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Cheaters

Athletes who test positive won't be jailed in Sydney

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Posted: Sunday September 19, 1999 01:26 PM

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Athletes caught using performance-enhancing drugs during the Sydney Olympics should not be jailed for what was essentially a fraud crime, federal Sports Minister Jackie Kelly said Sunday.

Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates said previously that he wants people caught pushing performance-enhancing drugs to be dealt with in the same way as narcotics traffickers.

But Kelly said the unintended consequences of that policy could be that users could also be jailed, as narcotics users were.

"Is that where we want to see sport in Australia go, athletes being jailed for this type of cheating in sport?," she said.

Kelly said state and federal attorneys-general would be meeting later this year to discuss a model criminal code which could deal with the issue of performance-enhancing drugs.

But she said she would not favor jail terms for Olympic drugs cheats.

"I don't think we should get to that stage just yet," she told the Ten television network. "I think that there are a lot of pressures brought to bear on athletes.

"My view however is that it is fraud, that we are looking at ... sort of not white collar crime, but a tracksuit crime."

 

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