Tennis, the Olympics and Doping

I'll admit it, I've been falling asleep and reading books to a lot of Olympics these past two weeks. Sure, there's no tennis in these games, but the Winter Olympics and pro tennis do have at least one thing in common: doping.

The standard in tennis is that drug tests take several months to release - and by several months, I mean that generally positive tests are not confirmed until more than 6 months after the test.

But check this out!

The IOC targeted the Austrians for unannounced tests last Saturday - at the same time that police raided the team's lodgings in Pragelato and San Sicario and seized what they described as blood equipment, syringes and other materials.

The test results had been delayed for several days as the urine samples underwent detailed analysis at the official IOC doping control laboratory. Ljungqvist said the testing took longer than usual because some of the samples had been diluted as a result of athletes consuming large quantities of water.

At this point, I am guess that tennis drug testing must involve transportation by donkeys, analysis by high school children in biology class, and a peer review by the writers of L'Equipe.