|
|
|
| February 13, 2006 | Monday | Muharram 14, 1427 |
IOC will use all means to test drug cheats
TURIN/SESTRIERE (Italy), Feb 12: The International Olympic Committee said on Sunday it will use every means at its disposal to test athletes for drugs at the Winter Olympics.
But the use of undercover doping testers at the Winter Games has drawn angry criticism from competitors and officials.
“In the fight against doping any means are used,” IOC communications director Giselle Davies said when asked if undercover testers had approached skiing world champion Herman Maier after posing as fans.
“(Athletes) can be tested any time any place,” she said.
Davies did not deny the reports over Maier but added: “The doping control testers have clear identification on their clothes.”
Maier had told Austrian media he had been conned into meeting two doping controllers when they presented themselves as Alpine skiing fans at the Turin Olympics.
Watching Austrian skiers in Sunday’s Olympic downhill race at Sestriere, Peter Schroecksnadel, president of the Austrian ski federation, said the IOC should change its methods.
“I’m against doping but they shouldn’t do that. They should go up to athletes openly and show their badge. You can’t treat athletes as if every one of them was a scoundrel,” he told reporters at the Kandahar Banchetta downhill course.
He recalled an incident at a training session with the Austrian team about a year ago when a young woman had loitered around the training area for almost a week.
Schroecksnadel said he had started thinking she was an obsessive fan when she suddenly walked up to an athlete and identified herself as a doping controller.
Mark Habermann, a press spokesman for the U.S. team, said skier Steven Nyman had also been picked for a random doping control on Saturday.
“The guy was standing in a TV commentator box by the (Italian) RAI televisions,” Habermann said. “He just came in, was standing there all of a sudden and asked Steven to sign the sheet that he has to sign before he goes to doping (tests).”
He added that an official from the International Ski Federation intervened and told the tester he would have to check with the federation before starting controls.
Once the doping sheet is signed, athletes usually have only an hour to do the test.
The IOC has already confirmed it will be using informants among athletes at the Games and beyond to crack down on drugs in sport.
Austrian newspapers reported last week that Maier’s press assistant, Walter delle Karth, was approached after a training run for the Olympic downhill by a man and a woman who said they were fans of the Austrian racer and wanted to get his autograph.—Agencies
|
|
|
|
