Rule to Strip Drug Users of Records to Be Put Before Track Group

A proposal to strip world records and major championships from athletes who admit under oath to having used drugs will be voted on this week by track and field’s worldwide governing body.

“Any world, continental or national record and title held by an athlete who admits having committed a doping offense will no longer stand,” reads the proposal to the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s annual meeting, which begins today.

Created in the aftershock of Ben Johnson’s disqualification from the Seoul Olympics for steroid use and subsequent admission that he began using the banned substances in 1981, the proposal would be one of the most dramatic steps in the anti-doping drive.

It would give the IAAF the power to erase Johnson’s name from the record books, since he admitted under oath during a Canadian government inquiry that he used steroids to bulk up for his 9.83-second world mark in the 100 meters at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Rome in 1987.

It also would open a new area in the debate over drugs in sports and how best to combat them.

Critics say that to retroactively strip an athlete who passed tests at the time because he later admitted under oath that he was on drugs would be illegal, and that using an athlete’s testimony in such a matter would thwart efforts to have competitors come to grips with doping.

But the IAAF, stung by the Johnson case, appears ready to take some kind of drastic action, then deal with the consequences.

“If you confess that you have killed a person one year ago, or 20 years ago, always you are confessing to be a killer,” federation president Primo Nebiolo said.

The proposal said records and titles would be stripped “from the day the athlete admitted the doping offense.”

The IAAF Council, its board of directors, approved the measures at a special meeting in Vienna, Austria, last July and may briefly review them when it meets Monday. The proposal, which would require changes in at least three of track’s international rules, is due to come before the federation’s annual Congress on Tuesday or Wednesday.

To be adopted, two-thirds of the federation’s 160 members present must agree.

John Holt, IAAF general secretary, said, “It will be very strongly put to them by Arne Ljundqvist (IAAF medical commission head) and by the president himself.”

Also due for final action are proposals for random drug testing during training sessions and other out-of-competition periods, and the institution of “flying squads” to test for drugs among track and field athletes any place, any time.

Those two measures would have been considered revolutionary a year ago, before Johnson tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol after beating American Carl Lewis in 9.79 seconds at Seoul.

But they pale before the latest proposal, which was all but unthinkable as recently as March, when Holt said at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Budapest, Hungary, that “you cannot retroactively take away records, you cannot retroactively take away medals.”

Johnson testified less than three months later that he had used steroids since 1981 and went through a major steroid program before setting the world record in 1987. He had been tested at dozens of meets during that time but always passed.

“The new rule changes represent a response to the latest situation in this field,” a proposal to the members said.

The IAAF also will consider specific rules on out-of-competition testing, including timing of surprise tests and considering an athlete who fails to show up for a prearranged test guilty of dodging the anti-doping system.

In addition, it will be presented with a balance sheet showing the federation with reserves of $5.1 million at the end of 1988, more than double the amount listed 12 months earlier.