Doping policies divisive

TURIN -- The indignity of doping control officers sneaking up on them to demand urine samples -- anywhere, night or day, any time of year -- was nothing new to the likes of Sasha Cohen, Shani Davis, and Bode Miller. As world-class athletes, they surrendered their constitutional protections against such warrantless intrusions, knowing they risked civil penalties in the name of drug-free sports.

But now the world's elite athletes may also need to memorize their Miranda rights against self-incrimination.

When Italian paramilitary police stormed the living quarters of the Austrian cross-country and biathlon teams last weekend, they heralded a new prosecutorial alliance between law enforcement and the Olympic movement in the war on doping that has exposed many elite athletes to potential criminal liability they never before considered.

Olympic officials and the World Anti-Doping Agency have made no secret they plan to pursue such police tactics around the globe.

''The rules of the game definitely have changed," said John Ruger, the athletes' ombudsman for the US Olympic Committee. ''Our athletes need to know the anti-doping rules as well as they know the rules of their sports."

While the Austrians initially decried the rousting and strip-searching of their athletes, going so far as to draw allusions to the Nazi Gestapo in World War II, Richard Pound, president of the WADA, cited an earlier military conflict in portraying such operations as vital to cracking down on clandestine cheaters.

''We don't want to be like the Redcoats in the Revolutionary War, marching in regular order with crosses on our chests and getting shot at by guys hiding behind trees," Pound said. ''We need a combined effort to really have a go at this."

The crossfire may further weaken the individual rights of athletes, several legal specialists asserted.

''We're seeing the International Olympic Committee and WADA acting without any constraints in going after people, in some cases without a lot of evidence," said Michael Straubel, director of the Sports Law Clinic at Valparaiso University School of Law, which represents a number of elite athletes, including Davis.

''It strikes me as another step toward not really recognizing athletes' rights," Straubel said. ''It's becoming worrisome."

Regardless of the results of the doping tests on the 10 Austrians targeted in the raid, the IOC plans to convene a disciplinary commission to consider suspensions and other civil sanctions against them and their coaches. And Italian authorities said they expect to weigh criminal charges under the nation's anti-doping laws, which carry penalties ranging from three months to three years in jail and fines from $3,000 to $60,000.

Evidence gathered in the police raid would be used by both the IOC and Italian prosecutors.

''The world of sports and governments, when they come together, can strengthen the fight against doping," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. ''[The raid] Saturday night was a perfect example of this."

The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has served as the final appeals venue for civil doping cases, will have no power to review criminal prosecutions. But the court's secretary general, Matthieu Reeb, said he did not expect a proliferation of criminal cases under the new alliance between police and Olympic officials.

''I think this is particular to Italy because of its criminal laws," he said. ''I don't expect the same situations in countries like China or Canada," the sites of the 2008 Summer Games and 2010 Winter Games, respectively.

Yet many of the chemical substances common to doping in athletes are possessed and trafficked illegally around the world, including in the United States. And both the IOC and WADA appear poised to seek police cooperation wherever they may consider it helpful.

Indeed, Pound endorsed using ''any means we can use," including informants, to nab cheaters. That troubled some athletes' advocates, who questioned whether Olympians knew the full scope of their liability when they agreed upon arriving in Turin to submit to random searches and doping tests any hour of the day through Sunday's closing ceremonies.

''The IOC has always said it's enforcing civil law, but when you start bringing criminal charges, the stakes are a lot higher," Straubel said. ''I have some concern about whether the athletes consented to be subjected to criminal charges."

Criminal procedures in the United States already have ensnared a number of elite athletes. Though the US Anti-Doping Agency did not collaborate with law enforcement in pursuing the BALCO scandal, the agency did use BALCO evidence to suspend several world-class athletes, including sprinter Tim Montgomery, the former 100-meter world record-holder.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport effectively endorsed the USADA's reliance on law enforcement evidence by approving a two-year suspension of Montgomery even though he never tested positive for a banned substance.

Ruger said he has been working on behalf of Olympians to reform the anti-doping process, though he declined to cite specific changes he favors.

''All I can say is, we think the system can be improved," Ruger said.

Elite athletes have grown accustomed to waiving certain freedoms. In America, as elsewhere, they are required to regularly update their sports federations or anti-doping agencies about their daily whereabouts so they can be subject to unannounced testing. Should an American athlete be absent when a doping control officer arrives, he or she is assessed a first strike. A third strike can warrant a suspension.

Davis, who won a silver medal Tuesday in the 1,500-meter speedskating event, has enlisted Valparaiso's Sports Law Clinic to help him fight a first strike he received in November for missing a test at his training site in Calgary. Straubel said Davis informed the USADA he would be in Calgary that day but changed his plans to honor a last-minute request by the USOC to attend a charity event in his native Chicago.

The USADA did not accept the excuse. The agency also said it did not receive a fax from Davis's mother stating he would be delayed a day in returning to Calgary.

''That kind of nitpicky stuff is beginning to bother some athletes," Straubel said.

A crush of criminal investigations could bother them more. But Ruger said it was too soon to tell how American athletes could be affected.

''This is new territory," he said. ''It's all brand new to us."