Zelinka has strike for missed drug test;athletes have mixed feelings on protocol

Jessica Zelinka had flown to Ontario for the Olympic Heroes Parade in September when drug testers knocked on her door in Calgary to find her not home. Her absence was considered a missed doping test, the first strike for one of Canada's top track and field athletes. Three strikes is an anti-doping violation, and can come with a suspension of up to two years. Some athletes are quietly complaining that they've become slaves to what they call a draconian anti-doping system desperate to keep up with the cheaters, saying they have to sign away their dignity and privacy to prove they're clean. Few are keen to talk openly about it. "It's really a system that's flawed on so many levels," says Zelinka's husband Nathaniel Miller, an Olympian in water polo. "It has nothing to do with athletes trying to avoid testing, but everything to do with athletes trying to just be normal human beings and have their own dignity and freedom respected. "I don't think the current system does that." Canada's top athletes must provide a schedule of their daily whereabouts in three-month blocks to the country's doping watchdog, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. In the days following her bronze medal run at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and husband Bronsen Schliep took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. They pitched a tent in a national park. Lopes-Schliep emailed the longitude and latitude of the campsite to her manager Kris Mychasiw, in case the drug testers needed to find her. "The longitude and latitude, that's hardcore to expect an athlete to do that," Mychasiw said. "Thank God for smart phones. She sent the update in: 'We're in a tent, somewhere along the road, and here's the longitude and latitude.'" Athletes are also required to designate a specific hour each day — any time between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. — when they're available for unannounced drug testing in their home. "If you're a regular employee in Canada, this entire policy and procedure is illegal," Miller says. "You're not allowed to do random testing in a person's place of living, they can't send a drug tester to your house to test you for privacy reasons. And yet, because you represent your country as an athlete, those rights go out the window." Athletes must notify the CCES of any scheduling changes. Zelinka forgot to do that. She argued she was caught up in the stresses of a move to Connecticut, last-minute plans to participate in the Olympic parade in Toronto, and the added demands on her schedule that come with being a mom. Zelinka, whose daughter Anika is three, appealed the missed-test ruling. Her appeal was recently denied. Two more strikes in 18 months will be an anti-doping violation. "It's not like you're trying to hide something or trying to throw them off, which of course was absurd because she was at a very public celebration of Olympic sports," Miller said. "Her actual whereabouts were well-known to everybody, and anyone." The CCES was formed in the fallout from the 1988 Ben Johnson scandal. Jeremy Luke, director of the Canadian anti-doping program, says the organization is complying with the World Anti-Doping Code. "That code outlines the length of sanctions that can be imposed on athletes, the testing protocols, and then included in that, is what we call 'athletes whereabouts requirements,' which is an international standard that's implemented in Canada but also implemented around the world in other countries," said Luke. Athletes unhappy with the testing protocol know their point of view might not be a popular one, especially coming on the heels of revelations of widespread doping in cycling, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong. "You're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place because if you speak out loudly against it, the immediate perception is: oh well, they're trying to hide something," Miller said. "Canadian athletes for the most part are strong advocates for drug-free sport, so you don't want to be criticizing an agency that you support — even though you don't support their methods." Andreanne Morin, a rower and a member of WADA's athletes council, said Armstrong is the best argument for unannounced testing at home. "It's not because (anti-doing officials) want to be complicated, or they want to be annoying," she said. Morin, a member of the women's eight that won silver at the London Olympics, referred to the 202-page report on Armstrong's doping investigation, and evidence that the fallen U.S. cycling star used the blood-boosting hormone EPO. "These guys would do EPO at night, and it's only detectable in your first urine sample in the morning. They would literally go into their hotel rooms, lock the door, and not answer it to absolutely anyone until they'd done their first urine in the morning," Morin said. Many athletes complain the testing is excessive. Mychasiw said Lopes-Schliep