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Wednesday, October 11
IOC yet to disclose wrestler's identity
Associated Press
LONDON -- A freestyle wrestler is in line to become the
third athlete from the Sydney Olympics to be stripped of a gold
medal after failing a drug test.
Two wrestlers tested positive for banned substances during the
final weekend of the Sydney Games on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, a senior
Olympic medical official said Wednesday.
One of the wrestlers won a gold medal, said the official,
speaking on condition of anonymity. The second did not win a medal.
The identities of the two competitors were not disclosed.
Of the eight gold medals awarded in freestyle wrestling, four
were won by competitors from Russia and one each by wrestlers from
Azerbaijan, Iran, Germany and Canada.
The International Olympic Committee medical commission will hold
a hearing with the two wrestlers and their representatives on
Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland.
If found guilty of drug offenses, they face being disqualified
from the Games, and the Olympic champion would lose his gold medal.
One of the wrestlers is believed to have tested positive for the
steroid nandrolone, and the other for a weight-loss diuretic.
Michel Dusson, secretary general of the international wrestling
federation, declined to comment, saying the cases were being
handled by the IOC.
The positive test results were confirmed the day after the games
ended.
While the IOC medical commission usually judges drug cases
within a few days, it put off action because the athletes had
already left Australia and were not available for a hearing.
IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch, who declined to discuss
the details of the cases, said the athletes' backup "B" samples
have been tested.
During the Olympics, the medical commission makes
recommendations on drug cases to the ruling IOC executive board,
which announces sanctions.
After Monday's hearing, the medical commission will submit its
recommendation to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, Schamasch
said.
Instead of waiting for the next meeting of the executive board
in December, Samaranch may arrange a conference call with board
members to make an immediate decision, Schamasch said.
The two cases bring to 11 the number of positive tests reported
by the IOC during the Sydney Games -- nine from in-competition drug
controls and two from out-of-competition screening.
The 11 positives are the most at the Olympics since 12 were
recorded at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Five athletes were stripped of medals in Sydney, including two
gold medalists.
Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan lost her all-around gold after
testing positive for pseudoephedrine, apparently from cold pills,
while Bulgarian women's weightlifter Izabela Dragneva had her gold
taken away after her urine sample showed traces of furosemide, a
banned diuretic.
Two men's Bulgarian weightlifters lost silver and bronze medals
after testing positive for furosemide, and an Armenian weightlifter
was stripped of a bronze for nandrolone.
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