Olympic Ban Next Step In Doping Fight

OSAKA, Japan (AP) _ IOC President Jacques Rogge said serious doping offenders would be banned from the next Olympics even if their regular suspension had already ended. <br/><br/>Rogge told a news conference

Friday, August 24th 2007, 7:26 am

By: News On 6

OSAKA, Japan (AP) _ IOC President Jacques Rogge said serious doping offenders would be banned from the next Olympics even if their regular suspension had already ended.

Rogge told a news conference Friday that such a penalty could effectively amount to a four-year ban for athletes. Only if the athletes give evidence against dealers, doctors or coaches involved in doping could they plead for clemency, Rogge said.

``I believe it will be a powerful deterrent,'' he said. ``Every athlete who is penalized for more than six months _ which would automatically be the case for anabolic steroids, blood transfusions and EPO _ could not participate in the next Games.''

Rogge announced plans for the toughened anti-doping measures after meeting with international athletics federation officials in Osaka, where he backed the IAAF's push to increase the benchmark for serious first-time doping offenses in all sports from two to four years.

``We support the IAAF wholeheartedly,'' he said.

The World Anti-Doping Agency will review its doping code at a Nov. 15-17 conference in Madrid and has indicated that moving to a four-year suspension benchmark faced serious opposition.

``There is still some reluctance at the level of WADA to accept this measure,'' Rogge said.

The IOC's executive board on Friday decided to take measures toward tougher sanctions. The Olympic ban will still need to be reviewed by the IOC's legal department before it goes back to the executive board to be ratified.

Rogge also stressed that plea bargaining would become an important way to uncover doping networks and said effective cooperation with investigators could reopen the door to the Olympics for athletics caught doping.

``If the information he has given is very valuable we might consider to diminish the sanction. But it is always a balance in the plea bargain'' between the penalty that should be given and the information provided.

Under the plan, athletes would be automatically suspended after an A sample. The IOC would also increase the limits on medical exemptions for use of products which are on the banned list.

International sport has been badly hit by doping scandals throughout the year, from baseball, to cycling and athletics.

The world athletics championship will go on without its defending 100 meters champion.

American sprinter Justin Gatlin tested positive for testosterone and steroids in April 2006 and is fighting charges that could see him suspended for eight years.

Russian world record holder Tatyana Lysenko and a fellow hammer thrower tested positive for doping in out-of-competition tests on May 9, and Russia's team coach was suspended in the scandal.

For Rogge it was all proof enough that the fight against drugs in sports needs to be increased even more.

``The measures that we have reviewed today aim to reinforce the IOC's zero-tolerance policy that we already uphold through an unprecedented increase in testing,'' he said.

From 2,500 tests during the 2000 Sydney Games, the number of doping tests will rise to 4,500 in Beijing next year and to 5,500 in London 2012.