15 Pentathletes Draw Penalties for Drug Use

Fifteen pentathletes, including two Americans, were banned for 30 months from international competition today in the biggest drug scandal in the sport’s history, the International Modern Pentathlon Federation announced.

Thor Henning of Sweden, the federation’s secretary general, said the other 13 were East Europeans. Five were from the Soviet Union, five from Poland and three from Bulgaria.

Henning said all the banned pentathletes had used a sedative before the shooting portion, the final event in the competition, either in the World Championships in Italy last August or in a meet in June in England.

The modern pentathlon consists of five different disciplines. The events are shooting, riding, epee fencing, freestyle swimming and cross-country running.

Twelve of the banned pentathletes, among them world champion Anatoly Starostyn of the Soviet Union, had positive results in drug tests after the World Championships. Starostyn was stripped of his individual gold medal and the Soviets were stripped of the team title, which was then given to France.

The banned Americans are Blair Driggs and Lori Norwood. Driggs was 56th out of 68 entries in the men’s individual event and Norwood finished 12th out of 48 competitors in the women’s meet. Neither U.S. team made the top eight in the team competition.