Ueberroth vows ‘clean’ U.S. team

CHICAGO -- U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth said Tuesday he was certain that the U.S. would bring a drug-free team to the 2008 Olympics, which begin in Beijing on Aug. 8.

“This will be a clean team,” Ueberroth said during a question-and-answer session at the USOC media summit.

But officials stopped short of a guarantee.

“With the changes we’ve made to the national anti-doping education,” said Jim Scherr, USOC chief executive, “we’re very confident this team is clean now and that we will field a clean team. There’s no way to guarantee anything but we feel very good about this team.”

In track and field especially, but also in other sports, the U.S. has suffered the embarrassment of seeing former Olympic stars -- including Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Tyler Hamilton -- uncovered as drug cheats.

Joining Ueberroth and Scherr were USOC Chief of Sports Performance Steve Roush and USOC Chief Communications Officer Darryl Seibel, who was asked why there were no representatives of the Chinese Olympic Committee, a common occurrence at past media summits.

“They were invited,” Seibel said, “but they were in final preparations and had a delegation at the torch relay,” referring to the San Francisco leg, whose route was moved to avoid protesters. “There was no specific reason other than preparations for Beijing.”

Thousands of people had gathered to disrupt the torch relay as a means to protest China’s policy in Tibet and Darfur, two hot-button political issues. But those issues have not been prominent in this three-day conference, an event designed to introduce athletes who often get only a brief period of national exposure during the Olympics.

According to Reuters, German judo competitor Yvonne Boenisch, a gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, said she would boycott the opening ceremony in Beijing and wear a wristband during competition to protest what she says are human rights violations taking place in Tibet.

Scherr said U.S. athletes would not be discouraged from speaking out for or against any cause.

“We prefer athletes do what they want,” he said. “If they feel compelled to stick their neck out they can do so within the rules of the International Olympic Charter. If they don’t want to, they should be left alone to focus on training.

“Many are using the Games as leverage for their purposes and if athletes want to do that, it’s OK, and if they don’t want to do it they shouldn’t have to do it.”

Although some heads of states such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have said they will not attend the Beijing Olympics, President Bush has said he will attend the opening ceremony.

The USOC officials tried to downplay the number of medals they expect U.S. athletes to win this summer.

“We have a good team,” Scherr said. “We have a strong team on the field of play. But we’re making no illusions about the fact we think the Chinese have the strongest team heading into these Games.”

Ueberroth added, “In spending, our budget will be around fifth or sixth in total preparation compared to other nations.”

Asked about Chicago’s campaign to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, Ueberroth said, “Still not anywhere near first.”

Chicago is competing against Rio de Janeiro; Tokyo; Madrid; Doha, Qatar; Prague, Czech Republic; and Baku, Azerbaijan.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com