The Vancouver Eclipse play every Friday from noon to 1 pm at Hillcrest rink.

The Vancouver Eclipse visually impaired hockey team has a new home at Hillcrest Community Centre.

The building that hosted the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic curling competitions now houses Vancouver’s only visually impaired hockey team.

“We like the size of it now,” said Graham Foxcroft, a visually impaired player. “It’s an actual hockey-size rink and it’s very nice.”

The team played at Riley Park rink for 15 years. They moved, along with the centre’s other programs, to Hillcrest when the old rink closed.

Hillcrest rink has an NHL-sized ice surface and the building is mostly concrete construction trimmed with smooth honey coloured wood. Riley Park rink was mostly wood construction and was smaller than regulation-sized ice.

“The echoes are different,” said Gary Steeves, co-founder of and goalie for the Eclipse. “The first week we played [at Hillcrest] it was really weird because when people talked at the other end they had this delayed echo … You just have to get used to the sound.”

Sound is key to visually impaired and blind players. They rely on the noise made by specialized pucks to track the play.

“When a puck comes off a stick, the impact sound of it really gives a lot of information about direction and speed,” said Steeves. “How you react to it, I don’t know. Honestly, it’s instinctual.”

The rules of the game have been modified to accommodate the needs of visually impaired players. For example, goals cannot be scored in the upper half of the net because goalies (all of whom must be visually impaired or blind) cannot hear the puck when it is in the air.

Communication is also crucial to blind hockey. Each team has a few sighted players who keep the game flowing — they control the play and describe what is happening on the ice.

Being part of the team

The Vancouver Eclipse play with a hollow metal puck that contains noise-making ball bearings.

The Eclipse started off the ice in 1995 when Steeves and Rob Commozzi got together and formed the team. Vancouver had nothing like it at the time.

“Sport does a lot of things for a lot of people, but I think it really does more for the visually impaired and other disabilities. It allows them to be part of something that probably a lot of their life they weren’t part of,” said Brian Cowie, a visually impaired player.

“When a little kid can’t see very well, he can’t play on the baseball team, he can’t play on the football team, he can’t play on the soccer team. But this allows them to be part of a team,” said Cowie.

The team currently has eight visually impaired and blind players and about six sighted players. They divide into two teams and play pick-up against each other every Friday.

Last season, the Eclipse played a three game tournament at Défi Sportif, an annual multisport event held in Montreal for athletes with disabilities.

“For the first time ever there were blind hockey players from Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal all playing together on the same team,” said Steeves. “That’s never been done before.”

Eclipse members hope to attend the tournament again this year.

Involving more people

“The constant challenge is always to get new visually impaired guys to come out,” said Patrick Sheridan, a long-time sighted team member. “Especially [for] somebody who’s been visually impaired all their life and who has never played hockey, the idea of coming out on the ice and trying to play a game which is totally foreign [to them], I imagine, is pretty intimidating.”

The Eclipse want more people to get involved in blind hockey through tournaments like Défi Sportif and through the work Courage Canada is doing to develop a national blind hockey league with a standard puck and rules.

“Sports is a really good vehicle for improving people’s self-esteem and giving them confidence. And if they get confidence in whatever sport or activity they’re doing, then they can transfer that out into their normal lives,” said Steeves.

“I enjoy playing and I enjoy the fact that I’m helping the visually impaired guys,” said Sheridan. “Although a lot of these guys can play hockey a whole lot better than me, so I’m not sure who’s helping who!”

“It’s just coming every Friday and playing hockey,” said Foxcoft. “Just get out there and do it. … Don’t be afraid.”

Former Ti-Cat Pat Brady entered graduate business school the year after he retired

Pat Brady snuck out of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ team hotel early on a game day morning in 1987. He caught a cab to UBC, wrote the Graduate Management Admission Test and made it back in time for the afternoon team meeting.

He learned weeks later that he had scored in the 98th percentile on the four-hour exam.

