IOC: NO JAIL FOR SUSPECT ATHLETES

SEOUL, South Korea--The International Olympic
Committee declared its opposition Monday to the
possibility of athletes being jailed for taking banned
performance-enhancing drugs. The Australian Olympic Committee last
month said the penalty for possession, manufacturing, trafficking and
use of steroids and other banned substances should be the same as
those for illicit narcotics.

Under the proposal, anyone importing large amounts of
performance-enhancers into Australia could be jailed for life. An
athlete caught using doping substances could also face criminal charges.

There has been speculation the proposal could raise the prospect of an
athlete being put in prison for failing a drug test during the 2000 Sydney
Games. But AOC president John Coates said Monday he never proposed
that athletes should be jailed for a positive test, only if they were caught
trafficking in large amounts of drugs.

But the IOC executive board, which opened a four-day
meeting Monday, apparently was under the impression that Australia was
proposing jail terms for athletes caught using drugs. While drug
traffickers should face criminal prosecution, athletes should be
sanctioned by sports bodies, IOC leaders said. "There is quite a bit
of consensus that jail should be reserved for the traffickers,
dealers, suppliers and true criminals," IOC director general Francois
Carrard said. "The athletes should be subjected to the sanctions of
the world of sports."

Carrard said the IOC would be put in a difficult position if athletes
faced the possibility of jail sentences. "The IOC has to comply with
the law in every country," he said. "If the prospect of having
athletes threatened with spending time in jail becomes a full reality,
this would create some discomforts." However, Carrard expressed
confidence that some compromise will be reached and said there was no
reason to speculate about moving the games out of Australia. "I cannot
imagine the IOC moving the games out of Sydney," he said. "But I
cannot imagine athletes in jail either.

We are confident there will be very reasonable solutions for all the
parties." Jacques Rogge, an executive board member from Belgium and
head of the IOC's oversight panel for the Sydney Games, said Australia
would face serious repercussions if it imposed jail terms on athletes.
"Australia would isolate itself from the rest of the world of
international sport," he said. "I doubt any big international
competitions would be awarded to Australia in the future. "I
understand the emotion, but we hope Australia would go along with what
other countries are doing.

We need governments to track down and imprison the dealers and
traffickers. Let the sports movements take care of the athletes." IOC
vice president Dick Pound of Canada said governments can help by
listing steroids as controlled substances and prosecuting traffickers.
But he said athletes caught using drugs should be limited to
suspensions or fines by sporting bodies. "Athletes should not be
jailed for non-criminal offenses," he said. Drugs was the main topic
at Monday's executive board meeting as officials discussed
preparations for a world anti-drug conference to be held at Lausanne,
Switzerland, Feb. 2/4. The conference, which was called in the wake of
the drug scandals which marred the Tour de France, will finalize plans
for the creation of a special Olympic agency to coordinate
drug-testing throughout the world.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry