Anti-doping head: U.S. athletes viewed as habitual violators
By wire services
Published July 14, 2004
WASHINGTON - Insufficient drug testing in some of America's premier pro sports leagues has led to a world perception U.S. athletes routinely use illegal performance-enhancing substances, Congress was told Tuesday.
Terry Madden, head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, an independent organization that monitors U.S. Olympic athletes, said some countries balk at signing anti-doping codes because they believe professional athletes in the United States are among the worst violators.
"The perception out there is that we're not a clean country," Madden said. The National Football League has solid testing, he said, but baseball, basketball and hockey "need to raise their programs."
Madden and Bill Martin, former head of the USOC, told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control that uniform standards for testing amateur and pro athletes are needed.
Such standards would provide "consistent messages to athletes and would greatly simplify enforcement," said Martin, athletic director of the University of Michigan. The Olympics, he said, have a more exhaustive list of banned substances than the NCAA.
The testimony came as four athletes accused by USADA of using steroids were eliminated at the Olympic track and field trials. Alvin Harrison, Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines failed to qualify in their events, while Michelle Collins pulled out of the women's 400, citing a hamstring injury. They have denied the doping allegations and hearings are pending.
The allegations were based on evidence from the investigation of California's Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative. The lab's owner has pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired to distribute illegal performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes.
Martin and Madden testified for a Senate bill that would ban over-the-counter sales of steroid precursors, which act like steroids in the human body.
BLACKOUT INVESTIGATION: A prosecutor ordered an emergency investigation into what caused a power outage that hit more than half of Greece and whether one could strike during the Games. The government formed its investigative committee after blaming Monday's blackout on alleged mismanagement of the electricity distribution network.
Greece's Public Power Corp. said it would have its staff help monitor the electricity grid to ensure a blackout does not take place during the Olympics. Evangelos Lekatsas, chairman of the Hellenic Transmission System Operators, which distributes the nation's electricity, warned Athens risked another blackout during the Aug. 13-29 Games if power consumption was high because of a heat wave. Heavy use of air conditioners during Monday's 104-degree temperatures was partly blamed for the blackout.
IRAQI AMBUSHED: The head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee said militants ambushed his convoy with rocket-propelled grenades in the middle of Baghdad, damaging his bodyguards' car and injuring one of them. Ahmed al-Hijeya said he was traveling to a TV interview Monday when his two-car convoy was ambushed on Baghdad's Haifa Street, the scene of regular violence and occasional street battles between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.
"I am surprised at this attack because the Olympic Committee has nothing to do with politics. This committee belongs to all Iraqis, regardless of their political, religious or ethnic origins," al-Hijeya said.
EXTRA AID: The Czech Senate approved plans to send 100 anti-chemical warfare specialists to help guard the Games. The Czechs will be part of a force to respond to the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Greece is spending $1.2-billion on security. It enlisted the help of NATO, which will patrol the sea and skies, and is being assisted by a seven-nation advisory group led by the United States and Britain.
