The Electronic Telegraph Saturday 21 July 2001 Owen Slot TEN MONTHS after the Sydney Olympics, controversy is set to haunt the Games with the revelation that the American athletics team included an athlete who failed a drugs test. The identity of the athlete has not been revealed but the American federation, USA Track and Field, are facing extreme pressure to disclose the name. If it is a medal-winning athlete, he or she faces the prospect of having to return the medal. The scandal dates back to Sydney when USATF were charged with running an inadequate drug-testing system and it was revealed that 17 cases of positive tests had been kept under wraps. At the time, USATF responded by insisting that not one of those 17 were competing in the Olympics. This has now been proven to be wrong. The issue will come to a head in Edmonton in a week when the world governing body, the IAAF, will convene before the World Championships. The athlete in question may be intending to compete in Edmonton; an embarrassing last-minute withdrawal could be on the cards. "We have to know who it is," said Arne Ljungqvist, the senior vice-president of the IAAF. "They have to tell us. This is new and extremely unpleasant news. I'm very worried because I do not know who it is. If we had to, we would take every necessary step to make that athlete withdraw from Edmonton." Questions remain over the commitment of USATF to ban cheating athletes. Following the allegations against USATF that were levelled in Sydney, an independent commission under Richard McLaren, a Canadian lawyer, was appointed to investigate their drug-testing procedures. McLaren published his findings last week and found the USATF guilty of failing to "assure that no doping cases were ignored or suppressed". The commission criticised USATF for interpreting athletes' privacy protections so broadly that "its effect was to prevent the IAAF from enforcing their own doping controls on an international level. . .their policy of non-disclosure was, in the commission's view, inconsistent with a stated serious commitment to combat doping." USATF claim that the 17 cases were all dealt with at home and that the mystery athlete who tested positive and then competed in Sydney was found to have been innocent of any offence. But since USATF failed to declare the 17 positives and then refused to deliver any evidence to explain why "the Sydney one" had been exonerated, the IAAF have no idea whether the rules are being enforced. "This is impossible," said Ljungqvist. "We urged them to deliver the documentation to us. We have to know the full facts. It is a matter of fairness to the athletes who do not take drugs. I am now asking for all the facts to be disclosed." McLaren's report was greeted with a sense of `I told you so' by the IAAF which was forced to bring public attention to the shortcomings of the American federation. "I feel vindicated," said Ljungqvist. "I feel I've evened the score." Particularly relieved at the report was Professor Christiane Ayotte who runs the IOC-accredited laboratory in Canada and gave damning evidence to McLaren. Ayotte claims that she was put under considerable pressure by USATF. "They felt that since I was only a Quebecois, a Canadian and a woman, I would be the weakest point in the chain," she said. "It was my credibility as an expert that they questioned." Any hopes that USATF might take the report on the chin and make a clean start were dashed by their swift, official response which challenged the report's conclusions, saying the investigation went far beyond its scope, lacked thoroughness and used highly selective statistics. "Now it is up to USATF to take action and rectify the situation," said Ljungqvist. "I hope we can start anew but I fear this is not the case because Craig Masback [USATF chief executive] is saying the Commission are wrong." Eamonn Condon www.RunnersGoal.com
