Soviets’ New Policy Admits Some Athletes Use Drugs

More than 30 Soviet athletes tested positive for drugs this year, a leading official confirmed today.

“Out of about 4,000 tests on Soviet athletes this year, at least 30 proved positive,” said the official, an aide to deputy sports minister Vasily Gromyko. “That includes tests both inside and outside the country.”

The disclosures, which follow last month’s unprecedented admission by East Germany that 14 of its athletes had failed drug tests this year, represent a clear change in policy toward the issue by sports chiefs in the Soviet Union.

But one former athlete who declined to be named said: “The abrupt change of Soviet position on doping might have two reasons. Either they try to fall in line with the general trend in the sports world or they have found something to substitute anabolics.”

The new openness was reflected in a television report last week that showed a document signed in 1982 by two deputy sports ministers prescribing anabolic steroids as part of the preparation for Soviet cross-country skiers.

The document set out a program to test the effects of steroids and for research into ways of avoiding detection.

The program included information from the head of the laboratory responsible for the research. He did not deny the existence of the plan but said the situation had changed completely.