The long-snapper retired after five seasons and earned a MBA from the University of Western Ontario. He now works at a downtown Vancouver investment firm.

Don Taylor retired from the Lions in 1984 after seven seasons. The former running back studied business in England and these days balances a finance career with serving as the president of the B.C. Lions Alumni Association.

He encourages players to begin thinking about life after football as soon as they enter the league.

“Just like you’re prepared to go out and play your opponent this week  you need to be prepared for the next stage of your life – because it will come,” said Taylor. “Those that are prepared, the transition will be a lot smoother. Those that aren’t … it’s going to be a very difficult time.”

Players that successfully transition to a career after football often prepare while still playing by working outside of the sport, continuing their education or networking with alumni.

Those who don’t often lack transferable job skills and struggle without the support network once offered by their teammates and coaches.

The CBC’s The Fifth Estate recounted the addiction and substance abuse issues that led a number of retired players to premature deaths, including former Edmonton Eskimo David Boone who shot himself at his Point Roberts home in 2005.

“We’re a family. Today we all have regrets for not phoning him as often,” said former player Tom Towns to the Edmonton Sun in 2005 of Boone’s suicide.

Post-football struggles

Financial troubles also are common for former professional athletes.

Almost 80 per cent of retired National Football League players were bankrupt or under financial stress within two years of retirement, according to a 2009 Sports Illustrated article.

NFL players earned an average of $2 million per season during the 2010 season, according to published reports.

CFL players typically pocket much less than their American football counterparts.

It is union policy not to release individual player salaries. Dividing the league’s 2011 salary cap of $4.2 million between 46 roster players produces an average salary of just over $91,000.

That figure doesn’t account for the marked salary disparity towards players at higher-profile skill positions such as quarterback, running back and receiver.

The average CFL career lasts 3.2 years, according to figures gathered by the union since the mid-1990s.

Alumni assistance

Taylor leaned forward and pressed his arms atop the boardroom table in his North Vancouver financial office. His voice hardened as he described seeing  former players reaching into their own pockets to help colleagues who fell on hard times. Witnessing those acts of generosity convinced him to make the alumni more active in assisting retired players into post-football careers.

“Building those relationships is important,” he said. “Finding a job is not necessarily about your resume it’s about who you know.”

Team-based and league-wide alumni associations also provide current and former players with networking and mentoring opportunities.

Taylor transformed the annual Lions alumni golf tournament from an occasion where former players swapped stories and ate burgers, into a corporate event rife with opportunities to meet professional contacts.

The Lions-run Waterboys program links the team and business community through its over 120 members, according to the team website.

Education and versatility

Brady knew when he was playing that he had no long-term career in long-snapping. He chuckled at the violence inherent to his former career from his office, as he surveyed the office towers through the window of his 26th-floor Burrard Street office.

“You get smashed with your head between your legs. It’s not fun,” he said. “The smart teams try to injure you.”

Brady pursued careers in sales and real estate while playing, but fell back on his graduate business degree after retirement to carve out a career in venture capital.

He said his father, former Argonaut and Lion offensive lineman Bob Brady, drove him hard to keep up his studies during his university and professional football career.

“There’s a ton of emotion behind pro sports that you don’t get in any other job. You can’t get wrapped up in that and get too isolated and lose the discipline to make sure you keep developing other aspects of your future,” said Brady. “It’s very easy to fall into the trap of just being a football player and nothing else.”

Working while playing

Gerald Roper has co-owned a travel business since 1989. He retired from the CFL in 1992.

Office scuttlebutt replaced the familiar support of locker room banter for Roper.

“It’s all about team,” he said. “You all got to like each other.”

The former CFL all-star paced around the office in jeans, a plain white t-shirt and a green vest. He reminded an employee to rest up that night in lieu of his upcoming 21st birthday party.

His business does $17 million-per-year in sales of travel, accommodations and meeting spaces to labour unions for conventions and conferences.

