Drug Testing Takes Center Stage at Olympics

The upcoming Beijing Olympics may be the first modern day games where drug testing gets more attention than the events, predicts Dr. Mike Perko, chair of The University of Alabama’s health science department.

“A serious world-wide adoption of drug testing in organized professional and amateur sports, both in the U.S. and Europe, will occur in 2008,” says Perko, author of “Taking One for the Team: The New Thinking On Dietary Supplements and Young Athletes.”

“As skill levels increase faster than genetics, a wide variety of sports such as tennis, golf, cricket, and race car driving will all adopt or enhance drug testing,” Perko says. “Unfortunately, we can expect more and more world-class athletes to be caught as well in the upcoming year.”