and teammates Nikkita Holder and Phylicia George were tested more than 50 times last season between them. Miller noted that the 31-year-old Zelinka was tested four times in the span of six days at the Olympic trials last summer in Calgary — the day before the trials started, the day of each of her victories in the heptathlon and hurdles, and blood tests the day after the meet. "That is not just overkill, it's a huge waste of funding that makes no sense," he said. A test costs between $500 and $800. What bothers the heptathlete and her husband most is the unannounced testing in their home. Protocol demands that from the moment an athlete answers the door, they're not allowed out of the tester's sight. "So you're in your pyjamas, they have to come with you into your bedroom if you want to get changed, you have to get changed in front of them, you have no privacy," Miller says. "Then with women's monthly cycles, if you're caught in the middle of your monthly cycle and there's the desire to freshen up, you don't have that right, you have to do that in front of this complete stranger in your home in your bathroom — what is supposed to be your private domain." Collecting a sample requires a doping control officer watching an athlete urinate into a bottle. Some officers demand athletes "drop their pants to their knees and pull their shirts up to their chests," said sprinter Justyn Warner. Others are slightly more discreet, and "will watch over my shoulder." Warner found it tricky to provide his whereabouts to the CCES in the months leading up to his recent marriage to Holder, a hurdler. "We were kind of at both places, so she would be at my house, I would be at her house, and it made it hard to kind of pick that hour when you always had to be home," said Warner, who anchored Canada's 4x100-metre relay team that crossed third at the London Olympics but was then disqualified for a lane violation. Warner said there were plenty of mornings of rushing home before sunrise. "It's just the way they go about it, something needs to change in that aspect," Warner said. "But I don't complain about it. I wouldn't care if I got drug tested every week just to show people that I'm a clean athlete." Holder once received a strike for a missed filing because she didn't properly click "submit" on the CCES online form athletes use to report their whereabouts. "It's incredibly onerous and doesn't work on all devices," said Miller, pointing out that Zelinka has been using a computer at a local library since their move to Connecticut because the program doesn't work on her iPad. The CCES website has a video tutorial on using the program, and once offered prizes such as gift certificates as incentives for athletes to submit their forms quickly. Morin said there have been suggestions of tracking athletes by GPS. "But I think that's even more invasive than what currently exists," Morin said. Three-time world boxing champion Mary Spencer said unannounced testing might be intrusive but it's necessary. She's has had postpone plans to produce a sample, including one Saturday night she was on her way out with her roommates. She made a pit stop in the upstairs bathroom, and didn't hear the knock of doping control officers at her front door. "They all screamed up the stairs at the same time 'Don't pee!' because they heard the bathroom door shut and the drug testers had shown up. I'm like 'What the heck? Is there something wrong with the plumbing?'" Spencer said laughing. "Seriously, this is what I think: If one of my competitors was doping, I would want them to do everything they could to catch a cheater. So for that reason, I am willing to break up a Friday or Saturday to accommodate them." There are about 400 elite athletes in the Canada's registered drug testing pool, according to Luke. In the quarterly period between July and September of 2012, there were 1,321 urine tests conducted as part of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program, plus 208 blood tests. There were two anti-doping violations in that time — one for testosterone and one for marijuana. Athletes complain that testing protocol isn't as strictly enforced in other countries as it is here. At the London Olympics, Canada's former WADA chief Dick Pound pointed to Jamaica and Belarus as two countries where tests are not rigorous enough, saying it's often difficult to track down athletes to test them. Catriona Le May Doan estimates she's been tested "thousands" of times, and jokes about it now. But the two-time Olympic speedskating champion believes there's no alternative when it comes to keeping sport clean. "It makes me adaptable to pee anywhere," she said. "If I ever get stuck in my car, I have no problem. I can pee in a cup." "People say, 'Oh the system is skewed,'" she added. "But for athletes who are in the system, you have to trust it. Because that's all you have. It's always been a situation where you do it because you want to be part of it. You want people to trust you and you want to trust others."

