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Romanian gymnast stripped of gold medal: IOC
SYDNEY, Sept 26 (AFP) - Romania's Olympic all-around gymnastics champion Andreea Raducan has been stripped of her gold medal after failing a drugs test, an International Olympic Committee official said Tuesday. IOC member Thomas Bach said Raducan had been stripped of her medal after testing positive for the banned stimulant pseudoephedrine. He said she would keep her team gold medal and her silver medal from the vault competition. The Romanian team doctor who gave the cold medication to the gymnast was banned from the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games and the 2004 Athens Olympics. "It was a very difficult case. I don't know of any case like this before," said IOC vice-president Kevan Gosper following an executive committee meeting early Tuesday. Bach said the gymnastics team doctor was to blame for the loss of Raducan's gold medal. "He has the real responsibility in this case," Mr Bach said. "He prescribed the medication to this girl. It's a good signal to all the people surrounding the athletes that they can be punished." Raducan, who turns 17 on Saturday, became the first Romanian to win all-around gold since Nadia Comaneci, who scored a perfect 10 on the way to gold in the 1976 Montreal Oympics. She is the first gymnast ever to fail a drugs case in the Olympics and the second gold medallist of these Games to lose her medal after Bulgarian women weightlifter Izabela Dragneva. Pseudo-ephedrine is a banned stimulant contained in many common cold and flu remedies. Romanian Olympic Committee president Ion Tiriac said the drug was on the IOC's banned list but not banned by the International Gymnastics Federation. Raducan, who stands only 148 centimeters tall and weighs just 37 kg, took a cold medication pill from a doctor, said Tiriac. Raducan did not test positive after she won the women's all-around title last Thursday but was positive after capturing a silver Sunday in vaulting. The world floor exercise champion competed Monday in the Olympic floor exercise final after knowing of her positive test and placed seventh out of eight finalists in her most beloved event. Trained since the age of seven by Romanian Olympic coach Octavian Belu, dark-eyed beauty Raducan won over the judges with her high leaps and radiant smile. Raducan led Romania to the team title a week ago and led a podium sweep in the all-around. Compatriots Simona Amanar and Maria Olaru took silver and bronze but could move up if Raducan loses her all-around crown. China's Xuan Liu, who placed fourth, could gain the bronze medal. Raducan's case continues a string of doping misfortunes for Romanians at the Olympics, following weightlifters Traian Ciharean and Adrian Mateias, who returned positive samples in pre-Games testing. Tiriac argued for leniency for Raducan, telling Romanian television, "it would be obscene if she were stripped of her medals for two tablets which were in no absolutely no way intended to improve her performances.
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