Roper achieved financial and vocational security by splitting time between work and football: a plan he strongly advises today’s players to follow.

“Get a job working just so you understand what it’s like to get up every morning and pack a lunch. Go to work and do like regular people do because sooner or later … you’re going to be a regular person,” he said.

“Nobody is going to remember anybody who played for anyone, that’s the way it is.”

Stricter eligibility rules have prompted students to leave teams or have made them ineligible. And SFU teams – the only non-U.S. member of the NCAA – have struggled in early season competition.

School officials justify the move out of Canadian varsity sports by arguing it provides better competition, affords cheaper travel and offers more generous scholarships.

Related: American athletic competition a constant in SFU history

SFU teams now compete in NCAA Division II's Great Northwest Athletic Conference

SFU Clan teams are now provisional members of the NCAA Division II Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) and compete against teams from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho.

“To be the best, athletes need to compete against the best, and I believe that by joining the NCAA, Simon Fraser University is putting themselves in a position to do just that,” Jay Triano, an SFU alumnus and coach of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, told the SFU Athletics website.

But competitively, NCAA teams so far have mostly overmatched SFU. The Clan football team, with 59 new players on a 94-man roster, lost all nine of its conference games by an average of 21 points apiece.

Men’s basketball begins its season with 11 new players on the court. It was, according to the team’s website, “the biggest numerical roster change since the program’s inception.”

Similarly the women’s basketball team starts the season with four returning players on a roster of just nine.

“We had a grad class of eight kids and we lost six more . . . some wanted to get another year out of staying in Canada. Most transferred schools,” said Bruce Langford, the women’s basketball coach. “We lost 11 kids. Losing 11 kids is impossible to replace.”

NCAA rules permit most athletes to play four years of varsity sports, as opposed to the five years of eligibility under Canadian Interuniversity Sport rules.  The new regulations meant student athletes entering their fifth year suddenly found themselves without a team.

“Everybody was kind of confused, worried about eligibility, and people were wondering if they were able to play,” said Milos Zivkovic, a former SFU slotback who transferred to the University of Calgary.

New recruits also had to decide whether going to SFU was worth the lost year, or whether to transfer to another Canadian school to play the full five.

Rules and regulations

Compliance with more detailed NCAA regulations has been the biggest difference for students, coaches and administrators, said Scott McLean, SFU’s sports information director.

“It’s so much more regimented in the NCAA . . . you have to make sure all your ‘t’s are crossed and ‘i’s are dotted,” said McLean. “It’s much more reliant on self-reporting in the CIS.”

Boosters – supporters of a particular school, team or player – are also strictly forbidden from participating in the recruiting process. Gifts, off-season job offers and even simple conversations between players and boosters can attract the attention of NCAA compliance officials.

This year the NCAA’s regulations manual for Division II schools and students runs 365 pages.

The sanctions for violating NCAA rules include forfeiture of games, scholarships or post-season play. The SFU athletics website now warns athletes to “ask before you act” to ensure compliance.

Competitive struggles

SFU has struggled to consistently compete with the NCAA’s higher-caliber teams.

The Clan football team finished the season without a conference win, but earned a 27-20 victory over UBC in the exhibition Shrum Bowl rivalry game. The women’s volleyball team also struggled, ending the year with four wins and 18 losses.

SFU hopes to attract high-calibre student-athletes with more lucrative NCAA scholarships

Other teams are either in mid-season or have yet to begin competition.

Expectations were high. SFU enrolls more than double the students of even the biggest GNAC schools.

SFU’s soccer teams, at least, have enjoyed success. The men’s team won its GNAC conference championship and the women finished second.

Full rides
NCAA schools attract better athletes and supply superior competition by offering lucrative athletic scholarships to recruits.

These full-ride scholarships provide tuition and money for books, housing and meals. In contrast, Canadian schools are limited to offering recruits a tuition and fees waiver.

