Doping Trouble Looms for Two

Doping cases involving two top-level international athletes emerged four days before the opening of the Atlanta Games.

Australian sprinter Dean Capobianco tested positive for steroids last month and could be banned from the Olympics, his country’s track officials said.

Officials debated whether Italian high jumper Antonella Bevilacqua should be banned from the games after two recent positive drug tests.

Capobianco’s test, taken while he competed in Europe, revealed the use of stanozolol.

Capobianco, 26, scheduled to compete in the 200 meters, has denied taking the steroid and has begun legal action.

Officials with Athletics Australia hope to hold a hearing within a week. The 200 begins July 29.

Bevilacqua, among the top six high jumpers in the world this year, tested positive twice for the banned stimulant ephedrine in May.

The Italian track and field federation cleared the athlete on grounds that she took the drug by mistake. She said she was taking a Chinese herbal medicine to lose weight.

In declining to suspend Bevilacqua, the Italian federation cited a new International Olympic Committee rule allowing leniency in the case of athletes unwittingly taking ephedrine.

But the sport’s world governing body, the International Amateur Athletic Federation, says the athlete should face a mandatory three-month ban.

If no agreement is reached, the case could go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.