What's It Like to Be Drug-Tested? We Asked Three Olympic Runners.

Late-night visitors armed with syringes and vials. Apps that track your location. Phone calls from mysterious numbers. Ever wonder what drug testing entails for Olympic track and field athletes? Consider the experiences of three runners who are among those who have grown accustomed to one of the kookier parts of their shared profession. ‘Nobody,’ one of the runners said, ‘will have poured urine into bottles on your own kitchen table as much as athletes.’ At this stage of her career, the runner is intimately familiar with the various drug-testing protocols and the many minor inconveniences that they create. For example, athletes must provide their ‘whereabouts’ via a smartphone app to authorities so that they can be tested without advance notice in an out-of-competition setting. That includes a one-hour window each day in which they must provide their exact locations in case a stranger needs to turn up to draw blood or (more uncomfortably) stand there while they urinate into a container.