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Raising the stakes FINA adopts tougher rules to combat doping offenses
Posted: Thursday April 01, 1999 10:00 AM
HONG KONG (AP) -- Swimming's world governing body set up a new panel of experts and adopted new rules Wednesday in efforts to make it harder for drug cheats to evade detection and punishment. Officials also said swimmers at the world short-course championships in Hong Kong this week would be asked to give blood samples voluntarily to a group studying ways to detect illegal use of growth hormones to improve performance. The tests will be separate from those normally carried out at swimming competitions, and the results will be kept confidential, the officials said. The governing body, FINA, listed 22 doping cases reported among swimmers in 1998, including 10 cases that occurred outside of competition. FINA conducted 802 out-of-competition tests last year, and national federations conducted another 1,185, it said. In 345 tests so far in 1999, no positive cases have been reported, FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu said. In a speech to an extraordinary congress of FINA, the body's president, Mustapha Larfaoui of Algeria, criticized governments for not doing enough. "I am ... surprised at the lack of cooperation and unity in governments in dealing with their responsibilities in this fight against doping: control of pharmaceutical production and their sale without prescription, control of professional ethics, doctors, pharmacists, paramedical professionals, establishing school programs and civil education," he said. The new Doping Control Review Board established by the congress is to have eight members, primarily medical or chemical experts. The board would "be able to advise on doping issues in a far more sophisticated way than in the past," said Ross Wales, a vice president of the FINA Bureau, the organization's executive body. Officials said FINA hoped to appoint the members within two months, but honorary secretary Gunnar Werner said it would take some time "to find people willing to act on the review board with the expertise we need." Among other things, Wales said, the board could advise FINA on doping cases it was likely to lose in the courts for scientific or legal reasons. It also could advise on cases where swimmers with valid medical reasons should be allowed to use otherwise banned substances. He said the new rules involved mostly minor changes intended to add clarity "so there is less confusion when lawyers start to argue." For the first time, the rules also include a list of prohibited substances, divided into those always banned and those banned only during competition. Among those permitted out of competition are stimulants that might be found in cold remedies and such drugs as marijuana. Wales said that during competition, the drugs on this list might have performance-enhancing results for some athletes in some circumstances. He said FINA tried to anticipate drugs not on the list by adding the phrase "and related substances." The new rules do not change punishments, including some of sport's toughest suspensions -- a minimum of four years for a first offense involving such drugs as steroids and masking agents. The request for blood testing volunteers follows a report by Dr. Christian Strasburger of the International Olympic Committee Medical Commission that a blood test could be used to catch cheaters using synthetic human growth hormone. The IOC, however, wants the test method proven reliable on both sexes and all ethnic groups so it can be defended in court. Growth hormones gained prominence just before the 1998 swimming world championships when Australian customs officers caught Yuan Yuan of China bringing in the substance. FINA suspended her for four years. At the same meet, four Chinese swimmers tested positive for drugs considered masking agents to hide the presence of other substances. They were suspended for two years. On Wednesday, FINA president Larfaoui referred to those cases as "among the saddest and most difficult moments in the history of FINA." But, he said, "we reacted very quickly," setting up a task force that recommended new measures. FINA officials were asked Wednesday whether the large number of out-of-competition tests of Chinese swimmers -- 142 last year and 65 so far this year -- reflected China's past record of positive tests. Executive director Marculescu replied that the number reflected the number of Chinese swimmers who stand high in the rankings. Swimmers in the top 10 are tested more often, he said.
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