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Inadequate Clinton admistration criticizes IOC drug policy
Posted: Thursday October 21, 1999 12:36 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee's effort to stop the rise in performance-enhancing drug use is inadequate, and an independent agency is needed to ensure doping-free Olympics, the Clinton administration said Wednesday. The IOC "is rushing forward to build an institution that we cannot support, one that is more public relations ploy than public policy solution" to the use of banned substances by athletes, Barry McCaffrey, President Bill Clinton's chief adviser on drugs, told the U.S. Senate's Commerce Committee, Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, a contender for the Republican Party's nomination for president, agreed that the top priority is to establish an 'independent or external agency to perform year-round, out of competition testing for banned substances." McCain also said he would introduce legislation providing grants to U.S. colleges for research into new technologies for the detection and verification of doping among athletes. American swimmer Nancy Hogshead, who won three gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, told the hearing that doping is a "scourge that afflicts all athletes, those who are clean and those who are not." Hogshead, who competed against East German swimmers who were widely believed to be using steroids, said "doping could destroy the Olympic movement" because public support rests in the belief that the Olympics embody the highest set of values. McCaffrey said neither the United States government nor the U.S. Olympic Committee were included in IOC discussions where a new anti-doping agency was proposed. He said the agency's decisions would serve only as recommendations to the IOC and that important decisions, such as the parameters of testing, have not been addressed.
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