Pubdate: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 Source: Dallas Morning News Section: OpEd Contact: Website: www.dallasnews.com Author: New York Times News Service 2 TRACK STARS FAIL DRUG TESTS U.S. won't enforce IAAF suspensions Another drug scandal rocked international sports Monday when track and field's world governing body announced that two of America's top athletes, sprinter Dennis Mitchell and 1996 Olympic shot-put champion Randy Barnes, had been suspended for possible doping offenses. The U.S. track and field federation said that it would not enforce the suspensions of Barnes and Mitchell, calling the allegations unproved. The federation also accused the world governing body of violating the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, a federal law that entitles American athletes to due process before they are declared ineligible to compete. That apparently meant that Mitchell and Barnes remained eligible to compete in the United States but not internationally. Neither athlete returned calls Monday seeking comment. Mitchell and Barnes were given random, out-of-competition drug tests in the United States on April 1, said Giorgio Reineri, a spokesman for the International Amateur Athletic Federation, The track's world governing body. Mitchell, the 1992 Olympic bronze medalist at 100 meters, tested above the acceptable 6-1 ratio of testosterone, the male sex hormone, to epitestosterone, a related chemical, Reineri said by telephone from France. Anything above 6-1 is considered to indicate the use of testosterone as a muscle-building steroid. The suspension is particularly embarrassing for Mitchell, 32, of Gainesville, Fla., who is chairman of the track federation's athletes advisory committee, which has taken a vocal anti-drug stance. Barnes, the world record-holder in the shot put, tested positive for a prohibited substance with steroid-like qualities, Reineri said. The Associated Press identified the substance as androstenedione, a banned nutritional supplement. Because he previously was suspended for drug use, Barnes faces a potential lifetime ban from competition. Mitchell could be suspended for two years. Reineri said he thought that only the first of two samples that each urine specimen is divided into had been tested for each athlete. U.S. laws call for both samples to be tested and for athletes to be given a hearing before they are suspended. "We are outraged that the IAAF knowingly breached our confidentiality rules, which were put in place to protect those ultimately determined to be innocent," Craig Masback, president of the U.S. track federation, said in a statement. The suspensions came with cycling's Tour de France mired in a doping scandal of its own, and they were announced on the same day that the International Olympic Committee called for a world conference next January to reappraise its campaign against what is believed to be the extensive use by athletes of banned performance-enhancing substances. The suspensions also followed controversial remarks reportedly made Sunday by IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch. He was quoted in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo as calling for "drastically" reducing the number of banned substances. He was also quoted as saying that he did not consider it doping if an athlete used a performance-enhancing drug that was not believed to be harmful to the athlete's health. Samaranch's remarks elicited pointed responses Monday from the Olympic community. Steve Ovett of Britain, the 1980 Olympic champion at 800 meters, said it appeared that Samaranch was ready to "throw in the towel" on drug testing. Jacques Rogge of Belgium, a surgeon who is vice president of the IOC medical commission, said it was difficult, if not impossible, to differentiate between substances that are harmful to an athlete's health and those that are not. 1998 The Dallas Morning News - --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett