Overview

A team of scientists works to expose athletes who use banned drugs to win Olympic medals in this Library Media Connection Editor's Choice. Here is the true, inside story of the UCLA Olympic Laboratory—the drug-detection team that tests athletes for banned performance-enhancing drugs. The scientists worked long nights to detect a new, never-before-tested performance-enhancing drug called NESP (novel erythropoietic stimulating protein) during the 19th Winter Olympics (2002) in Salt Lake City, Utah. The group's work exposed three NESP users among the winning cross-country skiers. The drug users were stripped of their medals, which were then given to the rightful winners.

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9781590785669

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Fair-minded and kid-friendly. . . . Teachers and young readers will appreciate Hatton's personable manner and her keen perspective on this timely subject. -- School Library Journal

Fair-minded and kid-friendly. . . . Teachers and young readers will appreciate Hatton's personable manner and her keen perspective on this timely subject. -- School Library Journal Hatton charts new territory providing a look at the lab that works to keep athletic competitions fair. This is an outstanding resource for reports on drugs in sports or the Olympics. -- Library Media Connection Readers will certainly understand one of the more complicated subtexts of the upcoming Olympics much better after spending some time with this slim, readable offering. ('sports smarts, ' author's note, glossary, resources, index) --Kirkus Reviews Fair-minded and kid-friendly. . . . Teachers and young readers will appreciate Hatton's personable manner and her keen perspective on this timely subject. --School Library Journal Hatton charts new territory providing a look at the lab that works to keep athletic competitions fair. This is an outstanding resource for reports on drugs in sports or the Olympics. --Library Media Connection

The night Olympic team of the title consists not of athletes but of the dedicated scientists, lawyers and officials who make sure the Olympians stay honest. Written by a member of the 2002 Winter Olympics squad of drug testers, the narrative presents a cogent background of doping practices and the development of tests to thwart them, framed within the tale of the discovery of NESP - a synthetic blood-booster thought to be impossible to test for - in the urine of three medalists. Hatton does a creditable job of explaining the chemical alphabet-soup jargon of drugs and drug-testing, abetted by a design that features short chapters and fact boxes that both flesh out the story's details and offer supplementary facts about doping. Along the way, she makes a strong case for the importance to both health and integrity for the stringent treatment of offenders. Readers will certainly understand one of the more complicated subtexts of the upcoming Olympics much better after spending some time with this slim, readable offering. ( sports smarts, author's note, glossary, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12 & up) (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Caroline Hatton was born in Normandy to Vietnamese immigrants and grew up in Paris. She has a pharmacist degree from the University of Paris and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles. She worked as the Associate Director of the UCLA Olympic Laboratory for a decade and a half, testing athletes for performance-enhancing drugs.

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