2nd Olympian Failed Test, Inquiry Told

Ben Johnson wasn’t the only Canadian athlete to fail a drug test at the Olympics in Seoul, a federal drug inquiry was told today.

But Carol Anne Letheren, the chief of the delegation to the Summer Games’ team, said the test result was overturned by the International Olympic Committee after an appeal by Canadian officials.

Letheren, who did not name the athlete or the sport, said she was informed that one of Canada’s athletes tested for a banned sedative the same day Johnson won the 100 meters.

“Both he and his coach felt there was absolutely no way there could have been any banned substance in his body,” she told the probe into drug abuse in amateur sports.

No ‘Doping Offense’

“Our chief medical officer could not understand from the medications listed why any of them would have demonstrated a positive effect at all.”

Prince de Merode, head of the IOC Medical Commission, subsequently informed the team that the drug in question “does not constitute a doping offense.”

“We would, however, invite you to prudence in the use of substances which have a sedative effect,” especially with regard to athletes involved in the sport in question, he said.

Letheren became familiar to television viewers for the live news conference she gave from Seoul the day Johnson lost his gold medal.

Appeals to the international committee on his behalf failed.

On Monday, the inquiry heard bizarre testimony on veterinary drugs that possibly cost Johnson his medal but did wonders for a sickly menagerie of farm animals near his doctor’s home on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

The testimony linked Dr. Jamie Astaphan with treatment of goats, sheep, donkeys and horses as well as with treatment of the world’s fastest man.