The Richmond Olympic Oval in Richmond, B.C., seen in August, is the site of a newly completed lab that will test athletes for performance-enhancing drugs during the Winter Games. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)Vancouver Olympic officials are showing off the newly completed lab that will test athletes for performance-enhancing drugs during next February's Games.
The lab, in the Richmond Olympic Oval south of Vancouver, will test more than 2,000 samples during the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The $8.3-million facility is an exact replica of Canada's only World Anti-Doping Agency lab in Montreal, and will be run by staff from the Montreal lab and technicians from other sites around the world.
Cathy Priestner Allinger of VANOC, the organizing committee for the Games, said the new lab is one of the most advanced in the world.
Trained volunteers will collect samples at venues and deliver them to the lab, which has several levels of security to prevent tampering.
