CLEVELAND, Ohio, 19 October 2003 — United States Olympic Committee (USOC) officials ripped USA Track and Field leaders for inadequate responses to doping scandals here on Friday and named a panel to help force proper actions.
Bill Martin, the acting USOC president trying to reorganize his own group in the wake of a huge mismanagement scandal, was unsatsified after a presentation by USA Track president Bill Roe and chief executive officer Craig Masback.
“The United States Olympic Committee has to take the responsibility and leadership to solve this problem because we’re not satisfied with the action that has been taken to date by USA Track and Field,” Martin said in a statement.
“This is a problem rooted in both perception and reality and it is a problem relating to doping, athlete conduct and the credibility of the sport. We have challenged USA Track and Field to show greater leadership on these issues.”
Martin ordered USA Track and Field to prepare and submit a plan by Nov. 17 to the USOC with detailed actions on doping, athlete conduct and restoring credibility in their sport.
That task became much harder Thursday upon revelation of a new designer steroid previously unable to be discovered through conventional tests, one uncovered by the US Anti-Doping Agency thanks to an unnamed athletics coach.
With a poor USA Track and Field background of providing information and answers to outside probes, the USOC appointed a three-person panel to “work with” USA Track and Field on meeting their goals by the one-month deadline.
That group includes USOC Chief of Sport Performance Jim Scherr, USOC Vice President Herman Frazier and Cameron Myler of the Athletes Advisory Council.
The USOC vowed complete cooperation with the International Olympic Committee and IAAF, track’s world governing body, regarding the doping probe involving 2000 Olympic relay gold medalist Jerome Young testing positive for steroids.
Young, 27, tested positive for nandrolone in June 1999 but was later cleared on appeal and allowed to compete in Sydney for the triumphant 4x400m US relay.
