AUCH SLAMS REBAGLIATI FOR HIS MARIJUANA USE

WINNIPEG -- As summer sport athletes prepared for Friday's opening
ceremonies of the XIII Pan-American Games a prominent Canadian winter sport
athlete put the heat on athletes, sport leaders and administrators to
behave more responsibly in what are tempting, confusing and often
precarious times in international sport.

Three-time Olympic speedskating medallist Susan Auch told delegates to a
pre-Games ethics in sport conference she was distressed by the fame gained
by Whistler snowboarder Ross Rebagliati at the Nagano Olympics, where he
won gold in giant slalom, tested positive for marijuana but retained his
medal due to a rules loophole between the International Olympic Committee
and international snowboarding's governing body.

"I don't think we as Canadians should have celebrated this as much as we
did," she said in recounting her chagrin in watching Rebagliati embraced
and feted by Canadian sport officials at a post-Nagano luncheon, then later
being told by schoolchildren he was their hero despite his having tested
positive for an illegal substance.

"Ross tested positive. We were warned to no end about this kind of thing
before we left. When you are an athlete that means you're a role model and
you have a responsibility to act in an ethical way .

"We did a terrible thing by letting it seem okay. We are teaching young
people this kind of thing is okay and that's a terrible thing."

Auch's blunt assessment of the issue was one of many powerful points made
at the conference here.

Earlier in the session Vancouver's Marion Lay, a former national team
swimmer and administrator for the national sports centre in Vancouver,
spoke on gender equity issues in sport while former Canadian Olympic
Association president Roger Jackson discussed the problem of drug use in
sport. Auch, now retired, spoke to both issues as a woman athlete and
international competitor who has suffered the indignity of gender testing
while being frustrated by what she feels is still insufficient testing of
international athletes and the inconsistency of penalties levied to cheaters.

"It's a privilege to be an athlete and the athlete doesn't necessarily have
a right to come back after being found guilty of cheating," she said,
applauding the rigorous drug testing of athletes in Canada while lamenting
more countries have not followed the same hard course. "If there were more
consequences they would think twice about cheating."

Jackson also believes many athletes, if asked, would admit drug use is
still a problem internationally.

"That's sad," he said. "In Canadian sport I am confident the message is
getting out there but in terms of the international perspective I am less
convinced the battle is being won."

When asked about a push from athletes to have blood testing replace urine
testing at the Olympics in Sydney Jackson noted the urine sample is still
suitable for detecting many banned substances. He cautioned a privacy issue
is looming because blood samples offer an opportunity to learn much more
about an individual's health and history than merely the presence of banned
drugs.