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Former Lance Armstrong teammate banned for 2 years

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- David George became the latest former teammate of Lance Armstrong to be banned from cycling for doping on Wednesday, receiving a two-year suspension after he chose not to give evidence at a hearing before South Africa's anti-doping body. George did not attend Saturday's disciplinary proceedings and claimed that he had taken the blood-booster EPO in isolation and there was no doping infrastructure in his case, the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport said in a statement. The two-time Commonwealth Games medalist and former Olympic cyclist had been given a chance to speak at the hearing, where his punishment could have been reduced if he provided information on how he obtained the drug. ''George claims his EPO doping was isolated to himself and he could not provide us with information in terms of an infrastructure of doping,'' SAIDS chief executive Khalid Galant said. ''Hence he received the standard two-year ban as there were no grounds for a reduction in this sanction.'' The South African rode on Armstrong's U.S. Postal team in 1999 and 2000. Armstrong was banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping following a report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which largely hinged on evidence from Armstrong's former teammates, including Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton. The 36-year-old George admitted last month that he used EPO, or Erythropoietin, after failing an out-of-competition test in August. ''He (George) admitted guilt prior to the hearing and preferred the sanction to be determined as soon as possible,'' Galant said Wednesday. ''The athlete has the right to waive his participation in a hearing without prejudice.'' In a statement admitting his guilt, George said cycling had been ''a confusing space'' for him. ''Although it has given me incredible moments it has also given me experiences that no person or young athlete should have to go through,'' George said in November. SAIDS said George had agreed to help South Africa's anti-doping body with its test planning in an ''attempt to atone for the doping offense to the cycling community.'' George was required to forfeit any prize money or competition points gained after Nov. 5. Galant said his victory at this year's Cape Pioneer Trek mountain bike race with riding partner Kevin Evans was rescinded and the results would be ''re-issued.'' George was caught after his biological passport - an analysis of an athlete's blood profile - showed suspicious activity and triggered a urine test. EPO is a hormone that artificially increases the red blood cell account and enables athletes to carry more oxygen in their blood, improving their endurance.

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Former Lance Armstrong teammate David George banned for 2 years for doping with EPO

JOHANNESBURG - Lance Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service teammate, David George, was banned for two years for doping after choosing not to give evidence at a hearing, South Africa's anti-doping body said Wednesday. George did not attend Saturday's disciplinary proceedings and instead claimed that he had taken the blood-booster EPO in isolation and there was no doping infrastructure in his case, the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport said in a statement. The two-time Commonwealth Games medallist and former Olympic cyclist had been given a chance to speak at the hearing, where his punishment could have been reduced if he provided information on how he obtained the drug. "George claims his EPO doping was isolated to himself and he could not provide us with information in terms of an infrastructure of doping," SAIDS chief executive Khalid Galant said. "Hence he received the standard two-year ban as there were no grounds for a reduction in this sanction." The South African rode on Armstrong's U.S. Postal team in 1999 and 2000. Armstrong was banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping following a report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which largely hinged on evidence from former teammates of Armstrong. The 36-year-old George admitted using EPO, or Erythropoietin, last month after failing an out-of-competition test in August. "He (George) admitted guilt prior to the hearing and preferred the sanction to be determined as soon as possible," Galant said Wednesday. "The athlete has the right to waive his participation in a hearing without prejudice." In a statement admitting his guilt, George said cycling had been "a confusing space" for him. "Although it has given me incredible moments it has also given me experiences that no person or young athlete should have to go through," George said in November. SAIDS said George had agreed to help South Africa's anti-doping body with its test planning in an "attempt to atone for the doping offence to the cycling community." George was required to forfeit any prize money or competition points gained after Nov. 5. Galant said his victory at this year's Cape Pioneer Trek mountain bike race with riding partner Kevin Evans was rescinded and the results would be "re-issued." George was caught after his biological passport — an analysis of an athlete's blood profile — showed suspicious activity and triggered a urine test. EPO is a hormone that artificially increases the red blood cell account and enables athletes to carry more oxygen in their blood, improving their endurance. "We will continue to aggressively target EPO dopers and we will be increasing out-of-competition testing of cyclists for EPO," Galant said.

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IOC strips 4 medals from 2004 Athens Games for doping, postpones decision on Armstrong medal

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - The IOC has stripped medals from four athletes caught doping at the 2004 Athens Olympics — including one gold medallist — and postponed a decision to revoke Lance Armstrong's bronze from the 2000 Sydney Games. The IOC on Wednesday disqualified four athletes whose Athens doping samples were retested earlier this year and came back positive, including shot put gold medallist Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine. The others are hammer throw silver medlist Ivan Tskikhan of Belarus and two bronze medallists — women's shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia and discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus. The case of a fifth bronze medallist , weightlifter Oleg Perepechenov of Russia, remains pending. The IOC put off a final decision on stripping Armstrong of the bronze medal he won in the road time trial in Sydney. The IOC wants the medal back following the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's report that led to Armstrong being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. But the IOC said it will wait for cycling's governing body UCI to formally notify Armstrong of the loss of all his results since August 1998.

