Source: International Herald Tribune Contact: http://www.iht.com/ Pubdate: Thur, 13 Aug 1998 Author: New York Times Editorial OLYMPICS AND DRUGS The drug scandals rocking the world of international sports have confronted the Olympic movement with a much larger credibility problem than its leaders seem to realize. Although the Olympic Games no longer represent the ideal of amateurism, they still embody ideals of fair play and honest competition. Yet drugs have put even those simple values at risk. Why in the world would anyone, much less hundreds of millions of people, choose to watch a competition in which the race goes not to the swift but to the chemically enhanced? This has been a drug-ridden summer in; sports. The legendary Tour de. France nearly collapsed in embarrassment when the world's best cycling team, Festina, were suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. The International Amateur Athletic Federation announced that two of America's top athletes, the sprinter Dennis Mitchell and the 1996 Olympic shot put champion, Randy Barnes, had tested positive for illegal substances, and suspended both. Then, last Thursday, Michelle Smith-De Bruin, the Irish swimmer who captured hearts and three gold medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics, was charged with manipulating a drug test and banned from further competition. Reporters who cover sports say there is already so much cynicism among the athletes that anyone who sets a new world record is immediately suspected of doping. So far that cynicism has not spread to the public, but it will surely do so unless the authorities move quickly to develop a more credible and comprehensive system of testing and punishment. To be fair, the International Olympic Committee does a far more effective job of policing drug use than other athletic bodies. But, given its responsibility for one of the world's premier sports events, it must do even better. The first order of business is to change attitudes at the top. Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC's president, has convened a board meeting in Lausanne on Aug. 20 to prepare for a doping "summit" next January. But Mr. Samaranch's own commitment to the cause is suspect. He recently suggested to the Spanish daily El Mundo that performance-enhancing drugs should be permitted unless they pose a threat to the athletes that use them a bizarre statement that shocked many of his colleagues. Second, the IQC must be ready to spend serious money on the problem. The IOC and others have agreed to put $2 million into new research, but experts say more will be needed to develop tests as sophisticated as the drugs they are meant to detect. During the Tour de Prance scandal, experts noted that there were no reliable tests to detect the substance at the heart of the scandal---EPO, a synthetic hormone that increases aerobic capacity. Third, the IOC must bring other governing bodies into line. The international federations that govern three Olympic sports---cycling, volleyball and tennis---do not even participate in the lOC's testing program. It is also common knowledge that some national Olympic committees are far more vigilant than others. Dick Schultz, an American Olympic of ficial, put the matter well in a recent interview: "There is -a morass out there that needs to be reviewed to deterlriine what is performance-enhancing and what is not. I don't think there's any question that the drug gurus who are trying to beat the system are ahead of the police." The next Games are two years away. That is not a lot of time for Mr. Samaranch to get ahead of the gurus. - ---THE NEW YORK TIMES. - --- Checked-by: "Don Beck"