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Time for a change

U.S. drug czar says IOC drug testing unacceptable

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Posted: Thursday September 23, 1999 10:50 AM

Gen. Barry McCaffrey wants samples preserved for testing when more advanced techniques are developed. AP

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- The White House drug czar says the use of performance-enhancing drugs has spread to younger athletes.

"It's in the Little League, and even high school competition," Gen. Barry McCaffrey said Wednesday after meeting with the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee to discuss ways to prevent and detect the use of banned drugs in sports.

McCaffrey said proposals from the International Olympic Committee for drug testing are unacceptable because the IOC is governed by a board "acting in secrecy." He said the IOC insists on following Swiss corporate law when it comes to drug testing, even though the United States and Europe foot most of the bill for international competition.

McCaffrey and USOC executive director Dick Schultz said urine and blood samples from future Olympic champions should be preserved for a time when better drug-testing methods become available.

Schultz said the samples should be taken "so even if 20 years from now, if the tests are available," the samples could be tested and violators stripped of their awards.

Schultz said some new tests already are available, but long-term standards have not yet been developed for them so they may not be used for the 2000 Sydney Games.

McCaffrey said the use of banned drugs hit a peak after it was learned that the St. Louis Cardinals' Mark McGwire was using Andro, a substance that fits three of the four requirements for a steroid. The drug is not banned in the major leagues.

He said he was proud when McGwire renounced use of the drug, and set a standard for young people.

"Now he's playing with the God-given talents he's got," McCaffrey said.

But he said there has to be some standardization among all sports, not just the Olympic Games. He said many professional players are now going into Olympic competition and finding that the rules are different.

"The problem is, there is no common standard," he said, noting that the Olympic ban on Andro didn't apply to McGwire. "The athlete is in an almost untenable position."

 

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