U.S. SWIM COACH CALLS FOR INCREASE OF RANDOM TESTING

The coach of the American women's Olympic swimming team said yesterday that he was concerned that the sport's world governing body had not conducted sufficient out-of-competition drug tests with the Summer Games approaching next month in Sydney, Australia.

Dara Torres, who at age 33 will be the first American to swim in four Olympics, has been tested three times at competitions this season, but not once out of competition, said Richard Quick, coach of the women's Olympic team and also Torres's personal coach in Palo Alto, Calif. Torres came out of retirement last year after a seven-year layoff and qualified for Sydney in three individual events.

Out-of-competition testing, which is done without notice, is considered the most reliable way to catch cheaters. It is much easier for athletes to avoid detection during competition, when they know they will be tested. However, no tests exist for some substances athletes are believed to be widely taking, so passing a drug test is not always a reliable indication that cheating has not occurred.

Questions have arisen about how Torres could swim so fast after a long layoff. She is eager to be tested, Quick said, to prove that she does not take performance-enhancing substances.

"If you are not testing someone like Dara, who was out of the sport for seven years, then who are you testing?" Quick said in a telephone interview. "I know Dara is not cheating. The rest of the world can't, because she's not been tested. It's not fair to her or the sport."

Swimming's world governing body, FINA, said that its out-of-competition tests were conducted on a random basis. Quick said he believed the top swimmers should be tested more regularly.

"I think they've run out of money for testing and they're trying to hide behind saying the names just haven't come up on the computer for testing," Quick said. "I'm concerned about who they're testing around the world."

Women's swimming has had its credibility compromised by widespread cheating among East German and Chinese athletes, and also by the suspension of the Irish swimmer Michelle Smith de Bruin, who won three gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Quick said the United States swimming federation and the United States Olympic Committee should also be more forceful in testing. Neither group has tested Torres out of competition this year, he said.

"If FINA is not doing enough, they need to pick up the slack," Quick said. Speaking of Olympic officials, national and international, he said: "They don't put this as a priority. They're not going to stop flying first class to put more money into the testing program."