Positive Test Could Mean Gold for U.S.

Brandon Slay of the United States thought he had unjustly lost a freestyle wrestling gold medal at the Sydney Olympics because of a referee’s questionable calls. He was right about having been cheated--but not for the reasons he had in mind.

The International Olympic Committee’s medical commission recommended Monday that German wrestler Alexander Leipold, who defeated Slay to win the 167 1/2-pound title, be stripped of his gold medal after testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.

Leipold, a four-time Olympian, failed a mandatory test administered after his 4-0 victory over Slay. The test found 20 nanograms of nandrolone per milliliter of urine; two nanograms per milliliter is the limit.

If, as expected, the recommendation is approved by the IOC’s executive board, the gold will be awarded to Slay, who grew up in Amarillo, Texas. He would become the only U.S. freestyle wrestler to win gold at Sydney and the second U.S. athlete to win a gold after an apparent winner’s drug-related disqualification. U.S. weightlifter Tara Nott won the gold in the women’s 105-pound class after Izabela Dragneva of Bulgaria was disqualified.

“It’s poetic justice,” said Jim Scherr, executive director of USA Wrestling. “When somebody cheats and is caught, they shouldn’t be allowed to keep the gold.

“This is probably one of the last people we would have suspected of using a prohibited substance, because we’ve known him for years and he’s always been clean. But he was trying to take a shortcut and he cheated. We thought Brandon deserved to win the gold. He put the time and effort in. We’re very, very excited and happy for Brandon.”

The medical commission also recommended that Mongolian wrestler Oyungbileg Purevbaatar be disqualified and his results wiped off the books after testing positive for the diuretic furosemide. He finished fifth in the 127 3/4-pound class. The tests on the two wrestlers were confirmed shortly after the Games ended, but the commission delayed taking action because the athletes had gone home and couldn’t immediately attend a hearing.

Eleven positive tests were reported by the IOC during the Sydney Games. Five athletes were stripped of medals in Sydney, including two gold medalists--Dragneva and Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan, who lost her all-around medal after testing positive for pseudoephedrine.

Slay had criticized Leipold for “whining, like a baby crying,” during their match in hopes of getting sympathy from the officials. Referee Borje Schoug of Sweden penalized Slay two points for failing to get into a clinch position to start the second period and called another one-point penalty against him late in the match. Afterward, Slay said he was “sick to my stomach” and couldn’t shake the referee’s hand, a slight he apologized for last week.

Slay, who will be honored at a parade today in Amarillo, acknowledged having mixed feelings about his delayed triumph.

“I have always dreamed of and worked toward the goal of winning an Olympic gold medal, but this certainly wasn’t the way I dreamed of doing it,” he said. “If silver turns to gold this way, I don’t know how to feel. My dream was to win gold on the mat.

“I’ve learned many lessons by winning the silver medal and my hope is to carry these lessons with me, whether or not the gold medal comes my way.”

Leipold attended an IOC medical commission hearing Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland, and said he was not guilty and didn’t know how he could have tested positive. He said he had tested clean as recently as the end of August.

*

ALSO

Barry McCaffrey, a strong proponent of the Olympic anti-doping campaign, is resigning as U.S. drug czar. A17, D5