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IOC not ready to move on Armstrong's Olympic medal

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong will hold on to his 2000 Sydney Olympic bronze medal a little longer after the International Olympic Committee said it would wait for the international cycling union to inform him before moving to strip him of it. The 41-year-old had his seven Tour de France victories nullified and was banned from cycling for life in October after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) sanctions against him. USADA published a report that said the now-retired rider had been involved in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." The IOC decided after its Executive Board meeting it would wait for the UCI to inform the athlete and give him the right to appeal. "The IOC today will not move because we need to have the situation whereby the UCI notifies officially Mr Armstrong of the fact that he will be disqualified and declared ineligible and that he should hand over his medal," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters. "When he will be notified Mr Armstrong will have 21 days to launch an appeal. It is only after that period that the IOC can legally take action." Armstrong, who won the medal in the individual time trial, has repeatedly denied doping and never tested positive for drugs. His accusers, however, said Armstrong - one of the world's most famous athletes who also is well known for his cancer-fighting charity work - was not only a willing participant, but the ringleader, ordering team mates to cheat. In addition to financial payments, emails and laboratory test results that the agency said proved the use of performance- enhancing drugs by Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service team, 26 people gave sworn testimony, including 11 former team mates.

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The Xbox 720 Is Coming Sooner Than Anyone Anticipated

After almost three years without an update, and with Windows 8 sales flailing, Microsoft will release a new Xbox just in time for Christmas next year, sources told Bloomberg's Dina Bass and Ian King. Last year Microsoft had said that it wouldn't release a new version of the gaming system "anytime soon," with other sources talking up a date sometime in 2013 "at the earliest." This new Christmas launch makes perfect sense for the video-game nerd anticipated "Xbox 720," as the rumorers refer to it. An Xbox is one of those it toys that gets people lining up at 3 a.m. during holiday shopping craziness. Even the aging 360 console has managed to double the sales of the new Nintendo Wii so far this holiday season, according to numbers from the NDP Group. Microsoft hasn't put out an entirely new console since 2005, which led to riots during Black Friday of that year. RELATED: Foxconn Is Still a Hard Place to Work And Microsoft needs a super-anticipated something, since Windows 8 sales fell so flat this year. After whispers that the new operating system wasn't selling well, NDP research group found that sales fell 21 percent for new computers running Windows. The research group doesn't measure sales from Microsoft stores or online, but Microsoft has said most of its sales come from third-party retailers like Best Buy anyway. Windows 8 tablet sales were almost "nonexistent" said the report, making up just 1 percent of all Windows 8 sales. Yeesh. However, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said he is playing the long game on this one, claiming that people will get used to the new look and when they do fall in love with it. Maybe the people will line up for Windows 8 next year, too? RELATED: Amazon's New Cloud Music Player Is Great, But Is It Legal? If not, though, the new Xbox sounds like an upgrade that will get gamers excited and buying. As for what exactly the gadget will look like, the rumorers say it will be cheaper and smaller than the 360, which retails starting at $300. In addition, it will have an udpated Kinect controller, a quad core processor, 8GB Ram, Blu-Ray, and augmented reality glasses, according to "leaked reports."

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Zynga shares slide after privileged status with Facebook ends

(Reuters) - Shares of gaming company Zynga Inc fell as much as 10 percent, a day after the "Farmville" creator reached an agreement with Facebook Inc that reduces its dependence on the social networking giant. The companies reported in regulatory filings on Thursday that they have reached an agreement to amend a 2010 deal that was widely seen as giving Zynga privileged status on the world's No.1 social network. Zynga gets a freer hand to operate a standalone gaming website, but gives up its ability to promote its site on Facebook and to draw from the thriving social network of about 1 billion users. "Although Zynga investors have reacted negatively to Thursday's announcements so far, we view them as a long-term positive for both companies," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in a note to clients. "Zynga now has an advantage to offer more payment options which could result in additional subscribers who are not Facebook users," he said, maintaining his "outperform" rating and price target of $4 on the stock. Both internet companies have been trying to reduce their interdependence, with Zynga starting up its own Zynga.com platform, and Facebook wooing other games developers. In recent quarters, fees from Zynga contributed 15 percent of Facebook's revenue, while Zynga relies on Facebook for roughly 80 percent of its revenue. Francisco-based Zynga's shares were down 7 percent at $2.44 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. Facebook shares were down more than 1 percent at $26.98.

