MADRID, 18 May 2003 — US Olympic chiefs will be called on to hand over documents and records detailing their anti-doping methods as the IOC looks into allegations of a drugs cover-up. International Olympic Committee director-general Francois Carrard stopped short yesterday of describing the request as an investigation.
But the US Olympic Committee will be asked for “general generic information” on their past anti-doping practices. The request is being made following recent allegations that US athletes were allowed to compete after failing drugs tests between 1988 and 2000.
Former USOC drug tsar Wade Exum claimed US athletes — including nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis — had between them tested positive for drugs more than 100 times in that period. Only a handful were banned from competing.
According to documents released by Exum, USOC disqualified Lewis from competing at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but then accepted his appeal on the basis that he had taken a herbal supplement and was unaware of its contents.
Lewis received a warning after US officials ruled his positive tests were due to “inadvertent” use. He went on to win the 100 meters gold medal after Canada’s Ben Johnson was stripped of the title when he tested positive for steroids in the biggest scandal in Olympic history.
USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said last month that according to USOC rules in 1988, the only way to declare a doping offense was to prove that the sole intent of the athlete was to take the banned substance to artificially improve performance.
Nowadays, an athlete is strictly liable if a banned substance is found. The IAAF said last month it had been informed in 1988 that eight unnamed US athletes had tested positive but were still eligible to compete at that year’s Olympics because their cases were ruled “negative” according to the rules at that time.
Last month Lewis indicated he had tested positive for three banned substances, but had been let off by USOC.
Lewis, who also said a herbal supplement that triggered his positive tests at the 1988 Olympic trials gave him no advantage, told the Orange County Register newspaper that he was treated the same as “hundreds of others” who tested positive.
Lewis tested positive three times for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine — stimulants banned by the US and International Olympic Committees.
“The climate was different (then),” Lewis told the newspaper. “Over the years a lot of people will sit around and debate that it does something. There really is no pure evidence to show that it does something. It does nothing.”
The IOC’s Carrard said yesterday: “We want more background. We want to know what was done, why it was done, how it was done. “The (IOC) board is neither satisfied nor dissatisfied (with the documents), the board looks at this as a series of allegations and wants to know what exactly were the standards, the practices...who took the decisions.”
Meanwhile, Olympic officials hope to award the US television rights for the 2010 and 2012 Games within hours of receiving bids next month, Carrard said Friday. Current rights holders NBC together with ABC, CBS and Fox will pitch for the multibillion dollar rights at the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne over June 5-6.
