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Wednesday, September 13
Anti-doping movement snares first three
Reuters
SYDNEY, Australia -- Three positive drugs tests were
announced Wednesday just two days before the opening
ceremony of the millennium Olympics, which IOC leaders hope
will rid the Games of the stains of doping.
In a major crackdown, three competitors were identified as
drug cheats and barred from the Games: Taiwanese weightlifter
Chen Po-pu, Bulgarian triple jumper Iva Prandzheva and
Kazakhstan freestyle swimmer Yevgenia Yermakova.
Chen became the first athlete to get expelled from the
Sydney Olympics for doping after testing for the anabolic
steroid methandienone.
Prandzheva, one of only two people caught for taking drugs
at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, has been suspended after a
positive test for the steroid nandrolone while Yermakova was
barred for taking a diuretic.
In further unwelcome news for the Games organizers and the
International Olympic Committee, a leading Brazilian coach said
the use of performance-enhancing drugs in swimming was rife.
American Michael Loheberg, who coaches Brazilian freestyler
Fernando Scherer, said doping had become such an accepted part
of swimming that competitors were resigned to using drugs if
they wanted to win.
Chen took silver and bronze medals at world junior
competitions in 1997 and 1998.
He had been training with the rest of the Taiwanese team on
the outskirts of Sydney this week.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) last month
banned two Taiwanese, including three-times world champion Chen
Jui-lien, from competing at Sydney for doping offences.
Prandzheva, a silver medalist at the 1995 world
championships, was banned for two years after testing positive
for the steroid methandienone in Atlanta.
IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri said Prandzheva had now been
suspended by the Bulgarian federation but could give no other
details.
The IAAF arbitration panel is scheduled to meet in Sydney
Thursday, the day before the Games open, to consider the doping
case of Germany's 1992 Barcelona Olympic 5,000 meters champion
Dieter Baumann.
Baumann is one of several track and field athletes,
including Britain's 1992 Olympic 100 meters gold medallist
Linford Christie, who have tested positive for nandrolone.
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