How to clean up athletics, sports, and games

Just out of curiosity, I wondered how long it typically takes the human body to "clear" synthetic testosterone (or natural I guess in excess amounts) from the body.  It turns out that the time is about 3 weeks, and testing for excess testosterone from natural sources can be done with a kit costing about $35 from Wal-Mart.


Of course, I would have to guess that a "true" IAAF test--the kind that detects synthetic testosterone, HGH, and other ways of "tricking" the body into making more muscle and recovering more quickly--would probably get up into hundreds of dollars or more.  So to adequately test athletes, you'd have to do at least ~10 randomized tests per year with a cost probably exceeding $10,000 per athlete--plus the costs of those to go visit the athlete and watch while he/she gives a blood sample and tinkles into the test jar.


Multiply that by the ~10,000 athletes that take part in the Summer Olympics every four years, plus another ten times that many who have a legitimate shot at making it to the Olympics every four years, and you're talking about a billion dollar annual cost of policing the system.  In the NCAA, there are close to half a million student-athletes, many of whom ought to be tested, as well. 


The long and short of it is that it appears that world class athletics is going to be a steroid and EPO enhanced freak show for a long time until people really decide to police things.