Technician working last month at UCLA's Olympic lab. In the 1968 Olympics, testers suspect that cheaters are using simple sodium bicarbonate to throw off the unsophisticated urine test. Cheaters use drugs not yet detectable or banned. In the 1972 Games, for example, some pistol shooters used tranquilizers to steady their hands. After steroids are banned in 1975, athletes switch to types that work faster and leave their bodies more quickly.
Some athletes use combinations of drugs and other substances to avoid detection.
An athlete sometimes succeeds in getting a positive test thrown out. Athletes hide small bottles containing clean urine samples. In 1992, a German sprinter is suspended for allegedly concealing urine in her vagina, but she denies cheating. No reliable test has been developed for human growth hormone or insulin-like growth factor, which increase stamina or muscle growth.