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Athlete fails drugs test: IOC medical chief
ATTENTION - ADDS quotes, details /// SYDNEY, Sept 25 (AFP) - A new drugs scandal rocked the Olympic Games Monday when the International Olympic Committee's medical chief said that an athlete had failed a steroids drugs test in Oslo on July 28. Prince Alexandre De Merode, who heads the IOC's medical commission, told reporters at a Sydney hotel used by Olympic officials that the athlete had tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. He refused to comment on the identity of the athlete, but IOC vice-president Dick Pound said he had been told it was world shot put champion C.J. Hunter, husband of 100 metres gold medal winner Marion Jones. Pound said he had learned of the results from reliable sources. The details of the test follow a Sydney newspaper report earlier Monday naming 1997 world shot put champion Hunter as the athlete who had failed the test. The Daily Telegraph said the 31-year-old Hunter had a reading of nandrolone 1000 times over the legal limit but that the IAAF and the US Track and Field, who were aware of the test, took no action. The newspaper said that there was no suggestion that Jones had any involvement with banned drugs. She has already won the 100m gold and is competing for four other titles in Sydney. International Amateur Athletic Federation officials told AFP there had been no cover-up of the results. "The IAAF have not been involved in a coverup," Istvan Gyulai, secretary general of the IAAF told AFP early Monday. "I personally regret that such news is broken so close to Mrs Hunter taking part in competition. "The IAAF confirms cases when they are proven. Until such time they don't exist for us." Asked if he thought there had been a coverup Merode said: "I would not be surprised. I would not be astonished." Hunter had won a spot on the US team for the Sydney Olympics but pulled out because of a knee injury. He suffered a meniscus tear to his left knee during a weight training session prior to the IAAF Grand Prix meet on August 5. He competed and trained for several weeks afterwards thinking the problem was a reoccurrence of tendonitis in that knee. However, during the IAAF Golden League meet on August 25 in Brussels, Hunter's pain became more severe and he passed on his last throw. He underwent surgery on September 3.
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