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Day-3 Roundup: Drugs Dispute Cast Shadow over Games
It could have been a clear day at the Sydney Olympic Games Monday, but drugs dispute between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) cast some shadow over the day's competitions, which witnessed three world records in weightlifting and one in pool.
The dispute between the two sports organizations was from one same issue: whether Romanian weightlifting team, which gave three positive results in dope test within the season, could be allowed to stay at the Sydney Games.
According the "Three Strikes and Out" rule of the IWF, if three or more members from an association are found guilty of drugs offence, all lifters from the association should be suspended from international competitions for a year. And the IWF also has a "Money for Eligibility" rule which says that if the national Olympic committee is willing to pay a 50,000 U.S. dollars fine, "clean" lifters from the association could be allowed to compete internationally.
The IOC made it clear this morning that the Romanian lifting team wouldn't be allowed to pay a fine to get its "clean" lifters reinstated to the Games.
"We have been very clear. The whole team will have to leave the village," IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch told a news conference.
However, after IWF gave a green light to the four "clean" Romanian lifters -- three men and one women--to stay at the Games after the Romanian Olympic Committee paid a fine, the IOC's stand-in boss, vice-president Dick Pound, said later that the organization would not be intervening in the case, adding that the eligibility of competitors was the responsibility of the relevant international sports federation.
Meanwhile, track officials upheld the two-year suspension of former Olympic 5,000-meter champion Dieter Baumann of Germany.
Baumann, who tested positive for nandrolone last October and November, had appealed, arguing that someone had tampered with his toothpaste.
A total of nine Olympians have been suspended for drug use found in pre-games, including six banned from the athletes' village.
The village was off-limits for a weightlifter from Chinese Taipei, , an Iranian boxer, a swimmer from Kazakhstan, a weightlifter from Norway and two weightlifters from Romania.
The other three, two Egyptian wrestlers and a wrestler from Morocco, were suspended before they arrived at the village.
IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch's wife Maria Teresa Samaranch was memorized in a special Mass on Monday. Teresa passed away Saturday in Barcelona, Spain after a brave fighting with cancer at the age of 67.
On the first day when commuters joined the extra Olympic traffic, a jam caused by an accident delayed the Japanese softball team for nearly an hour and pushed back the start of their games against China by 40 minutes.
Also on Monday, Sydney organizing committee officials said admitted that several athletes have been briefly halted at the entry to the athletes village because a computer check showed that somebody had already entered on their pass.
It was not immediately clear if the cause might be counterfeiting or confusion in the system of checks.
Despite of the hiccups, competitions rolled smoothly with Chinese athletes taking the center stage.
The Chinese delegation, after two-day low-key performances, began to make achievement with three gold medals from weightlifting, shooting and gymnastics.
Chinese men's athletes made breakthrough in Olympics with the men's gymnastics team winning the team title and an unknown sharpshooter Cai Yalin taking the 10-m air rifle gold medal.
The Chinese gymnastics team, made of Li Xiaopeng, Huang Xu, Yang Wei, Xiao Junfeng, Xing Aowei and Zheng Lihui, defeated arch-rivals Russians and Ukrainians to win the Olympic team title for the first time. The Chinese team had 231.919 points for the gold, Ukraine finished second at 230.306 and Russia third at 230.019.
In shooting, Cai Yalin came from nowhere to take the limelight of the Olympics, taking the men's 10m air rifle gold medal with 696.4 points, a new Olympic record.
Chinese team manager Feng Jianzhong applauded the gold as a breakthrough for the Chinese men's shooting team, which finished only fourth at its best in world major competitions.
While on lifting platform, Chinese women's lifter Yang Xia showed China's depth of women's weightlifting, breaking three world records en route to winning the women's 53kg category weightlifting title.
Yang, 23, who has never won a gold in big world competitions except the 1998 Asian Games, broke snatch, jerk and total world marks with 100kg, 125kg and 225kg repectively, before winning the crown.
Mexican lifter Soraya Jimenez Mendivil took another women's weightlifting title in the 58kg category.
In pool, unbeatable Ian Thorpe was beaten by Dutch wonder boy Pieter van den Hoogenband in the men's 200m freestyle while the United States landed two titles, which increased their gold tally to five.
Van den Hoogenband touched home first in one minute 43.35 seconds, tying his own world record set Sunday night.
Denied a third gold medal, Thorpe took silver 24 hours after Van den Hoogenband broke Thorpe's world record in the semis.
Thorpe finished in 1:45.83 and Massimiliano Rosolino of Italy was third in 1:46.65.
Lenny Krayzelburg gave the United States its fourth gold in three days of swimming, winning the 100m backstroke in an Olympic record 53.72 seconds and Megan Jones won the United States second gold of the day from the pool, clocking 1:07.05 seconds in the women's 100m breaststroke final.
Diana Mocanu became the first Romanian swimmer to win a gold medal, taking the 100m backstroke in an Olympic record 1:00.21.
After three-day competitions, United States kept their leading place in medal tally with six golds. France and China each had four golds while Australia, Italy and Netherlands had three respectively.
Tuesday's competitions will decide 15 golds from eight sports including swimming, judo, cycling, gymnastics and weightlifting.
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