sportphysio2010

Chilliwack’s Fraser Valley Physio and Rehab Clinic’s Vedder Road head physio Peter DeVette is part of the Olympics anti-doping team. Here is his story:

I became a Doping Control Officer (DCO) for the 2010 Olympics about 2.5 or 3 years ago after responding to an email which circulated the physio community.

In Canada the doping control is conducted by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), for each country anti-doping is superseded by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA).

The principle behind the current doping control policy is that athletes are subject to testing at any time, any place. This position is strongly supported by Canadian athletes as most, if not all, are in favour of doping-free sports.

For the Olympics 2010 doping control is conducted by the IOC (on Olympic venues) and WADA (outside of Olympic venues). There is pre-competition and in-competition testing; currently we are in pre-competition phase. This requires some detective work on a daily basis to find athletes whom have been selected for testing, as the athletes can be in many different locations and accurate ‘whereabouts’ info is not always communicated by each of the countries chef de mission. Practically this means that as DCO’s we can go wherever athletes go, except for the field of play.

Once an athlete has been properly notified, they are chaperoned to the Doping Control Station, where a highly standardized collection process for urine and/or blood is conducted. Once the sample has been collected, it is forwarded to a WADA accredited lab for testing at the Richmond Oval (this was just on the news). DCO’s do not test the samples; they assure the collection process is conducted equally and fairly for all tested athletes. Consequences are in place for athletes whom try to cheat or do not adhere to the collection process.

To date my involvement has been very interesting; I get to circulate in the Olympic Village, the athletes that I have been asked to locate for testing I actually get to meet personally. Whom and where is obviously confidential; what I can say is that I have interacted with certain previous and likely 2010 medalists (including Canadians!!). I’ll be in Vancouver for the month of February, right to the final day/closing ceremony. Once competition starts I will continue my DCO volunteer job at the Village in Vancouver,

Olympic Village

at Cypress Mountain and at UBC Thunderbird Stadium for sure, yet might also end up at other venues as required.

There are over 120 DCO’s involved in these games. Some are PT’s from outside BC and outside of Canada, including Ontario and a country like the Island of Antigua. The estimated amount of tests conducted for 2010 is projected to be greater than 2000; a new record for an Olympic event!

Peter Devette, Physiotherapist and DCO