Michael Phelps has more individually documented drug tests than any other U.S. athlete in 2014, under the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s statistics updated Monday.
Phelps had six documented drug tests in the third quarter of this year, giving him 17 total in the first nine months of 2014. He passed Olympic 10,000m silver medalist Galen Rupp for total tests this year.
USADA’s quarterly statistics are interesting to break down, but they are not complete drug-testing histories. USADA stats documented 1,638 drug tests for the third quarter of 2014, but the total number of tests was 2,339. That’s quite a difference and must be taken into account.
Here’s USADA’s disclaimer on its documented statistics, outlining what its results do and do not include.
Notes from the third-quarter statistics released Monday:
*Cyclist Eric Marcotte led all athletes with 12 documented drug tests for the third quarter. Marcotte is an Arizona chiropractor who won the U.S. road race title this year. His 12 documented tests were four more than the top athletes had in the second quarter, Michael Phelps and cyclists Jacob Rathe and Tom Zirbel.
*Phelps, Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte led all swimmers with six documented tests each in the third quarter.
*Distance runners Kara Goucher and Dathan Ritzenhein led all track and field athletes with five. Justin Gatlin and Wallace Spearmon Jr., sprinters who have failed drug tests, had four each. Rupp led all track and field athletes with seven documented tests in the second quarter. Rupp had three in the third quarter.
*Every member of the 2014 FIBA World Cup/Championships men’s and women’s teams received a documented test except for Brittney Griner, who joined the team late, just before the tournament in Turkey in September due to an eye injury.
*Chloe Kim, a snowboarder born April 23, 2000, received her first documented drug test.
*Four-time Olympic speed skater K.C. Boutiette received a documented drug test for the first time in five years. Boutiette, 44, last competed in an Olympics in 2006. He entered the 2014 U.S. Olympic speed skating trials last winter.
*Olympic champion gymnast Jordyn Wieber, who hasn’t competed since London 2012 and said in July she is still deciding her competitive future, has not had a documented test since the third quarter of 2013. The other four members of the Fierce Five were all tested at least once in the third quarter of 2014.
*2010 Olympic champion figure skater Evan Lysacek, who hasn’t competed since Vancouver 2010 and said in September his career is coming to an end, has not had a documented test yet this year.
Olympians often take their names out of the drug-testing pool when they retire, as Phelps did following the London Olympics.