Alexis Bwenge knows first-hand the value of a full ride. The former B.C. Lions fullback attended the NCAA Division I University of Kentucky on a full scholarship.

“I came out of five years of school with not a dollar owed to anyone and if I had gone to school in Canada it might have been different,” said Bwenge. “The scholarship let me be financially independent.”

Tradition

The demands of the regular GNAC season make annual SFU-UBC rivalry games, such as the Shrum Bowl and the Barbara Rae Cup in women’s basketball, increasingly tough to schedule.

Rivalry games between the two Vancouver-area schools survived SFU’s switch to American leagues, but it remains to be seen whether coaches will be willing to risk the extra wear on their players for tradition’s sake.

“I’m not so certain how feasible it is, given our scheduling and playoff formulas, to schedule very many CIS games over the years,” said Langford. “As a matter of fact, I don’t think it’s very likely we’ll be able to do that.”

Simon Fraser University’s recent move to the NCAA reflects the school’s history of offering student-athletes a Canadian education with an American varsity athletics experience.

SFU has competed in American-based athletics since the school's 1965 inception

SFU teams competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics when they began play in 1965. The NAIA is a U.S.-based governing body that rivals the NCAA but is composed of smaller universities and colleges.

The migration of NAIA rivals to the larger NCAA led SFU to apply for membership in 1997. SFU’s bid was unsuccessful.

SFU joined Canadian Interuniversity Sport in 2001 as a new member of the Canada West Conference.

Some SFU teams continued to play a mix of Canadian and NAIA opponents despite being formal members in CIS.

SFU re-applied for NCAA membership in 2007 and became the first Canadian school to join Division II a year later.

The university announced its intention to leave CIS for the NCAA in July 2009, but its final season in Canadian play closed with controversy.

Canada West stripped the football team of two wins for using an ineligible player and the
conference hastened SFU’s departure when it placed the program on probation for the 2009-10 season.

The University of British Columbia followed SFU’s NCAA ambitions, but sought to join the higher-profile Division I. UBC’s Executive deferred a decision to join Division II in April 2009.

NCAA’s Division I is familiar to casual sports fans through high-profile events including the Final Four basketball tournament held every March and the well-publicized annual slate of football bowl games held early in the new year.

Any given Saturday at Burnaby Lake Park, music professor Nikolai Maloff and computer programmer Geoff Dryer can be found engaging in a showdown of aeronautic spectacle. In the skies above, lightweight, mini-engined planes dodge gliders with 13 foot wingspans.

Below the air traffic, fellow flyers unpack hand-painted model airplanes of various sizes from the backseat of their cars.

So long as the rain holds off, flyers congregate at the park every weekend to loop-de-loop through the skies. Yet come late January, the group was told it would be grounded – literally – for nearly three months of valuable practice time.

A typical Sunday pre-noon launch for Burnaby Lake Park's Hoods Up Flyers

Model plane enthusiasts are one of the many groups prohibited from flying during the Winter Games due to airspace restrictions imposed by Transport Canada, even though security officials do not see such groups as a threat.

From opening day of the Games on January 29 to the closing of the Paralympics on March 24, hobbyists such as parachuters, hang gliders and balloonists must also refrain from using the airspace within three areas clustered around two central sites -  Vancouver International Airport and Whistler Athlete’s Village.

“Massive overkill”

“We’ve been told we cannot fly for almost two months. All of the members of the club feel that this is a massive overkill,” said Brad Trent, president of Hood’s Up Flyers, an electric-only club that has been flying on an allotted field in Burnaby.

“There is no way that a group of guys at Burnaby Lake Park are going to be a risk to athletes, officials or any other groups at the Olympics.”

Some flyers have invested upwards of $100 000 in flying equipment and fees for practice space.

Three months of restricted flying practice will affect their performance in highly anticipated international competitions that occur throughout the summer months.

