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LAST UPDATED ON Friday October 31 2003 |
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White House urges 'name US drug athletes'Sept 27 2000Electronic Telegraph Mihir Bose THE White House has intervened in the growing drugs controversy surrounding American athletes, calling on USA Track and Field, the governing body for the sport in America, to come clean about athletes who have tested positive for drugs. The intervention came just as Professor Arne Ljung- qvist, the chief anti-doping officer of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, revealed to me that as many as 10 American athletes could be in the Olympic Village despite having failed tests carried out before they came to Sydney. Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton's drugs tsar, wrote a letter on Monday to USATF using headed notepaper from the Executive Office of the President, saying: "It is our view that the most appropriate response to allegations of impropriety - in particular accusations of complicity in doping - is to let the facts speak for themselves. We urge USATF to immediately make public results of the tests in question." Last night sources suggested that the US Olympic Committee, who were holding their traditional Olympic party, were were fearful that following the disclosure of the positive test on shot putter C J Hunter, another high-profile US athlete was about to be unmasked. McCaffrey's letter was clearly hoping to blunt the accusation made by Ljungqvist that in the last year as many as 15 American doping offences had not been reported to the IAAF. Ljungqvist said that in the last two days USATF had faxed five names to the IAAF. "I do not recognise the five names," he said. "They are not high-profile international athletes." So could the 10 names not disclosed by USATF include those of high-profile athletes who are members of the US team in Sydney? "I don't know," said Ljungqvist. "I have no idea. We don't know who they are, the US won't tell us." Ljungqvist went on to say: "Had the Dieter Baumann case happened in America we would never have come to know about it. He was tested in Germany in a totally domestic situation. The moment he was positive, the Germans informed us." The German athletics authorities exonerated Baumann but the IAAF banned him for two years, which meant he could not take part in the Sydney Games. However, the IAAF could only take action against Baumann because the Germans informed the IAAF as soon as he had tested positive. The US only report positive tests once the whole appeal process is over, and this can take months, if not years. "The US do not report anything at all if they have exonerated the athlete," said Ljungqvist. "So a US Baumann would have meant we would not have had a clue." The IAAF's anger over the Americans' failure to come clean on positive tests is all the greater because the procedure for testing was developed after Seoul in 1988 when the US went into the Olympics with five of their athletes having tested positive before the Games. Prince Alexandre de Merode, head of the IOC's medical commission, confirmed to me that "the Americans had five athletes who were coming to Seoul having failed drug tests. Two of them went on to win medals." Prince de Merode and Ljungqvist had held a meeting with Robert Voy, then head of the anti-doping program at USATF. Ljungqvist said: "The meeting took place before the Games, before Ben Johnson. We decided that in future all labs that conduct tests must report those tests both to the national federations and to the IAAF. The labs do not have the names, only numbers attached to samples. The national associations have the names and they must tell us who the athletes are, so that we can suspend them until the appeal procedure is over. But though all other national associations follow this procedure, the Americans do not." The British also do not tell the IAAF until the appeal procedure is over but Ljungqvist drew a sharp distinction between the two approaches. "The British do not give us the full details until the process is over," he said. "But then they give is all the details. I've had discussions with David Hemery in Sydney and he's an extremely honest man, concerned to protect the athletes. I would like the British to change but they report properly to us, they co-operate - USATF do not." McCaffrey's letter puts pressure on the Americans to come clean but it may have come too late to remove the cloud of suspicion over the American track and field team. It has now emerged that Hunter, husband of American 100 metres gold medallist Marion Jones, failed four tests in all, two of them out of competition before the Milan Grand Prix and just before the Bislett Games in Oslo, then in competition tests in Oslo and Zurich. Hunter, who held a televised press conference, tearfully protested that he was innocent while Jones, who runs in the 200m today, sat next to him in support. Hunter claimed to have taken the same nutritional supplement as Linford Christie and Merlene Ottey, both of whom tested positive for nandrolone. On Monday, after Hunter had been exposed, the IAAF summoned Craig Masback, the chief executive of USATF and Bob Hersh, a member of the IAAF Council, to a Sydney hotel and the Americans agreed to give details of athletes who had failed tests but had been exonerated, but they insisted that under American law they could not disclose the athletes' names. "The American system needs to be changed," said Ljung- qvist. "If you hide the truth it will feed suspicion." v The controversy extended beyond the Americans when it emerged that the IOC's much-touted EPO tests had hit technical problems in analysing blood samples. So far, despite three weeks of testing for EPO, there have been no positives, the positives at these Games coming from urine tests. Prince de Merode told me: "We have had some difficulties with the substances needed to analyse the blood. But the system is now working and, who knows, we may get some EPO positives before the Games are over." Check out the Jumpstart Athletics Canadian National Throws Rankings for complete rankings in the throws. If you have news, results or info please let us know by using our submission form or emailing Larry Steinke [ MEET INFORMATION ] [ ANALYSIS & TIPS ] [ THROWS ARTICLES ] [ INTERVIEWS ] [ RECORDS ] [ RESULTS ] [ CLASSIFIEDS ] [ HOT LINK ARCHIVE ] [ DISCUSSION FORUM ] [ SUBMISSIONS ] [ THROWERS QUIZ ] [ GUESTBOOK ] | ||