INQUIRER Sports

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado--US Anti-Doping Agency officials unveiled details Friday behind their extensive extra-testing program for certain American competitors ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Sprinter Allyson Felix and decathlete Brian Clay revealed last week they were part of what they called "Project Believe," a long-term voluntary testing program from USADA involving blood and urine samples.

US swim star Michael Phelps, looking to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals, reportedly is also among 12 participants in the program.

"In order to prevail in the fight against doping in sport, we must continually refine and explore new, credible measures that can be introduced to our program," USADA chief executive officer Travis T. Tygart said.

"Our efforts have as much to do with protecting the health and well-being of the overwhelming majority of athletes who compete clean as catching and sanctioning the few who unfortunately break the rules."

To that end, USADA has started extra testing to form baseline body chemistry figures for certain US competitors, what USADA called "focused sample collections in sports with the highest risk of potential doping."

Blood and urine testing includes the latest available tests for human growth hormone, EPO and synthetic testosterone.

But not everyone can avail themselves of this extra testing beyond the USADA random year-round testing program, testing aimed at helping prove star US sports figures at the Beijing Olympics are not dope cheats.

"During the initial pilot and evaluation phase of the program, the number of participants will be limited," USADA said.

With samples collected over several months providing baseline figures, each athlete will have future blood and urine samples taken to compare.

If the numbers are substantially altered in future tests, it could be seen as a sign of doping.

USADA also plans to begin a new clean sport campaign in the wake of the BALCO doping scandal that brought down such stars as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.