OLYMPIC MEDALS SOUGHT IN DRUG CASES

NEW YORK (AP) The White House will try to have duplicate medals
awarded to Olympic athletes known to have lost to competitors using
illegal drugs, the federal drug czar said Wednesday.

Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, plans to pursue the matter at next month's world doping
summit despite the IOC's recent rejection of at least two similar
pleas.

"Our voice should be listened to," he said, noting two-thirds of the
International Olympic Committee's revenue comes from U.S. television
networks and corporate sponsors.

Last month, the IOC turned down requests from the U.S. Olympic
Committee and the British Olympic Association for duplicate medals for
swimmers beaten by East Germans in the 1976 and 1980 Games.

Recent testimony in Germany has shown that the winning East German
athletes were helped by banned steroids administered as part of a
secret government program.

The IOC said it was impossible to rewrite the record books, despite
court evidence.

"We need to look at the notion of supplemental medals when it can be
proved in the courts where medals were lost to chemically engineered
competition," McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey said he had asked USOC president Bill Hybl at a White House
meeting Wednesday to add 1972 Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter
to his delegation to the summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, Feb. 2-4.

Shorter is considering pursuit of a second gold medal from the 1976
Olympic marathon, where he finished second to East Germany's Waldemar
Cierpinski. He says evidence from files of the Stasi, the East German
secret police, show that Cierpinski also was involved in the doping
program, and that information will eventually wind up in court.

"This is a related issue to what is really most important, and that is
trying to help the IOC know what is really going on," Shorter said by
phone from his Colorado home.

He said his interest in drug issues has been heightened in recent
years by the success of his 19-year-old son in distance running at the
University of Colorado.

"I want to do everything I can so he feels it's not necessary to
resort to illegal drugs to compete and win at a high level," Shorter
said.

Last November, McCaffrey's office announced an unprecedented $1
million federal pledge toward research for drug testing in sports. He
said Wednesday that was a "down payment" on future government action
but denied federal funding would be linked to the medals request.

"We are pursuing arguments on an emerging, universal opinion that we
have to protect the beliefs of 12-year-olds that you don't have to use
drugs and there will be a level playing field if you chose to
compete," he said.

McCaffrey will head a six-member federal delegation to the summit,
including representatives of the State Department and the National
Institute for Drug Abuse.

He plans to meet with delegations from 10 countries, including China,
to form a "common understanding" before the session.