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Friday, September 15
Drug testing still in question as Games begin
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- The Sydney Olympics got under way with
a glistening opening ceremony, the anticipation of two weeks of
athletic excellence and -- as usual at any Olympics -- talk about
drug testing.
Francois Carrard, director general of the International Olympic
Committee, said that as of Friday, the IOC had conducted 269
out-of-competition tests and 149 controls for the hormone EPO, with
no positive results.
Last week, the World Anti-Doping Agency said at least 10
positive results had been recorded among the more than 2,000
unannounced, out-of-competition tests it conducted around the world
since April. Those tests are separate from the tests the IOC is
running in Sydney.
The Romanian delegation on Friday withdrew two weightlifters
from the competition following reports they failed drug tests. The
athletes are Traian Ciharean and Adrian Mateias.
Meanwhile, the science journal "Nature" questioned
drug-testing efforts for these games, saying some athletes will
still get away with using human growth hormone.
"Although the scientists developing the tests are confident
that they could have been readied in time for Sydney, the IOC
refused to sanction funding for the necessary validation studies,"
the journal said in Thursday's edition. "As a result, unscrupulous
athletes know that they can abuse hGH with impunity."
Human growth hormone, which was designed to treat dwarfism, is
used by some athletes to build muscle. In January 1999, a
consortium headed by London endocrinologist Peter Sonksen told the
IOC it had found a "very credible test" for hGH.
Sonksen said validation studies would cost about $5 million,
which the IOC called too high and declined to fund.
The journal also found flaws in the IOC's tests for EPO, which
raises the level of oxygen-carrying red blood cells and is favored
by endurance athletes. Any athlete who stopped taking EPO a few
days before their event "will probably test negative," the
journal said.
Even a positive blood test would not mean punishment since the
IOC requires two failed tests.
"If the International Olympic Committee and other sports
governing bodies do not provide more funding to back their tough
words on drugs ... scientists say they will continue to be
runners-up in the doping contest," the magazine said.
White House drug chief Barry McCaffrey, a critic of drug-testing
methods in sports, said he isn't satisfied with the EPO test but
that, "It's a valid effort."
The current test will have an "enormously reassuring effect on
the many honest athletes who wanted to come here and compete,"
McCaffrey said Friday.
Princess Anne, president of the British Olympic Association and
an IOC member, said the temptation for world-class athletes to gain
an edge through performance-enhancing drugs would always be too
great.
"You will never defeat it entirely," she said in an interview
Thursday with Britain's ITN. "It is a problem that will always be
there."
German swimmer Franziska van Almsick, winner of three medals at
the Atlanta Olympics, questioned the will of sports to control
performance-enhancing drugs.
"I have the impression that not everybody 100 percent wants
something to be done about it," she told the financial daily
Handelsblatt.
Meanwhile, the coach of the Chinese rowing team insisted his
athletes have not used EPO, even though seven members failed the
test. Zhang Quing suggested traditional medicines might be to
blame.
"They definitely did not use EPO," Zhang said Thursday.
Zhang said nutritional supplements might have affected the
tests. He also said some rowers take Chinese medicines typically
given to women after childbirth to boost their blood cell counts.
A Greek athlete who was stopped last week for carrying a natural
drug that is banned in Australia arrived in Sydney on Friday to
compete.
Triple jump champion Stamatis Lenis, 22, and coach Stavrou
Zougouridis were stopped by customs officers in Perth for carrying
the natural Russian drug Ekdisten.
Tests revealed the drug contained Ecdysterone, a natural
substance used to aid an athlete's recovery. The drug is outlawed
in Australia but isn't banned by the IOC as a performance-enhancing
drug.
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