New Hearing in Olympic Swimmer’s 1972 Drug Case

Twenty-four years after one of the biggest drug scandals in Olympic history, the International Olympic Committee is scheduled to reconsider Rick DeMont’s case Sunday and Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“It’s pretty scary,” DeMont said Wednesday. “I’ve waited a long time to get to this level.”

DeMont, who tested positive for an asthma medication in the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, has campaigned since the Games to have his gold medal returned.

DeMont, then a 16-year-old swimmer from San Rafael, Calif., was stripped of his medal in the 400-meter freestyle and disqualified from competing in the 1,500-meter free, an event in which he held the world record.

IOC officials rejected an appeal in December, but the juridical committee agreed to discuss the case Sunday and the powerful executive committee will hold a formal hearing Monday, DeMont’s lead attorney said. A decision is expected sometime next week.

DeMont, an assistant swim coach at Arizona, maintains his positive test resulted from inadvertent use. He had mentioned on his Olympic processing form that he took the medication Marex, which contained the banned stimulant ephedrine.

“It’s something that I have been branded with,” DeMont said. “I’ve lived with this thing and I have learned to live with it, but I . . . want it to go away.”

David Ulich, a Beverly Hills lawyer heading the drive, said the recent favorable ruling on Samantha Riley of Australia should help DeMont’s case. FINA, swimming’s international governing body, gave Riley a strong warning for testing positive for a headache tablet containing a banned substance instead of the standard two-year sanction.

The IOC has maintained DeMont’s ephedrine levels were too high to be considered inadvertent use. But Arnold Beckett, a member of the IOC medical commission who voted to penalize DeMont, said the case deserved reconsideration because of many factors, including inconsistencies of penalties for ephedrine-type drugs over the years.

DeMont, 39, said he is frustrated with the U.S. Olympic Committee, which has not supported the recent push for reinstatement that began 1 1/2 years ago.

USOC officials are awaiting the IOC ruling before taking a position.