OLYMPICS: International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge yesterday insisted the Athens Games would not be overshadowed by the drugs controversies surrounding the high-profile Balco athletes and unnamed American swimmers.
Rogge said the IOC would take a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and doping but was asked to explain why athletes under suspicion of taking drugs were allowed to compete in Athens.
"All athletes that will participate in the Games are all athletes who have not been found guilty of doping," said Rogge. "We know there is a question mark on certain athletes but the disciplinary procedure on these athletes has not led to a proof of guilt.
"As long as there is not proof of guilt, the athlete is eligible.
"Do I believe these cases will tarnish the Games? No, I believe the Games are too strong for that. We are looking forward to the Games."
Rogge explained that any athlete proposed by a National Olympic Committee was welcomed into the Games because any doping infringement that occurred outside of the Olympics was the responsibility of the IAAF.
But he did reiterate his warning that athletes could be punished retrospectively.
"(If) there is an investigation pending, and we know that in certain cases in the United States of America we have to wait for these results, proper action will be taken after the Games if that is needed," he said.
Defending 100m champion Marion Jones is the only athlete implicated in the Balco scandal down to compete in Athens. Kelli White is banned and world-record holder Tim Montgomery has received a letter from the US Anti-Doping Agency containing allegations of drug violations.
The Balco laboratory in California is being investigated amidst claims it produced and distributed banned substances to athletes.
Meanwhile, the IOC's Executive Board has appointed a three-man panel to investigate claims that US swimmers were provided with human growth hormones during the Sydney Olympics.
Should the allegations made by Glen Luepnitz, a senior medical adviser to the US swimming team in Sydney, be confirmed, the swimmers involved could have any medals won withdrawn.
Luepnitz claimed two women members of the team used the banned performance-enhancing drug MediTropin, a human growth hormone, just weeks before Sydney.
It emerged yesterday that Jana Pittman, the 400-metre hurdles world champion, may have proven hasty in ruling herself out of the Olympics after an arthroscopy on her damaged knee gave the Australian significant cause for hope.
Pittman had earlier conceded her season was over after an MRI scan revealed a two-centimetre laceration of the meniscus in her right knee, with estimates of a recovery time hitting five months.
But surgeon Fares Haddad was able to shave the tear out of her cartilage without inserting stitches and Pittman's chances of making the Games have now been set around 60 per cent.
"It's just awesome, I'm going to the Olympics again," she said. "I should be walking by Saturday, even running and jogging, which means I have got a week before my heat to get back into the swing of things. It's like I have been given a second life."
Pittman will be given until August 19th, two days before the first round of the women's 400m hurdles, to prove her fitness.
Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) president Ivan Slavkov was replaced as leader of the country's delegation for Athens yesterday following his suspension from the IOC over corruption allegations.
BOC general secretary Belcho Ivanov will replace Slavkov as leader of the delegation, BOC sports director Pavel Shtarbanov said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board provisionally suspended Slavkov on Saturday pending an inquiry following apparent claims by him, recorded in a recently broadcast British television documentary, that he could secure votes for choosing the site of the 2012 Games.
