IOC HEAD WANTS TO BAN SOFT DRUGS

Samaranch talks about soft drug ban, extending Sydney Games

MADRID, Spain (Reuters) -- Juan Antonio Samaranch hopes to choose his own
successor
as International Olympic Committee president, the 77-year-old Spaniard said
Sunday.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Barcelona daily El Mundo Deportivo
Samaranch also said the Olympic movement would shortly ban soft drugs such
as marijuana and suggested the Summer Games could be extended to stretch
over four weekends.

Samaranch had already announced his decision to step down as IOC president
in 2001. He said the decision was irrevocable and that he would talk to the
IOC members at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 about a successor.

"As IOC president I have the duty to try to ensure that my succession
doesn't divide," Samaranch said from Nagano, where he closed the Winter
Olympics on Sunday.

"An agreed successor? Perhaps. [If] there is someone who has a majority, I
myself will put them forward as my successor.

"Elections are always good but now there is a risk of dividing something
that needs total unity," said Samaranch who has held the most powerful job
in sport since 1980.

Asked about the case of Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, who kept his
gold medal despite testing positive for marijuana in Nagano, Samaranch said
action would shortly be taken to ban soft drugs.

"Many people think these kind of substances have to be completely banned.
And we're going to do it. An athlete, above all an Olympic athlete, has to
be an example to youth.

"There is a work group for this and we have decided to include the
so-called 'social drugs' within the products prohibited by the IOC and we
will try to extend this ban to all the international federations."

Some international sports federations oppose marijuana bans and some IOC
officials have expressed fears that such a ban could hamper key talks this
year between the federations and the Olympic committee on a new medical
code.

Samaranch said snowboarding would be kept in the Games and that its
"non-conformist" participants should think carefully about drugs if hey
wanted to compete in the Olympics.

Emphasizing the importance of television income to sport, Samaranch said
the Summer Games could be extended beyond their current three-weekend
format.

"[Television] is the source of finance not only of the Games but the whole
Olympic movement and all sport. We have begun to study the possibility of
extending the Summer Games.

"The soccer World Cup lasts a month. Why can't a Summer Games have four
weekends?" he said.