champions, and four more in athletics, cycling and canoeing at the Hiroshima Asian Games.
All 11 athletes were slapped with bans and had their medals taken away.
''It was the first reported case of DHT. At the time, I spent 19 straight days inside the lab,'' said a smiling Ueki, head of the Tokyo lab. ''Looks like it will be the same in Nagano.''
''We will be testing about the same number of urine samples as Lillehammer, but the quality of the testing will be better in Nagano,'' he added in English.
A total five positive tests have been reported by the IOC in the winter Olympics so far. The last positive case took place at the 1988 Calgary Games, where an ice hockey player was caught for testosterone use.
Asked whether he is confident of catching all steroid cheats at the Nagano Games, Ueki responded with one word -- ''Yes.''
(Kyodo News)
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun