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Tuesday, September 19
IOC officials say U.S. study 'outdated'
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- The International Olympic Committee,
under renewed attack for its anti-doping policies, says critics in
the United States and other countries should fix their own drug
problems before giving lessons to others.
IOC members complained Tuesday about a study, financed and
released by the White House last week, that criticized the
international committee and other sports organizations for failing
to do enough to combat the use of banned performance-enhancing
drugs in the Olympics.
The report was prepared by Joseph A. Califano Jr., president of
the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at
Columbia University. The center conducted a two-year, $1 million
study of drug use in Olympic sports.
IOC officials have called the report out of date, saying it
fails to take into account steps made in recent months. These
include formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, approval of a
test for the banned drug EPO, implementation of unannounced
out-of-competition controls and appointment of independent
observers for the Sydney Games.
"I understand very well that many members of the IOC are not
happy with the attacks we are receiving day by day regarding the
doping fight," IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch told the
general assembly Tuesday.
Without citing the United States by name, he said the
International Olympic Committee should take up the issue with
national Olympic committees in the countries "that are giving us a
lesson every day, telling us what we have to do.
"Only if these countries are doing something in their own
country against doping can we accept this kind of lesson."
The IOC has frequently cited the absence of a comprehensive
anti-doping program in the United States, particularly in
professional sports.
The U.S. study triggered a backlash during a discussion on the
activities of the world anti-doping agency, which was created by
the IOC last year to coordinate out-of-competition testing.
"We can't accept the attitudes of those national institutions
which want to give us lessons of behavior," Italian delegate Mario
Pescante said. "You know who I am talking about.
"We cannot accept that a professor without any title can give
us lessons in the anti-doping fight. This so-called professor is
from a country that is not doing 10 percent of what the IOC is
doing. Those calling for others to put their house in order should
get their own house in order too."
IOC vice president Dick Pound, chairman of the world agency,
lamented the "misinformation, often deliberate misinformation"
circulated about the IOC's anti-doping efforts.
"We've taken the responsibility of putting our heads above the
parapets," he said. "When you get your head up there, you become
a target and are often an unjustified target."
Referring to the U.S. study, Pound said: "There's a great deal
of academic and scholarly rivalry out there. Scholars love to
debate with each other about who is right and who is wrong. The
ones who say everything is wrong tend to get a little more press
attention than those who say it's right."
Many IOC members consider the criticism from the United States
as being directed by Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the White
House drug policy office.
But McCaffrey, once an outspoken IOC critic, has recently
praised the advances made by the organization in the anti-doping
field. His office has sought to distance itself from some of the
criticism contained in the new report, stressing that it was
prepared by an independent commission.
McCaffrey spokesman Bob Wiener said Tuesday that McCaffrey
believed "remarkable progress" has been made over the past two
years.
"He believes the recent waves of busts and removals for doping
are the clearest signs that the IOC and WADA mean business,"
Wiener said.
Pound said WADA has carried out more than 2,000 out-of-competion
tests around the world since April. More than a dozen positive
results have been recorded.
The IOC came under new scrutiny after an Australian television
documentary, aired Monday night, charged the IOC approved an
ineffective test for EPO. Instead of selecting a method that can
detect use of the drug going back 28 days, the IOC opted for a test
that can only trace it back a few days, Australian scientists told
the program.
But IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said an independent
panel of scientists had found the other test unreliable, and that
positive results might not stand up to legal challenge.
Said Pound: "It's better to be conservative at the start and
expand in due course.'
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