Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 30, 2000
U.S. may turn drug testing over to others
SYDNEY, Australia -- An independent agency is prepared to take over drug-testing programs in the United States and the rest of the world, perhaps even at future Olympics.
USA Track & Field, accused of covering up positive tests, proposed that its drug control program be handed over to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Craig Masback, executive director of the U.S. federation, suggested Friday that the agency handle all in- and out-of-competition tests for U.S. athletes and investigate positive cases.
Dick Pound, the International Olympic Committee vice president and chairman of the doping agency, welcomed the proposal and said it should be extended to all countries and all sports, and the Olympic Games themselves.
"Ultimately, that's probably the best way for all this to be played out -- that all testing, for all national and international federations and national Olympic committees, be handled by an independent third party," Pound said.
ANOTHER POSITIVE: Russian 400-meter runner Svetlana Pospelova tested positive for drugs in an out-of-competition test, IOC officials said.
Pospelova was found to have the banned steroid stanozolol, said Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the IOC's medical commission. She was not a medalist. Pospelova had returned to Russia when the medical commission received the test result, de Merode said.
Pospelova is the seventh athlete to test positive at the Games, which have been enveloped in doping cases since well before the start.
FORGET THE DRUGS: Pound says the success of the Sydney Games will ensure that they aren't remembered primarily for drugs.
"Sydney is a huge success," Pound said. "Six positive drug tests in an Olympics is not an epidemic. If we hadn't had any, you (media) would be here saying: "Ah ha! Coverup again!' But six is certainly within the norm.
"If you read anywhere, or hear anywhere, that these are the drug-tainted Olympics, that is just not so."
SECURITY: Police have received more than 200 threats during the Olympics but said none was credible or put the Games at risk.
The threats, an average of 12 a day, have been either bomb scares or threats against specific people, said New South Wales state police commissioner Peter Ryan. All have been analyzed to determine if they were hoaxes. Those that weren't were investigated.
Police bomb squads investigated all bomb threats. Ryan said no explosive devices were discovered. No one has been arrested in connection with any of the threats, he said.
GARDNER HOMECOMING: They're pulling out all the stops in Afton, Wyo., to prepare a hometown hero's welcome for Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner, who stunned Russian Alexander Karelin for a gold medal.
Even the world's largest elk horn arch, which spans the four-lane Main Street, is being employed to celebrate the return of the native who pulled off what many consider one of the greatest achievements by an Olympic athlete.
Gov. Jim Geringer and the governors of Utah, Idaho and Colorado are being invited for a celebration honoring Gardner, and area businesses are teaming to feed the 6,000 people expected. Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney, who has a home in Jackson Hole, is trying to fit the celebration into his campaign schedule, said Richard Hoopes, Gardner's former high school coach.
WILSON'S FUTURE: American gymnast Blaine Wilson hasn't ruled out another Olympics.
"I haven't decided yet," said Wilson, 26. "But I know that if it takes a single second away from me and my fiancee, I'm out of here."
Wilson, engaged to Fijian volleyball player Makare Desilets, has more or less committed to staying at least another year to help 18-year-old twins Paul and Morgan Hamm adjust to life as the future of the American team.
Wilson, a five-time defending national champion, had a bad Games. He finished sixth in the all-around and struggled during the team competition, in which the Americans finished fifth. In the vault final, he finished sixth.
SHOPPING MARATHON: The Olympic Superstore has attracted 500,000 customers, about half the accumulated attendance at the massive Olympic Stadium nearby.
Customer No. 500,000, Elizabeth Barker of Australia, was given a gift voucher worth $275.
SWEET VICTORY: Tran Hieu Ngan's silver medal finish in tae kwon do won Vietnam its first Olympic medal, making her the talk of Vietnam. The news was splashed across front pages and on television screens.
Her mother, Nguyen Thi Huong, said Ngan had to overcome the biggest tragedy of her life to win the medal after her father died in July during training.
"I prayed to my husband every day while Ngan was in Sydney, asking him to give her support," her mother said. "Her achievement helped us lessen the sorrow of her father's passing away."