Thursday, September 28, 2000

Court backs decision to strip all-around gymnastics champ of gold medal

By Nancy Armour
Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia - Andreea Raducan won't get her gold medal back after arbitrators upheld a decision Thursday to disqualify the Romanian all-around gymnastics champion for taking cold medicine.
   After two days of arguments and deliberation, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the International Olympic Committee's decision to strip Raducan of the medal after she tested positive for the banned stimulant, pseudoephedrine.
   The stimulant is found in the over-the-counter cold remedy the team doctor prescribed for Raducan, apparently unaware it could cost the 16-year-old gymnast her medal. The Romanians argued that Raducan shouldn't be punished for the doctor's mistake.
   The three-person arbitration panel disagreed with that argument. It went along with the IOC's wish to draw a clear line between what's allowed and not allowed at these Olympics, even though its members conceded Raducan did nothing sinister by taking the pills.
   The presence of a banned substance constitutes an offense "irrespective of whether or not the competitor intended to ingest the prohibited substance," the court ruled.
   "A strict liability test must thus be applied, the consequence being automatic disqualification as a matter of law and in fairness to other athletes," it said.
   "The panel is aware of the impact of its decision on a fine, young, elite athlete," the court said. "It finds, in balancing the interest of Miss Raducan with the commitment of the Olympic Movement to drug-free sport, the Anti-Doping Code must be enforced without compromise."
   The team doctor has already been expelled from the Sydney Games and suspended through the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake and 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
   "It's too much to give back a medal for only one pill taken for cold and influenza," Romanian coach Octavian Belu said as he waited for the decision.
   Raducan waited for the result in the athletes' village. She left early Thursday from the hotel where the case was being heard, looking relaxed and in good spirits. She was accompanied by teammates Simona Amanar and Maria Olaru, the silver and bronze medal winners.
   Belu said Amanar had told the court she would accept the gold medal vacated by Raducan - on behalf of the country, not herself.
   "She accepts only because these are the rules, not because she wins," Belu said.
   It's those rules that placed the IOC, the Romanians and the arbitration panel in an awkward position. Several IOC members sounded sympathetic toward Raducan, even though they're the ones defending the decision to strip the medal.
   "My heart is with the athlete but it's a decision that stood the test of arbitration, and everybody must live with that," IOC executive board member Kevan Gosper of Australia said after the ruling. "It's a decision that was put to the test. It's a non-ambiguous one and it demonstrates we're serious about doping, if anyone had any doubts."
   Romanian Olympic Committee president Ion Tiriac had described the case not as one about medals, but "a matter of honor."
   His countrymen seemed to agree.
   Romanians took to the streets Wednesday, demanding the return of the medal, and threatening protests if it wasn't returned.
   Hoping to soothe the teen's disappointment, Romanian Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu promised Raducan the $30,000 prize money she would have received from the Romanian Olympic Committee for winning the gold.
  
  

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