KEY POINTS:
The positive test of Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco in this year's Tour de France could have wide-ranging implications for athletes in the future, according to Drug Free Sport NZ boss Graeme Steel.
Ricco was snared after a secret molecule was planted in the blood booster erythropoetin (EPO) during
its manufacture.
World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) chief John Fahey said his organisation worked with drugs giant Roche on the newest version of EPO.
He said Roche had included a molecule in the third generation of EPO, called Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator (CARA), that acted as a flag in drug tests showing when an athlete was using the substance.
Steel, whose organisation has undertaken intensive testing of athletes heading to Beijing, said this breakthrough could have multiple effects on athletes.
"It's the first time I'm aware somebody has been caught in this fashion," he said.
"It will change the way athletes will use EPO."
It will certainly put athletes looking for an illegal advantage off using Roche's EPO product. Steel conceded that for the technology to be ultimately successful, all pharmaceutical companies would have to buy into it.
"At the moment they argue that the market for athletes is so tiny it is not worth it," he said.
But the biggest effect Ricco's downfall will have - alongside the fact it is another deterrent to athletes who might be thinking about EPO, which boosts oxygen levels in blood - is that it could defeat the act of "micro-dosing".
As the term suggests, micro-dosing involves athletes using tiny amounts of EPO over a long period of time, so there is no tell-tale sign of sharp increases of red blood cell production.
So far EPO has proven notoriously hard to detect.
Last year a global total of 24 athletes tested positive for EPO among more than 200,000 tests.
"We're kidding ourselves if we think there were only 24 athletes out there using EPO," Steel said.
Most of the New Zealand team headed for China have been tested, with athletes like Valerie Vili, who competes in a sport that has experienced its share of drugs scandals, on more than one occasion.
The IOC will conduct about 4500 tests in Beijing, an increase of more than 800 on the number of tests at Athens four years ago.
Wada analysed 223,898 samples last year; 4402 delivered an "adverse" finding.
Drugs-tainted athletics and cycling accounted for the majority of the tests along with aquatics and soccer.
