IOC SUGGESTS TOUGH NEW TEXT FOR OLYMPIC CHARTER

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Feb. 3 (Kyodo) -- There was tough talk by the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its ongoing doping conference in
Lausanne on Wednesday, with some members calling for a revised text of the
Olympic Charter to be drafted.

A working group of the IOC ethics committee submitted a proposal to
introduce ''respect for fair play'' and a phrase promoting the ethics of
sport into a new charter which, they said, would help give the tarnished
Olympic Movement an image overhaul.

The committee also urged that athletes submit to the IOC a written document
stating they are drug-free before each Olympics with the understanding
that, if tested positive for steroids, any sponsorship contracts will be
immediately terminated.

IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, under pressure to quit in the wake of
the bribery scandal surrounding recent Olympic bids, was given more to
think about as German athletics chief Helmut Digel suggested that sports
failing to deal with drug cheats be kicked out of the Games.

''It can't be that we have a case three months before the 2000 Sydney Games
that an athlete, a cyclist and a soccer player test positive and one goes
to the Games while the others can't,'' he explained on the second day of
the three-day symposium.

Meanwhile, Britain's former Olympic 1,500-meter champion Sebastian Coe
criticized the IOC's handling of U.S. sprinter Dennis Mitchell, who tested
positive last season for excessive amounts of testosterone.

The 1992 Olympic 100-meter bronze medalist was cleared after arguing that
his high testosterone level was down to his having drunk beer and had sex
with his wife the night before his drug test.

''It stretches confidence and credibility to breaking point that in the
United States a high profile Olympian escapes a ban with this kind of
excuse,'' said Coe, a former Conservative Member of Parliament who has
campaigned vigorously against doping in sport.