MORE DRUG TESTS PUSHED FOR OLYMPICS

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) Professional athletes should face
year-round drug testing if they want to compete in the Olympics, U.S.
drug officials said Tuesday.

White House drug chief Barry McCaffrey said the Olympic movement needs
to create an independent anti-doping agency that would carry out
mandatory out-of-competition testing on all potential Olympic
competitors including pros.

"I would like to see testing in these professional leagues," McCaffrey
said. "I think some of the pro leagues are already going in that
direction and I think you'll hear more from the U.S. Olympic Committee.

"The athletes need to be subjected to testing every year. The
independent agency might have to rely on national labs, accredited and
certified of course, but ultimately the tests would have to meet the
codes and standards that will be set up by the independant agency."

Such a move would mean NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball players
wishing to compete in the games would be subjected to year-round
random testing. None of those sports have such testing programs.

"It's a pre-requisite for competition," said Robert Housman, a
McCaffrey aide. "If you are going to compete in the Olympics you've
got to submit to the testing regime no matter whether you're an NBA
athlete or mailman that moonlights as an elite world-class athlete."

The U.S. delegates proposed that athletes would have to announce their
intent to compete at the Olympics at a certain set date before the
games. They would then undergo random testing.

"You figure out what the trigger time is, the window the scientists
tell us we need," Housman said. "At that point in time the national
committees go to their athletes and put out an announcement and say
those people who think they're going to be Olympians have got to get
into the system now."

Housman said that even though team rosters were not unveiled until
just before the games, national Olympic teams knew in advance which
athletes were likely to be chosen.

"Wayne Gretzky doesn't just pop up on an Olympic roster and we knew a
long time before Michael Jordan was going to be an Olympian," Housman
said. "At that level we know far in advance who is going to be playing
or at least asked."