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Zynga stock falls after Facebook terms change

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Zynga slumped Friday after it disclosed with its partner Facebook that they have loosened their close ties to one another. THE SPARK: The companies said in regulatory filings Thursday that they have amended their 2010 contract to say Zynga will no longer have to display Facebook ads or use Facebook payments on its own properties, such as Zynga.com. In addition, Zynga, which makes the games "FarmVille" and "CityVille," will no longer be required to use Facebook as the exclusive social site for its games, or to grant Facebook exclusive games. Any social game Zynga launches will also be available on Facebook either at the same time or shortly after it launches elsewhere. Facebook, meanwhile, will be able to develop its own games after the end of March, though it said it has no plans to do so. Its deal with Zynga previously prohibited Facebook from developing games. THE BIG PICTURE: While it's not exactly splitsville, the original 2010 contract gave Zynga special status among Facebook game developers. Zynga relies on Facebook for most of the revenue it generates even as it works to establish its independence. Facebook also makes money from Zynga, though the portion of its revenue that the game maker accounts for has declined. In the third quarter, Facebook said that 7 percent of its total revenue came from Zynga, down from 12 percent in the third quarter of 2011. ANALYSIS: Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said while Zynga investors reacted badly to the news, he sees the changes as a long-term positive for both companies. "Zynga now has an incentive to expand the reach of its most popular social games beyond Facebook and Zynga.com and be able to offer additional payment options, likely resulting in additional payers who are not Facebook users," the analyst wrote in a note to investors. Pachter rates Zynga "Outperform" with a target price of $4. STOCK ACTION: Shares of San Francisco'S Zynga Inc. fell 19 cents, or 7.3 percent, to $2.43 in afternoon trading. Zynga went public in December 2011 at a price of $10 per share but its stock have fallen sharply amid concerns about its ability to keep growing quickly.

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Microsoft updates Android Xbox SmartGlass app for 7-inch tablets

While Nintendo (NTDOY) has chosen to create second-screen experiences with the new Wii U GamePad, Microsoft’s (MSFT) strategy for the Xbox 360 involves bringing your own devices (BYOD) with the Xbox SmartGlass app for Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. One of the more frustrating things initially about the Xbox SmartGlass app was that it wasn’t natively compatible with 7-inch Android tablets such as Google’s (GOOG) excellent Nexus 7, but Microsoft’s gone ahead and updated the app to take advantage of 7-inch Android tablets while squashing a batch of bugs at the same time. While still in its infancy, Xbox SmartGlass is a glimpse at the future of smartphones and tablet and how they connect to the TV. Last month, we said: “SmartGlass isn’t just a fancy touchscreen remote control app for the Xbox 360 — it’s much more than that. With the app, users can start a movie on any mobile device and resume on the Xbox 360 (and vice versa), monitor real-time sports stats, bios and highlights on a secondary display, navigate the newly added Internet Explorer with multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom and enhance gameplay with new gameplay options.”

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Is Facebook planning to develop its own games? Revised Zynga terms open the door

As Zynga (ZNGA) continues its free fall into irrelevancy with layoffs and its one-hit social games, the gaming company has revised its contract with Facebook (FB) to free it from being “forced to launch games exclusively on the Facebook platform” and “obligated to use Facebook Credits for Zynga game pages,” according to AllThingsD. The change of terms filed with the SEC also includes a clause that states “Facebook will no longer be prohibited from developing its own games” on March 31, 2013. Could Facebook start developing its own social games? Theoretically, yes. But would Facebook really jeopardize its relationships with game developers who already make games for its social network? Probably not. “We’re not in the business of building games and we have no plans to do so,” a Facebook spokesman told AllThingsD. “We’re focused on being the platform where games and apps are built.” AllThingsD’s report says the change in terms isn’t so much as a bid by Facebook to make its own games, but to shed its dependence on Zynga to supply it with hit games. The new revised terms give Facebook more leverage and other game developers such as Wooga and King.com greater incentive to create games. At the end of the day, Facebook is a publicly traded company chasing profits, despite what CEO Mark Zuckerberg says. It might not be developing games today, but that doesn’t mean it won’t create them in the future. The new terms with Zynga now leaves that door open, should it want to make its own games one day.

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