Military enforcement

The report outlining the restrictions warns that all traffic within the designated airspace will be monitored by surveillance radar during the Olympics. Unauthorized aerial activity will be subject to intercept by military aircraft.

“The flight procedures and restrictions are similar to those implemented for other major international events,” said Sara Hof, a representative for Transport Canada, in an e-mail. “They are based on internationally accepted standards.”

No incident of model plane employment in a terrorist attack has yet been reported. Many of the Hoods Up members pointed out that anything with wheels or wings could pose as a security threat during the Games.

dvd yogi bear

A local Canadian team poses at the regional model flying finals in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (Photo: Geoff Dryer)

Staff Sargeant Mike Cote with the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit acknowledged that model plane clubs have been in operation for many years and are a part of the community.

“These are not illegal groups. The club that meets at the same field every Wednesday afternoon or Saturday morning?” said Cote. “We’re certainly not concerned with them.”

Scott Esplen is the president of the Radio Control Flying Club of British Columbia, a group of 160 flyers that are currently struggling to find a usable aerial field in the Vancouver area. Esplen’s group will also be hit by airspace restrictions.

“I’m very responsible when I fly, I don’t take safety for granted at all,” said Esplen. “I don’t know if security is worried about something going out of control, but if they think someone is going to do something on purpose, it’s going to be the unorganized person.”

“They’re not stopping people with bad intentions, they’re punishing the guys that are doing it right. I think it’s crazy.”

“Old men flying planes”

The Hoods Up Flyers forwarded concerns about the restrictions to the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada. The association offers liability protection and acts as a government liaison for clubs all over Canada.

The relationship between model plane flyers and governing authorities that regulate model clubs, such as Transport Canada, has been positive in the past. Association president Richard Barlow was annoyed by the restrictions, but also hesitant to push the issue further.

“We’re talking about an association of close to 12 000 people that fly model aircraft recreationally, for fun and competition,” said Barlow. “Canada competes in world championships, we are insured for $5 million in liability, and we train our members to fly responsibly.”

Members of Hoods Up Flyers are skeptical that the issue will receive any attention if Transport Canada’s restrictions are challenged. While some are outraged, others seek a compromise that Geoff Dryer, vice president of the club, said is far from likely.

“We’ve got no political pulse,” said Dryer. “A bunch of old men flying planes is not a great lobby.”

The World Wheelchair Curling Championships were held there to determine who goes to the 2010 Paralympic Games.

Produced by Heather Amos, Ameila Bellamy-Royds, Miné Salkin and Alexis Stoymenoff.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are the dates for the 2011 Vancouver Outgames?

The games will start on July 25 and will run until August 1. The Vancouver Gay Pride Parade will take place on July 31 coinciding with the games. More than 5,000 athletes are expected to participate.

How many sport events will there be?

The host committee has proposed 13 sporting events. They will include: orienteering, golf, adventure racing, swimming, rowing, sprints, dragon boating, canoeing, kayaking, hockey, badminton, softball, soccer, ballroom dancing, and volleyball.

What organization is behind the Outgames?

Celebrating at the 2008 Copenhagen Gay Pride Parade

The Outgames are sanctioned by the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA). It is their mandate to develop Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) sport around the world.

Can only gay people participate?

The Outgames are open to all people regardless of their sexual orientation.

What is the difference between the World Outgames and the North America Outgames?

GLISA sanctions the World Outgames every four years bringing together over 10,000 athletes to take part in 30-35 sport disciplines. The North America Outgames are part of the Continental Outgames series, which are smaller games held in the years between the world games.

Are the Outgames the same as the Gay Games?

No, the Gay Games are a separate event sanctioned by the Federation of Gay Games. The first Gay Games were held in San Francisco in 1982. They have been held every four years since.

Where else have the Outgames been held?

The first World Outgames were held in Montreal in 2006. Since then, there have been two Continental Outgames — Calgary 2007 and Melbourne 2008. The next Outgames will be the Copenhagen World Outgames in 2009.

