SOURCE: Reuters

SWIMMINGMILLER CONTESTS ALLEGATION OF DOPETEST FAILURE

SYDNEY, Nov 22 (Reuters) Australian swimmer Scott Miller, who won a
silver medal at the 1996 Olympics, is contesting an allegation of
drugtaking, his lawyer said on Saturday.

Australian media said Miller had failed a drug test for marijuana.

``It was a test made some months ago when he was out of training with a
shoulder injury,'' Miller's lawyer, Chris Murphy, told Australia's Channel
Nine television network. ``We'll be defending it vigorously.''

Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) president John Coates said on Saturday
three athletes had returned positive tests for banned substances but gave
no further details.

Miller, 22, has not competed at a major meeting since he took the 100
metres butterfly silver medal at the Atlanta Olympics last year.

A niggling shoulder injury kept him out of the Australian trials in
Brisbane last month, automatically ruling him out of January's world
swimming championships in Perth.

But the Sydney swimmer hopes to make a comeback for next year's
Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Two years ago Miller spent a night in jail after intervening in a fight
outside a nightclub during the Pan Pacific championships in Atlanta.

Earlier this year he was expelled from the Australian Institute of Sport in
Canberra for missing too many training sessions.