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Tuesday, September 5
Aussie reprimanded for 'drugs cheat' charge
Reuters
SYDNEY, Australia -- Australian champion swimmer Kieren
Perkins was officially reprimanded on Tuesday for calling
American Gary Hall a "drugs cheat" as tension rose between the
two nations expected to dominate the Olympic swimming
competition.
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates told a
news conference he had already spoken to Perkins' manager and
would tell the swimmer himself he should not say such things.
Perkins had been responding to comments made by Hall who
wrote in his Olympic Internet column that the Americans would
smash the Australians "like guitars" in the Sydney Games, which
open on Sept. 15.
World record-holder Perkins, attempting to win gold in the
1,500 meters in his third successive Olympics, referred on
Tuesday to Hall's three-month ban for testing positive for
marijuana two years ago.
"I don't take a lot of notice of drug cheats so you know,
don't worry about him," said Perkins.
"He got suspended didn't he? It's fact then, there you go."
Asked if he really meant what he said, Perkins added: "I
don't have to race him. What am I worried about."
Coates said: "Kieren knows he shouldn't have said it and
will be more careful. I'll remind him of that as well.
"His manager has had a talk to him and he (Perkins)
acknowledges he shouldn't have said it. I will have a talk to
him and just explain again the values under which our
Australian team are going to compete in these Games."
Coates apologized to the U.S. team last week after
Australian long jumper Jai Taurima made inflammatory comments.
Taurima upset the Americans when he dismissed the medal
chances of their Afro-American jumpers, Melvin Lister and
Savante Stringfellow, saying they would struggle to cope with
the mild conditions in Sydney.
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