(Pride photo courtesy of Björn Söderqvist)

A new judging system to be introduced at the World Cup season opener on December 13 in Tignes, France, could cost crucial points for Canada’s top male mogul skier.

Alexandre Bilodeau is worried that the new categories added to off-axis judging will lead to him losing marks because the judges may not be able to identify the different jumps.

“I don’t know how the judges are going to see the difference,” said Bilodeau, a member of Canada’s national men’s mogul team who is ranked number three in the world. “Even I have a hard time to define what the difference is.”

Bilodeau, 20, is no stranger to the off-axis jump. With a background in aerials skiing, he has been able to bring his skills to moguls, allowing him to be on the cutting edge of the sport.

In his past few seasons, Bilodeau has been the first skier in the world to perform a variety of tricks including a double-twisting flip in 2005. A year later, he followed up with an explosive corked 1080 (three spinning rotations on a diagonal axis) and a back double-full to win gold at Mont Gabriel, Quebec.

Complex jumps

The change in moguls judging reflects the sport’s growing appreciation for the different variations of the off-axis jump. Off-axis refers to the position the skier takes during the take-off of a jump. When launching him or herself into the air, the skier tilts the axis of their rotation.

The new system will add three new classifications for the jump. Now officials will be able to give points for tricks that have a higher degree of difficulty. That means the two air judges assigned to the panel will be better equipped to asses a skier’s overall jumping performance.

“Athletes that were doing cork jumps last year were not being rewarded for the additional difficulty,” said Terry Campbell, a top level Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) official. “This year their marks will elevate with the increase in the degree of difficulty, provided they do the jump really well.”

Potential problems

Officials have had little time to work out the kinks of the system and they may not be comfortable with it yet, Campbell warned.

“It becomes a learning on the fly experience for judges this year because this is a whole new concept brought in to us and we are expected to use it flawlessly,” said Campbell.

He said judges could have problems telling the difference between the tricks and which categories they fall into. This could result in athletes losing points because they are not rewarded with the appropriate marks for having a complex jump, costing them a trip to the podium.

“Losing two points on 30 is a lot,” said Bilodeau. “That is the difference between the first place and the 16th place.”

2010 Olympics

The FIS is fast-tracking this system to the World Cup level so that judges will be ready for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.

“It is advancing quickly to the World Cup level to get all the bugs worked out this year,” said Campbell. “Then for the Olympics there won’t be any flaws because it has already been used for at least a couple of years.”

Rob Kober, the head coach of the Canadian men’s mogul team, also shares these concerns.

He said he is worried that the new jumping categories have expanded too quickly and the judges will not know what to look for.

“A lot of the judges know that they don’t know a lot of this stuff and that they are playing catch-up continuously and they are eager to learn,” said Kober. “But they are just not there yet.”

The coach doesn’t see the new system as having an immediate effect on the difficulty of skier’s jumps.

Athletes at the World Cup level train for years to get their jumps perfected. They can’t afford the penalty for mistakes. For skiers to suddenly go out and learn new tricks at the high speeds and on the challenging courses they ski could result in many lost points.

“The trade-off between a higher degree of difficulty versus being just a little off balance on the landing is just not worth it,” said Kober. “We need to be really sharp, perfect, and clean.”

Canada’s best chance of Olympic gold in the moguls, Alex Bilodeau, is not planning to change his tricks unless there is a notable difference in the judging this ski season.

“It will be interesting,” said Bilodeau. “I guess we will see at the first World Cup in Tignes.”

Related: A glimpse into the world of moguls

Moguls skiing is an exciting spectator sport. There are many different elements to the competition, and having the fastest time does not ensure that an athlete will win. The competition consists of skiers racing down a 29-degree incline and launching themselves off two jumps on the way down the hill.

FIS World Championship Freestyle Moguls Skiing Apex BC

During the run, seven judges award marks for the technical quality of their turns (50%), two aerial maneuvers/jumps (25%) and for speed (25%). In order to ensure that every aspect of the skier’s run is assessed, five of the seven judges are assigned to evaluate the technical skills and two are assigned to jumps.

