If all goes well during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, you’ll never see University of Mobile (UM) professor William Carroll on television. But Carroll will be at the heart of it all in the Chinese Olympic Committee headquarters, overseeing the drug testing process for all athletes at the international competition.
“My job is to make sure all the steps are in place and the protocols that I developed for testing the medalists are being followed. If you see me on TV, something went wrong and I’m in trouble,” Carroll said with a laugh.
The director of the UM athletic training education program has worked with various Chinese Olympic officials since 2002 to help them prepare for the games.
Carroll wrote the protocols that set up each step of the testing process, including how preliminary testing would be handled prior to the Olympic Games for 10,500 international athletes, as well as the procedure for testing medalists in each event.
The professor’s past experience helping to write the drug testing policy and protocols for NCAA Division I schools during 1980–1997 played a part in his selection for the Olympics. In addition, Carroll regularly teaches a course at the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal and is co-author with his son of a book on drug use in baseball, “The Juice: The Real Story of Baseball’s Drug Problems.”
Carroll said students at UM are benefiting from his experiences with the Beijing Olympics.
“I think it bodes well for our program that we are represented internationally,” he said.
“Every time I run into something new in the field, I find a way to put it in the curriculum. The people I am teaching at the University of Mobile will be the ones running athletic training programs and drug testing programs in both the United States and internationally.” (UM)
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