BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 6 : ‘Baby Ben’ Sent Home for Drug Use

On the day before Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was scheduled to return to the Summer Games, his positive drug test from four years ago at Seoul continued to cast a shadow over the Olympic movement.

The British Olympic Assn. sent three athletes home Thursday after discovering that they failed random tests for performance-enhancing drugs earlier this month in Britain. One of them was promising young sprinter Jason Livingston, who has modeled his career after Johnson’s to the extent that he is known as “Baby Ben.”

The two other British athletes were weightlifters, dumping more scandal on a sport considered so contaminated by drugs that one prominent International Olympic Committee member has suggested that it be eliminated from the Games.

Also on Thursday, the German Swimming Federation’s doping control expert resigned amid complaints that he has been too vigilant in attempting to rid the sport of banned substances, as news from the front of international sport’s war against drugs again threatened to taint the Summer Olympics.

Above all else, the 1988 Games at Seoul will be remembered for the positive test for an anabolic steroid that resulted in Johnson’s disqualification after he won the 100 meters in world-record time.

But nine other athletes also tested positive at Seoul, including five weightlifters. After two Bulgarian gold medalists were disqualified, the remainder of the team withdrew to avoid testing. Afterward, IOC Executive Board member Richard Pound of Canada recommended that weightlifting be dropped from the program.

The announcement Thursday by British Olympic officials brought more unwanted attention to the sport, causing the International Weightlifting Federation’s president, Tamas Ajan of Hungary, to lash out at the messenger. Although he congratulated the British for their doping control efforts, he criticized them for making the results public during the Games.

“These out-of-competition tests are not related to the international federation and not related to the Olympic Games,” he said. “These tests were conducted 15 or 16 days ago. Why disturb the Games with this kind of information?”

In revealing that the two weightlifters, Andrew Davies and Andrew Saxton, tested positive for a banned asthma medication that acts as both a muscle-building agent and a stimulant, the BOA’s team leader, Dick Palmer, said: “It is a further blow to the sport, there is no question about that. It is not a happy situation for weightlifting in Britain or indeed internationally.”

U.S. weightlifting Coach Roger Nielsen told the Associated Press: “Drug cheats are hurting the sport. We just hope they’re not going to kill it. But they are certainly banging some nails into the coffin.”

He maintained that the sport has made significant strides in eliminating drug use since 1988.

“If everyone had the same anti-drug approach that we have, there would not be the same problems,” he said. “I think it is less than it has ever been, but it’s still there.”

As an example of the IWF’s aggressiveness in attempting to eliminate drugs from the sport, Ajan said the federation is testing all weightlifters five days before they compete, then testing the first four finishers and others in each weight class at random after their events.

“I am absolutely sure this will be a clean competition,” he said.

The president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs track and field, was not as positive about his sport during a news conference Thursday.

Primo Nebiolo of Italy has been reluctant to address the topic, preferring to focus on competition that begins today at Montjuic Stadium. Johnson, who returned to the track in 1990 after serving a two-year suspension, will compete in one of the first events, first-round qualifying for the 100 meters.

But Nebiolo no longer could ignore reporters’ questions about drugs after the BOA’s announcement regarding Livingston, this year’s European indoor 60-meter champion who was considered among the favorites to reach Saturday’s 100-meter final.

He is the 25th track and field athlete from 13 countries, including three from the United States, who has either submitted a positive sample or failed to appear for a drug test this year.

Like most other sports in which drugs are believed to be prevalent, track and field will test the first four finishers here plus others at random. A prominent exception is swimming, which came under heavy criticism this week for testing only two of the first four finishers plus one other finalist at random.

There was more controversy in swimming Thursday when doping control officer Harm Beyer of the German Swimming Federation resigned, claiming that he has been under attack, particularly from former East Germans, for his strict anti-drug policies.

“I have told officials that I don’t want to do it any more,” he said. “Some people in the federation seem to have problems with living with the hard and decisive way I go after doping.”

But the biggest buzz Thursday was about “Baby Ben.”

Livingston, 21, emerged internationally in 1990, when he finished second in the 100 meters at the World Junior Championships. He did not advance past the first round in the 1991 World Championships at Tokyo. But his powerful start worked more to his advantage in the 60 meters earlier this year, when he won the European indoor title, tying the continental record in 6.51 seconds.

Returning outdoors, he ran the 100 meters in a personal-best 10.09 this summer to finish second in the 100 meters at the British Olympic trials behind Linford Christie.

According to biographical information provided by the British Olympic Assn., Livingston’s “build is similar to that of Ben Johnson, whom he admires--to the extent that he has shaved his head in the same way. He imitates his start, and his room is full of posters of the Canadian.”

Livingston wanted to be like Ben. Thursday, he was. His positive test, like Johnson’s four years ago, was for a steroid.

Times wire services contributed to this report.