HELSINKI, 3 August 2005 — The United States will urge the world governing athletics body this week to impose life bans on any athlete testing positive for steroids.
The US motion is one of around 300 tabled for debate at a two-day meeting of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) congress starting today in advance of the 10th world championships opening on Saturday.
At present first time offenders who test positive for steroids are banned for two years. Lifetime bans follow a second offence.
The IAAF reduced the first time ban from four to two years in 1997 because of conflicts with some civil courts who argued that the longer ban was excessive. The US hard-line stance on steroids is a response to the BALCO laboratory drugs scandal, which at one stage threatened to destroy the sport’s credibility.
In December 2003, the board of directors for USA Track & Field voted unanimously to ban for life any athletes who tested positive for steroids. The ban does not apply to any athlete who had already been implicated in the BALCO scandal, including 2003 double world sprint champion Kelli White. White accepted a two-year ban after admitting taking a variety of drugs supplied by the Californian laboratory including the previously undetectable steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone). IAAF officials said the proposal was unlikely to gain approval from the congress because the federation’s rules already allowed members to impose any ban they wished on their athletes.
