Samaranch Speaks Out Against Evils of Drugs

International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch warned Sunday in Atlanta that use of performance-enhancing drugs causes “physical and moral death.”

In a speech at the opening ceremony of the 105th IOC session, Samaranch said the Olympic movement would continue to lead the fight against doping.

“Doping is the negation of sport and its role as we understand it,” he said. “Athletes who use banned substances to improve their performance commit a series of acts that transgress and violate certain immutable principles.

“First and foremost, they destroy their health, which is the most precious thing they possess. Doping leads to physical and moral death because of the irreversible behavioral changes that drug use entails.”

Doping could be a major issue during the Centennial Games. Atlanta’s drug-testing lab is equipped with three high resolution mass spectrometers, state-of-the-art machines that can detect the use of steroids dating back months.

There have been a total of 51 positive tests at the Olympic Games since doping controls were introduced in 1968. At the last summer games in Barcelona in 1992, five athletes failed drug tests.

Coincidentally, three athletes were kicked off the Iranian Olympic team Sunday for using steroids as the rest of the team departed for Atlanta.

The Farsi-language Jomhuri Islami daily said Mohammad-Reza Tolouie and Abbas Abdi were dropped from the judo team and Shaheen Nasiriniya was pulled off the weightlifting team after the trio tested positive for steroids.

Also during his speech, Samaranch said the financial security of the IOC and the Olympic movement is guaranteed through the year 2012, thanks to a series of long-term TV rights deals--worth more than $5.5 billion--with NBC and the European Broadcasting Union.

*

Kenyan officials thought Mississippi would be an ideal spot for their Olympic team to get in final workouts for the Atlanta Games.

Trouble is, about half the athletes never showed up--and their participation in the Olympics may be in jeopardy.

“You have to respect your country. You know to be there on time,” said former Olympic gold medalist Kip Keino, vice president of Kenya’s National Olympic Committee. “If you can’t do it then, no need to select you, even if you are the best.”

About two dozen members of the 47-person team, including many of the African country’s best chances for a medal, bypassed the 10-day training session at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg to participate in European Grand Prix meets. Those meets were arranged by the athletes’ agents, without clearance from Kenyan officials.

“We should unite as a team and work together,” Keino said, pointing to the Kenyan boxing team that also is working out at the Southern Mississippi campus.

The training session in Mississippi was designed to give the Kenyans ample time to prepare for the 90-degree temperatures and high humidity they’ll face at the games.

Keino said Kenyan Olympic officials would have to meet in Atlanta and make final decisions on who will participate. Already, he’s trying to fill out Olympic forms on some athletes who haven’t been seen in weeks.

Among those who never arrived in Hattiesburg were three-time world 3,000-meter steeplechase champion Moses Kiptanui, Olympic 3,000-meter steeplechase champion Matthew Birir, Olympic 800-meter champion William Tanui and Olympic 400-meter bronze medalist Samson Kitur.

“It is unfortunate for them that they missed a place where they were supposed to have good training to prepare themselves for the Olympic Games,” Keino said. “They are going to have it rough, it will take them time to adjust themselves” when they arrive in Atlanta.

Kenyan long jumper and triple jumper Jacob Kalonon did come to Hattiesburg. At one point last week, he was a solitary figure working out at one end of the track.

“When I qualified, I go with my country,” Kalonon said. “Training here, no problem. I’m ready for Atlanta.”

Keino, in Hattiesburg since July 5, said the Mississippi training session was helpful for those who showed up.

“It was a great chance for us. We have gotten used to the weather and have performed what we wanted to perform here,” Keino said. “We are ready to go.”

Now, it’s just a question of who’s going.