Doping Takes Its First Olympic Casualty --Sydney Olympics 2000


Wednesday, September 20

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Doping Takes Its First Olympic Casualty

Doping claimed its first casualty of the Sydney Olympic Games on Wednesday when a Bulgarian weightlifter was stripped of his medal. But the stigma of cheating did not spread to the pool, which crackled in expectation of a truly Olympian duel in the premier event, the men's 100 metres freestyle, between "Flying Dutchman" Pieter van den Hoogenband and Russian legend Alexander Popov.

Medals in cycling, gymnastics, shooting, archery and canoeing were also up for grabs on the fifth day of the 17-day sporting extravaganza.

Ivan Ivanov was the first competitor to be stripped of a medal since the Games opened last Friday. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Ivanov, who tested positive for a diuretic, was one of two athletes to fail drug tests. The other was hammer-thrower Vadim Devyatovsky from Belarus who registered positive in a test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in an out-of-competition test in the Olympic village, he has already left Sydney.

IOC director general Francois Carrard said Ivanov would be stripped of the silver he won in the 56 kg division behind Halil Mutlu of Turkey.

"Ivanov has been disqualified and excluded from the Games. The Bulgarians have been asked to return the silver medal," he said.

Bronze medallist Wu Wenxiong of China will take the silver and Chinese fourth-placed Zhang Xiangxiang moves up for the bronze.

Two Romanian weightlifters have already been barred from competition over drugs. The IOC, dogged by corruption scandals and criticism of its stance on doping, has tried to repair its image by talking tough on drugs.

China dropped 27 of its Olympic squad before coming to Sydney and at least 12 athletes had been kept from competition before Wednesday's revelations because of drugs.

Two African track athletes dropped out after testing positive for nandrolone in random tests. International Amateur Athletic Federation spokesman Giorgio Reineri identified them as Kenyan runner Simon Kemboi and Nigerian woman Dupe Osime, also a runner.

The IAAF decided to send the drugs case of Ukrainian shot putter Aleksandr Bagach, the1996 Atlanta bronze medallist, to arbitration, effectively preventing his participation in the Games.

Swimming, where 10 world records have been shattered, seemed to have escaped the stain of drugs. Swimmers have been the heroes of the first week of the Games for sports-obsessed Australians, but they had to concede that their triple gold medallist Ian Thorpe had a worthy rival in van den Hoogenband.

The 22-year-old Dutchman is favourite to thwart Popov's dream of becoming the first male swimmer to win the 100 metres freestyle at three Olympic Games. Two top rivals broke his six-year-old world record in the lead-up to Wednesday's final.

Popov won the 50 metres and 100 metres freestyle double at both the 1992 and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and was the early favourite for Sydney until Australia's Michael Klim and van den Hoogenband arrived.

Klim shaved 0.03 seconds off Popov's world record of 48.21 as the lead-off swimmer in Saturday's 4x100 relay only for the Dutchman to hack another 0.34 off the new mark in Tuesday's second semifinal to set a new standard of 47.84.

"It's amazing, even I can't fathom how fast that is," said van den Hoogenband, who is striving for his second gold of the Games after beating Thorpe in Monday's 200 final. "I just hope I can swim a little faster in the final."

Athletics, the star event of the Games, does not begin until Friday but some competitors have already fallen by the wayside.

World 200m champion Inger Miller of the United States said she had pulled out of the 100m after injuring a hamstring in her left leg this month. Miller was considered the biggest threat to team mate Marion Jones in both the 100 and 200m.

"I didn't want to jeopardise the whole event. It's getting better by the day and it was possible I would have been okay by Friday but I cannot risk it," Miller said.

Miller, 28, said she still hoped to run in the first round of the 200m and in the 4x100m relay the following weekend."I hope by Wednesday things will be a bit brighter for me," she said. "I think I will be all right."

Two convicts who commandeered a car carrying a South Korean Olympic official and Games volunteers on Tuesday were still on run police said. But New South Wales Police Commissioner Peter Ryan said security at Olympic venues would not be stepped up. "It was two prisoners escaping from jail. It happens not irregularly," he told reporters.