USATF cleared of cover-up

USA Track and Field, America's governing body for athletics, did not cover up cases of doping among US athletes, although it failed to report some in a timely fashion, an independent commission said yesterday. on Wednesday.

The Independent International Review Commission on Doping Control , whose members include a law professor, a barrister and an Olympic gold medallist, conducted a review of USATF's Track and Field's screening for drugs from January 1999 to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The review was prompted by allegations during the Olympics that USATF withheld information about American athletes who may have tested positive for drugs designed to enhance their performance. , according to a report issued by the commission.

Although no evidence was discovered to support these allegations, the commission found that USATF failed to disclose 17 positive tests to the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in a timely fashion. But the USATF believed it did not have to report the results to the IAAF and the IOC and that the IOC-accredited laboratory that ran the tests would do so instead, as outlined in IOC regulations, the commission said. The Indianapolis-based laboratory reported the test results to the IAAF only weeks before the Olympics.

Only one of the 17 athletes who tested positive competed in the Sydney Olympics and that was after he was exonerated by an appeals panel shortly before the Games' trials, according to the report. The commission said that the USATF abided by most but not all rules on drug-screening and reporting of cases of doping and that out-of-competition testing efforts were insufficient. The commission found that the USATF did not conceal US shot put thrower CJ Hunter's positive drug tests from the IAAF, but that it should have informed the US Olympic Committee.