Sprinter Carl Lewis was allowed to compete in the 1988 Olympics despite testing positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs be- cause it would have been a disaster otherwise for the US team, according to former team-mate Roger Kingdom.
Dr Wade Exum, former head of the US anti-doping programme, has alleged that the man voted the greatest athlete of the 20th century was among more than 100 competitors, including 19 Olympic medallists, involved in a cover-up of drug use from 1988 to 2000.
Dr Exum claims Lewis tested positive for stimulants during the 1988 US Olympic trials, but had a 12-week suspension overturned by the US Olympic Committee, allowing him two months later to win two gold medals in Seoul.
That included the 100 metres after Canada's Ben Johnson failed his drug test and Lewis was awarded the gold ahead of Britain's Linford Christie.
One International Olympic Committee official yesterday described this race as "the dirtiest in history".
Lewis also won the long jump, part of his career tally of a record nine Olympic gold medals.
Lewis's lawyer Mr Martin Singer claimed his client had taken the banned drug in a herbal remedy. "Carl did nothing wrong," said Mr Singer. "There was never intent."
However Kingdom, the winner of the 110 metres hurdles in Seoul who later served on USA Track & Field's drug-hearing board, said athletes received extensive warnings about being careful with supplements.
"He should not have been allowed to compete, plain and simple. You can't plead ignorance; it didn't roll. Obviously it goes back to show you favouritism was involved.
"At the time Carl was Mr Track and Field and what a black eye it would have given the US not to have your top dog there."
Lewis was not the only 1988 gold medallist who escaped punishment. Joe DeLoach and Andre Phillips also failed tests at the US trials but travelled to Seoul and won gold medals in the 200 metres and 400 metres hurdles respectively.
Dr Exum released more than 30,000 pages of documents which include showing Lewis tested positive for three stimulants found in cold medications: pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine. Lewis's training partners, DeLoach and Floyd Heard, tested positive for the same combination of drugs, which some experts believe can mask more serious drugs such as anabolic steroids.
The IOC's medical commission chairman, Mr Arne Ljungqvist, said the Dr Exum documents "fit a pattern" of failure by the US to report on positive drug cases.