Ski Minus 99 Days to Vancouver: Drug testing & highways

Whether it's luft balloons or beers on the wall, 99 has always been an odd number of prominence. It's ski minus 99 days until the Vancouver Winter Olympics. A couple 99 type facts for you as we count down the days to when somebody's going to end up on a Wheatie's Box:

99% more testing. In 2006 at Turin, 1200 athletes were tested for performance enhancing drugs. In Vancouver, the number of athletes tested will double. Even before the Games, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is currently monitoring several athletes, examining their chemical makeup over a series of blood and urine tests. The program is described as a "longitudinal program." Any drastic changes in an athlete's chemical makeup, even if the athlete does not fail a drug test, would indicate cheating. Thankfully it appears we are far from the days of East Germany and their state sponsored doping campaign, the ominous sounding State Plan 14.25.

Highway 99. Known as the "Sea to Ski Highway," the U.K. Guardian bestowed the route as the 5th best road trip in the world. Ahead of the Winter Olympics, the B.C. provincial government has spent a huge chunk of change upgrading the highway's safety factor, adding a concrete divider in hopes of ending its not-so-touristy nickname "Drive-to-Die Highway".

Take one down pass it around... Ski Minus 98 coming tomorrow.

Ski Minus 99 Days to Vancouver: Drug testing & highways

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