HIGH JUMPER LOSES GOLD TO COCAINE TEST

WINNIPEG, Manitoba

- -- Cuban high jump great Javier Sotomayor was stripped of his gold medal at
the Pan American Games on Wednesday after testing positive for cocaine, the
biggest drug scandal to hit track and field since Ben Johnson at the 1988
Olympics.

Sotomayor, considered Cuba's most popular athlete, will be suspended for two
years -- knocking him out of this month's world championships and the Sydney
Olympics, said Primo Nebiolo, president of track and field's international
federation.

It is up to the Cuban federation to suspend Sotomayor. But Nebiolo said if
the Cubans do not, the IAAF will.

Meanwhile, the U.S. women's 400 freestyle relay swim team, with Columbia's
Courtney Shealy, earned a silver medal in 3:45.72. Canada (3:45.07) won
gold.

Sprinter Linford Christie, a former Olympic champion who at 39 rarely
competes, was suspended for suspicion of steroid use.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation said his drug test suggested
the presence of the steroid nandrolone. The test was taken during a February
meet at Dortmund, Germany.