Australia Files Grievance Over Swimmers Being Drug Tested In Early AM

The Australian Olympic contingency has not been shy to vocalize its grievances concerning the condition of the 2016 Olympic Games accommodations, security and of the competitive swimming warm-up pool thus far in Rio. 5 days into the swimming competition, Chef de Mission, Kitty Chiller, which is that of the timing of anti-doping tests.

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has reportedly submitted an official complaint with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), citing that anti-doping tests are occurring too early in the morning for their athletes. Referring to one example in which sprinting stud Cameron McEvoy was called for an out-of-competition drug test just hours before the men’s 4×100 freestyle final, Chiller is requesting that the anti-doping tests be more considerate with their timing.

“We are concerned about swimmers, hockey players, all our team members, getting a knock on their door at 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning when they’ve had a late night,” Chiller said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“Cam McEvoy had a knock on his door very early when he had a late night swim. Swimming is not the only sport that this has happened to, their schedule has changed and the drug testers need to take that into consideration and have consideration for the athletes.

“They want to be tested, they don’t mind being tested, test them 100 times, test them 1000 times, but do it at a time that shows some respect for their competition schedule… it’s not something that is ideal when you can’t get a full night’s when you haven’t got to bed until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning.”

Of the grievance, IOC spokesman Mark Adams replied, “I think it’s a reasonable complaint, but it depends whether the authorities are able to carry out their effective doping controls within that. If they can, then they should obviously work around that. If they can’t then I think they’ll have to carry on doing the doping controls when they have to, to make sure doping control is done properly.”

Anti-doping has been a subject taking up much of the spotlight in Rio, specifically within the sport of swimming. American Lilly King is now famous for her ‘finger wag’, calling out Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova for having tested positive previously for a banned substance. Australia’s own Mack Horton also called Chinese rival Sun Yang a ‘drug cheat’, a comment for which he has received many a criticism from the Chinese swimming organization.