One clear problem is that with the introduction of short course meter world records, records can fall at many different meets in many different circumstances, not all predictable. Mr. Olson expressed the USA concern, and hope that in the future our administrative procedures would quickly catch up with the need for required immediate testing after a world record. No nation disagreed with us on philosophy, but practicality at the moment means a compromise of 24 hours. Numerous rule sections indicate that unannounced testing by FINA is the most important and serious part of the effort to prevent doping. Out of competition testing receives a lions share of attention in the rules to make it the unassailable centerpiece of the new rules.
Sanctions remain strong.
FINA has a four year ban for steroids and similar compounds, the only sports federation in the world to do so. A positive test cancels all results reaching back 6 months in history of that athlete. A second offense is a lifetime expulsion and cancellation of ALL results during the swimmers career. This prevents a swimmer from deliberately retiring to avoid testing, then training freely in a doped condition and then returning to the sport. This was a WSCA proposal from four years ago that has finally reached FINA rule status thanks to the efforts of Ross Wales.