Angel Myers Has a Positive Test for Drugs

Angel Myers, who hopes to compete for as many as five medals in the Olympic Games at Seoul next month, learned early last week that she had tested positive for a banned substance in drug tests conducted at the U.S. Swimming Long Course National Championships in Austin, Tex., which also served as the Olympic trials.

She has contested the finding, but late Saturday night she was awaiting a decision by the United States Olympic Committee’s board of review, which was meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo.

A decision was expected by this morning.

Martha Sennessy, an assistant coach for Myers’ club, the Americus Blue Tide of Americus, Ga., said Saturday night that Myers had not taken steroids. Sennessy said that a prescription drug was “apparently mimicking a banned substance” and giving a false positive.

Earlier, Myers’ father, Kirt, who coaches her, told the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Sun-Sentinel: “There are masking agents present in certain birth control pills.”

However, the only “masking” drug on the banned list is probenecid, a prescription drug used in treatment of gout and some venereal diseases. Some experts claim that probenecid can cause a false positive in testing for testosterone.

Myers, a 21-year-old student at Furman, had made strong showings in both the Goodwill Games in 1986 and in the Pan Pacific Games in 1987. But she was still one of the biggest surprises of the Olympic trials when she won three events, breaking U.S. records in two of them.

She set U.S. records in winning both the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle. She also won the 100-meter butterfly, beating Mary T. Meagher, the world record-holder in the event, who finished second.

Myers, who could earn a spot on the women’s 400-meter freestyle relay team if she is the top U.S. finisher in the 100-meter freestyle at Seoul and who could earn a place on the women’s 400-meter medley relay team if she is the top U.S. finisher in the 100-meter butterfly, has a chance to win five medals--more than any other woman on the U.S. team.

Because of the possible exclusion of Myers, Jill Sterkel and Janel Jorgenson have been working out with the team in Los Angeles. If Myers is disqualified, Sterkel would get to swim twice in Seoul and would have the distinction of being the first American woman swimmer to be on four Olympic teams.

Sterkel, 27, swam for the University of Texas and has been working with U.S. Coach Richard Quick as an assistant coach with the Longhorn team. She fell short of making the Olympic team in Austin, just missing in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyles. Now she could move up to swim the 50 and on the 400-meter freestyle relay team in the qualifying heat. Sterkel also was an alternate on the relay team in 1984 and swam on the relay team that won the only gold medal U.S. women earned in 1976.

Jorgenson would move up from third place to swim the 100-meter butterfly.

Dara Torres, who finished third in the 100-meter freestyle at the selection meet, would move up to swim for an individual medal in that event. Also, Torres will be reinstated as the U.S. record-holder in the 100-meter freestyle.