I.O.C. PANEL CLEARS WAY FOR NEW TESTS IN SYDNEY

The medical commission of the International Olympic Committee yesterday
approved the use of a combination of urine and blood tests to detect the use
of the performance-enhancing drug EPO at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney,
Australia. If the new test is endorsed as expected by the I.O.C.'s legal
commission and executive board later this month, between 300 and 700
out-of-competition tests will be conducted randomly in Sydney from Sept. 2,
when the Olympic Village opens, until the conclusion of the Games on Oct. 1,
said Dr. Patrick Schamasch, the I.O.C.'s medical director.
Out-of-competition tests, which are administered without notice, are
considered the only reliable way to catch drug cheats.

Erythropoietin, known as EPO, is produced naturally by the kidneys and
stimulates the production of red blood cells. A synthetic version can be a
wonder drug for those who suffer from anemia and AIDS and who are undergoing
chemotherapy. In elite sport, however, EPO is believed to be used widely and
illicitly to increase oxygen-carrying capacity in endurance sports such as
cycling, distance running and swimming.

EPO was at the center of the Tour de France drug scandal in 1998, which led
to enormous pressure by international governments for the I.O.C. to develop
a reliable method to detect the drug's use. For the Sydney Games, scientists
intend to use an Australian-developed blood test in combination with a urine
test developed by French researchers.

Each test has its strengths and weaknesses. The blood test can detect the
use of EPO over several weeks, but only indirectly. The urine test can
detect direct use of EPO, but only for a period of three days.

Many questions remain about an EPO test for Sydney, scientists and
drug-testing experts said yesterday. Has the fast-tracked test undergone
sufficient peer review? Can it withstand legal scrutiny? Will a significant
number of so-called "false positives" ruin athletes' reputations unfairly?
How much of a deterrent will the test actually create in Sydney, after
athletes have already benefited from the training advantages provided by
EPO?

Even with the detectability of EPO, the use of performance-enhancing drugs
is likely to be extensive at the Sydney Games. There will be no tests to
detect substances like human-growth hormone, insulin-growth factor and
products that work essentially as artificial blood. Drug use has become so
sophisticated that athletes use topical steroid gels that flush from the
system in hours. Some drug-testing experts also believe that the
introduction of an EPO test will simply lead athletes to return to
undetectable blood doping, in which blood is removed from a particular
athlete and later reinserted to increase oxygen-carrying capacity.

At the least, however, athletes who use EPO now face the possibility that
they could be caught while at the Sydney Games.

"Today we achieved a major step," Schamasch said in a telephone conference
call from I.O.C. headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Asked about the drugs that remain undetectable, he said: "It's a step you
know. Paris wasn't built in one day. The final victory against doping needs
to be done step by step. Many steps build a stairs."

Dr. Gary I. Wadler, a professor of medicine at New York University and an
expert on performance-enhancing drugs, said that although he believed the
introduction of an EPO test was significant, he wished there had been more
time to validate the test for athletes who live at various altitudes and
with respect to sex and race.

"Those are the issues that always surface when someone tests positive,"
Wadler said. "The lawyers are going to feast on whether this has been
validated sufficiently by an independent process."

Frank Shorter, the 1972 Olympic marathon champion, who will head an
independent American drug-testing agency after the Sydney Games, said an EPO
test was a "huge step" in the fight against drug cheats. But, he added,
simply instituting the test in Sydney would create only a mild deterrent.

If the I.O.C. is serious about treating the issue as a drug problem instead
of a public-relations problem, Shorter said, it would begin using or
threatening to use the EPO test immediately, saving urine and blood samples
of athletes taken now and through the Sydney Games. Thus, cheating athletes
would be worried that they might be caught now or later, and a real
deterrent would be created for the Summer Games, he contended.

"Here is an opportunity to shift the psychological advantage from cheaters
to clean athletes," Shorter said. "Let's not fall asleep now."

Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor who is an authority on
performance-enhancing drugs and a longtime critic of the I.O.C.'s
drug-testing procedures, reacted skeptically. "Nothing's changing here," he
said. "Somebody tell me why athletes won't go back to blood doping. These
Games are going to be as drug-laden as the rest."

Yesalis said he was concerned that what he called the "short-circuiting" of
the scientific method to approve an EPO test might result in innocent
athletes being accused unfairly. He said the test "smacked of public
relations."

"After four decades of pathetic behavior, the stench of hypocrisy is
overwhelming," he said, noting that the I.O.C. had fallen years and millions
of dollars behind in research for drug tests. "If they expect me to get warm
and fuzzy feelings, sorry, I'm burned out after four decades of disingenuous
behavior."