Two Face Banishment for Doping

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 banned from the games after two recent positive drug tests.

Capobianco’s test, taken while he competed in Europe, revealed the use of stanozolol, Athletics Australia President David Prince said. That’s the same banned substance that got Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson thrown out of the 1988 Olympics.

Capobianco has denied taking the steroid and has begun legal action. He was in Raleigh, N.C., Monday at an Australian training camp and was not available for comment.

“Athletics Australia believes he is innocent until proven guilty, and that’s what the athlete has told us,” Prince said.

Capobianco will not be allowed into the Olympic Village until a hearing on the matter is finalized, jeopardizing his chances of competing here. Officials with Athletics Australia hope to hold the hearing within a week.

Capobianco, 26, was scheduled to compete in the 200 meters. The event 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 taking ephedrine unwittingly.

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

“The problem is we have two rules: the international federation rules and the IOC rules,” Italian Olympic Committee President Mario Pescante said. “In this case, if we respect the rules of the IOC, there’s no problem. But one week ago, we were told we are obliged to respect the rules of the international federation. It’s very ridiculous.”

The IOC medical commission chairman, Prince Alexandre de Merode, said the matter remains in the hands of the Italian and international federations for now.

If no agreement can be reached, the case could go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The special arbitration panel has been set up to resolve doping and other disputes at the Atlanta Games.

Bevilacqua, who is still in Italy, is scheduled to arrive next Monday at the Italian training camp in Winston Salem, N.C. She is due in the Olympic Village on July 29, two days before the start of the high jump competition.