Larry Bowers, senior managing director of USADA, told USA TODAY the agency is ready to draw blood samples to detect homologous transfusion and human growth hormone (HGH). The breakthrough is important because it weans USADA of its reliance on urine tests that are ineffective in catching various forms of cheating, and because the USA is under pressure to send a clean team to Beijing. USADA is the independent group responsible for testing U.S. Olympians.

Bowers said he "can count on one hand" the number of times they've drawn blood before 2008.

Getting this far has been a two-part process. The first: learning how to collect blood. Now that USADA has done that, it is waiting for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to finish its new HGH test. That release is imminent, Bowers said. WADA plans to use the test at the Beijing Games in August.

"We've told the athletes blood testing is coming and it's coming soon," Bowers said.