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Spartan Race has announced that they will be partnering with USADA to provide “anti-doping education” at this years Spartan Race World Championships (SRWC) in Lake Tahoe. From what we know about the testing that USADA provides, this testing is very thorough. A few OCR athletes are known to hedge around the question about performance enhancing drugs and it should be very interesting to see if any of them are no shows at the SRWC based on today’s announcement.

There are a couple of problems with today’s news, however. First, there is no clear designation on whether the athletes will be tested at this year’s event or not. Let’s assume for a minute that Spartan’s intention is to test at Lake Tahoe. Then, this press release serves as a warning, which leads us to our second issue. This type of “scheduled” drug testing almost never amounts to much more than an IQ test. If you know you are having a drug test you can easily cycle out of the drugs you are using based on the type of test you will be receiving. Hopefully, this is the start of what’s known as “out of competition” drug testing as well, not just on race day.

There are many more questions that we can’t wait to hear the answer to…

Will it be for top 5 finsheres? Top 10? Potentially All athletes?

Why did Spartan chose USADA over WADA? (WADA is the association that The OCRWC has chosen to partner with).

Blood test or urine test?

Out of competition testing?

The questions go on and on, we will keep you updated as we learn more. The complete Spartan press release can be read below:

We at ORM support drug testing in the sport of obstacle racing. What’s your take on this announcement?