USOC, NHL Discussing Drug Tests

U.S. Olympic officials held firm Thursday on their demand that NHL players who compete for the American hockey team be randomly tested for steroids leading up to the Salt Lake Olympics.

However, acting USOC executive director Scott Blackmun and NHL counsel Bill Daly said there was progress as both sides exchanged views during a 90-minute meeting. An agreement could be announced as early as next week.

“We know a lot more now than we did two days ago,” Daly said. “The ball’s in our court now to go back and create a mousetrap that will catch everybody’s needs. We’re much more knowledgeable about what the USOC needs.”

The USOC wants random testing for American hockey players to begin as early as possible.

Blackmun announced last month that the USOC would no longer exempt NHL players from testing that other American athletes are required to undergo, as it did during the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

“It’s important for us to treat all of the athletes on the U.S. Olympic team the same, and most of the athletes have been subjected to testing for some time,” Blackmun said.

“We don’t want to subject the entire NHL to testing,” he said. “Our intent is to subject those players who will be on the U.S. Olympic hockey team.”

Before that can happen, the U.S. roster must be named. USA Hockey, along with the NHL, set a tentative date of March 25 to name the squad, but one sticking point is how the testing will be done.

The NHL favors a uniform testing method, preferably to be overseen by the World Anti-Drug Agency, for players who skate for different countries, whether they’re American or not.

For example, the NHL doesn’t want Czech Jaromir Jagr to undergo a schedule that calls for more or less frequent tests--than Mario Lemieux, a Canadian and his teammate on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“We find it hard to accept a position where one or two NHL players in a club’s locker room would be subject to different requirements than their teammates,” Daly said.