U.S. gets tough over drug cheats
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Olympic legend Joyner Kersee backed the decision to impose lifetime bans for steroid use.
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GREENSBORO, North Carolina -- American athletes who test positive for steroid use will receive life bans under tough new rules to be imposed by the governing body for track and field in the United States.
The "zero tolerance" policy will also extend to coaches of athletes found guilty of doping.
"Right now, it's the right way way to go," said USTAF board member and six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner Kersee. "People can see we have been serious. The last two, three months ended up hurting our sport."
U.S athletics officials created the "Zero Tolerance" initiative in October in response to the scandal over the previously undetectable designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), for which four US athletes have tested positive.
The USTAF has also been criticized for its handing of doping offenses, most recently in the case of 400 meters runner Jereme Young, who was cleared to compete in the 2000 Olympics despite failing a doping control in 1999.
Young was a member of the 4x400-meter relay team that won the gold at Sydney and took golds in the 400 meters and 4x400-meter relay at the World Championships in Paris in August.
He has always claimed he was innocent of doping, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the U.S. Olympic Committee and the IAAF, the world governing body for athletics, all expressed concerns over the issue.
USATF has said it is bound by an arbitration ruling that protects anonymity in what it refers to as "the Olympic case" and all others from 1996 to 2000.
The draconian new rules go far beyond the current two-year bans for steroid offenses imposed by the IAAF, the world governing body for athletics.
"I think the no-tolerance will say to all who participate in the sport, 'Don't even think about it,"' said United States sprinter Jon Drummond, another USATF board member.
Legal challenges
The USTAF are expecting legal challenges, but chief executive Craig Masback is confident the new guidelines will stand up in court.
"I'm not aware of any law in the United States that prevents private organisations from creating rules," said Masback, an attorney.
Masback also said he believed the wording of the Amateur Sports Act to apply only to eligibility to compete, not doping.
But he said USATF had requested that the U.S. Olympic Committee ask Congress to address the issue.
USATF has also formally asked the IAAF to clarify its rule for first-time steroid offenses to read that the penalty would be a minimum of two years "up to a maximum of life," he said
"In talking to our athletes and our coaches, they think it will act as a deterrent," added Masback.
Following the unanimous vote of the USTAF's board of directors, the new policy will be presented to the full federation for a final vote on Sunday.