Key elements in moguls skiing

7: 720-degree spin off-axis, around a vertical axis.

30: 360-degree spin off-axis, around the vertical axis.

Back double full: The skier is upside down but the body is straight with two spins. The two spins are done upside down.

Corked spin: An off-axis spin; where the body is virtually horizontal, but the skier’s feet do not go above their head.

Corked 1080: The head and feet are totally sideways (horizontal); 1080 refers to three body twists.

Degree of Difficulty (DD): DD is based on someone launching oneself off a jump.

Double full: Single flip with two twists.

Double full, full, full: Three flips with four twists. Two twists on the first flip off the jump.

D-spins: A sideways 360-degree back flip.

Flat spins: The body is completely horizontal, but the axis of rotation is vertical.

Grabs: During the trick, the athlete reaches and grabs one part of their ski.

Rodeo: Backward flips on an off-axis spin.

Turns: The technical criteria evaluated in judging; refers to the completion of turning in the mogul.

- with files from the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association

“We know that the cheaters are using more and more substances before the competition than during and after the competition,” said Patrick Schamasch, the medical and scientific director for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from Beijing, where he was attending a meeting. “That is why we want to increase the testing, unannounced, pre-competition.”

In an effort to strengthen the anti-doping measures, VANOC has raised the number of drug tests it will conduct to 2,000 for the upcoming games. This is a significant increase from the 1,200 tests done during the 2006 Turin Olympic Games. Patrick Schamasch said the increase in Vancouver will be mainly on pre-competition testing rather than in-competition testing.

Pre-competition testing

Pre-competition testing involves the collection of blood and urine samples from athletes in advance of the actual day of competition. The testing is random and unlike in-competition testing, they aren’t based on the results or rankings of the athlete after the sporting event itself.

Many believe the increase of the number of pre-competition tests is the most effective means of detecting and deterring athletes from doping during the Games.

The testing period for the Games begins on the day of the opening of the athlete’s village, and finishes on the day of the closing ceremony. Within this period of time, athletes can be subject to testing at anytime and in any place.

Doping cases from past Olympics

An unannounced test conducted during the 2006 Olympics Games in Turin, Italy resulted in about the harshest penalty for doping in the modern age of the Olympics. The IOC banned six Nordic skiers indefinitely from the Games after officials found quantities of banned substances in the team quarters. Responding to a request from the IOC, the Italian police raided the Austrian cross-country and biathlon teams’ camps looking for evidence of blood-boosting drugs. Contents found included syringes, glucose drips, blood bags, intravenous infusion and other medical supplies.

Endurance sports may have the potential for more cases of doping in comparison to other sports events during the Games. Sports such as cross-country skiing and the biathlon have a history of doping. At the games in Salt Lake City, Johann Muehlegg of Spain was forced to return his third gold medal after testing positive for the blood-boosting drug darbepoetin (NESP). Russian cross-country skier, Larissa Lazutina was also stripped of her gold in the 30-kilometer race for having traces of the same drug in her system.

“The more endurance sports the more there is some attraction to looking at doping,” said Lynda Cannell the president and CEO of SportMedBC.

Additional anti-doping methodology

In addition to testing, VANOC is partnering with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES) to provide education and awareness about doping and cheating to athletes. The team will work with the National Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee to provide anti-doping resources including online outreach programs and video presentations to athletes. This campaign is but one initiative by the organization to bring ethical values back to sports.

“I think the couple of approaches – tests and education are key,” said Schamasch. “It is one process in the fight.”

VANOC’s plans for cracking down on doping will not be finalized until the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) releases its revised Code, slated for release on Jan. 1, 2009. At that time, VANOC will reconfigure their anti-doping measures to reflect the provisions set forth in the Code.

Related: Performance-enhancing drugs 101