The Hindu : Sport : Olympic officials want help in banning drug offenders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004

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Sport - Sports : General

Olympic officials want help in banning drug offenders

SAN FRANCISCO, APRIL 27. Worried they're running out of time to keep drug cheaters out of the Athens Games, U.S. Olympic officials want some help from Federal authorities.

And they aren't just going after athletes who have failed drug tests. Instead, they hope to use a clause in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's rules to bar athletes who acknowledge the use of steroids and other banned substances, including a grand jury testimony.

The U.S. Olympic Committee wants to make sure it doesn't have a PR disaster on its hands during the Aug. 13-29 Games.

"Our image is going to be just fine if we send a clean team," acting USOC president Bill Martin said on Monday. "The last thing we want to happen is to select the wrong folks."

Martin and other Olympic officials say they need assistance to keep out competitors using banned substances. They would love access to grand jury transcripts in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative case involving the alleged distribution of steroids to top athletes.

While such grand jury proceedings are secret by law, the Senate Commerce Committee chaired by Sen. John McCain issued a subpoena for the BALCO testimony.

That could override the secrecy provision, according to Rory Little, a Hastings College of the Law scholar and a former federal prosecutor.

Little said it would be `highly unusual for the Department of Justice to be giving up grand jury material in the middle of an investigation.' But even if the Justice Department challenged such a subpoena, Little said, a court could order that such documents be released.

According to an AP poll released on Monday, nine out of every 10 Americans believe the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by Olympic athletes is a problem.

Forty-three per cent of those responding to the survey called it a major problem; another 49 per cent see it as a minor problem. Only 6 per cent don't consider it a problem.

Craig Masback, the head of USA Track & Field, hopes federal and anti-doping authorities turn over any evidence of drug use as quickly as possible `so that the guilty will be punished and the innocent will be cleared of suspicion.'

"That is all we can do," Masback said. "We did not do the tests, we did not test the samples. We did not do the federal investigation, we do not have the affidavits, we were not in the grand jury."

Section 9 of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's protocol gives that agency the authority to bring a drug case against an athlete in lieu of a positive test `when USADA has other reason to believe that a potential doping violation has occurred, such as admitted doping.' — AP

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