WTA chooses tour supplement supplier; 'athlete guarantee agreement'

Now the WTA has chosen a supplier of vitamins, drinks and energy food in the hopes that positive doping results can be avoided from inadvertent sources. The supplier has even offered up a cash guarantee that no positive drug test will result from their products.

WTA Tour players will be provided with free vitamins and health supplements by a company that is offering up to $1 million to any player who fails an anti-doping test because of its products.

Under the three-year deal announced Wednesday, USANA Health Sciences is paying a six-figure sponsorship fee to become the women's tennis tour's official health supplement supplier, WTA spokesman Andrew Walker said.

"There's been a lot of bad news recently about athletes in other sports having tested positive for banned substances, and athletes are afraid to put anything in their body," Walker said. "This is something players have been demanding and asking for over the past years."

According to Walker, since the WTA began testing for banned substances in 1990, two players have tested positive: Sesil Karatantcheva (the steroid nandrolone) and Lourdes Dominguez Lino (cocaine).

In 2003, the men's ATP Tour instructed its training and medical staff to stop issuing supplements that might have been contaminated. Eight players who tested positive for nandrolone were cleared after the possibility was raised they might have taken tainted supplements unwittingly given out by tour trainers.

The ATP now has a deal with a company that provides players with energy and recovery drinks, a carbohydrate gel and an energy bar.

Under the new WTA deal, players who take USANA's products will be eligible for an "athlete guarantee agreement." A player who tests positive for a banned substance because of USANA products will be paid twice her prize money from the prior year, up to $1 million, by the company.

"The Tour has for many years sought a manufacturer that could meet our tough standards in this essential area," WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott said. "Up until now, the inability of our players to take vitamins and health supplements without fear of accidentally ingesting a prohibited substance has been a real issue." ESPN