BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS: DAY 3 : Swimming’s Drug-Testing System Is Criticized : Controversy: American Jenny Thompson cries foul when Chinese gold medalist is not among the random athletes selected for urinalysis.

A controversy of sorts developed Monday at the Bernat Picornell swimming complex when some Americans questioned the wisdom of the sport’s drug-testing policy.

Background: Yong Zhuang, a 20-year-old swimmer from China, won the gold medal in Sunday night’s 100-meter freestyle, but was not administered a drug test. American Jenny Thompson, favored to win the event, finished second and was tested.

“I think all gold medalists should be drug-tested,” Thompson said Monday morning.

“They do random testing here and I wouldn’t mind, if I won a gold medal, getting tested. At a meet where the winner takes all, they should get drug-tested.”

FINA, the international governing body of swimming, decided in 1988 to randomly test two of the top four finishers and one of the bottom four. Swimming’s policy differs from other sports such as track and field and gymnastics, which tests all its medalists.

International Olympic Committee officials prefer the latter policy but allow the federations to devise their their own rules.

If it seems confusing, it is, even for some FINA officials, who were unable to fully explain their policy Monday night.

One of them, Gunnar Werner, was unaware that the rule was specific to his federation.

“It’s strictly an IOC rule,” said Werner, a member of the FINA executive council. “It’s an IOC decision.”

Told that it was not, Werner said, “Well, perhaps I’m not aware.”

Dr. Daniel Asekuno of Nigeria, the group’s medical liaison, said: “FINA supports random testing. FINA is of the opinion that every athlete who participates in the Olympic Games should be at risk, not just those that win a medal.”

Asekuno said the system keeps the athletes guessing.

“The medalists might be tested and they might not,” Asekuno said. “They will not know.”

Mark Schubert, coach of the U.S. women’s team, said: “It’s ridiculous not to test the first-, second- and third-place finishers. It’s a rule that absolutely needs to be changed.”

In leveling her criticism, Thompson was careful not to target the Chinese.

“I’m not making any accusations or anything like that,” she said. “I’m just saying that gold medalists should be tested.”

Thompson had previously insinuated that the Chinese use anabolic steroids, even before losing to Yong. Such complaints made the rounds at last year’s World Championships in Australia, but so far there has been no evidence to support the rumors.

Although American swimmers were complaining the loudest about the drug-testing procedure Monday, it was the United States that helped initiate the system five years ago, said Jeff Dimond, U.S. Swimming spokesman.

The problem was that when individual swimmers won multiple events, they were being tested repeatedly over a period of days, he said.

Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the IOC’s medical commission, told the Associated Press that he supports the FINA system, but given the current climate, is willing to consider changing it.

“We believe this will increase the overall number of athletes tested,” he said. “When we test the same athletes three or four times, the others don’t get tested.

“Unfortunately, the gold medalist was not tested on the first day. We are looking at what happened . . . and if we have to change, we will change.”