Athletes with suspect blood values could be banned

Published>Fri, Jan 29 10 12:29 AM

Athletes who do not test positive for drugs but post abnormal blood values could be thrown out of next month's Vancouver Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday.

German speedskater Claudia Pechstein became the first athlete to be suspended for two years after blood samples showed abnormal values last year, but without the skater ever testing positive for banned substances.

Asked whether the IOC would seek to suspend athletes who show irregular blood values during the Feb. 12-28 Games but do not test positive, IOC President Jacques Rogge said: "I cannot rule that out. It is a possibility.

"The IOC will have 450 blood samples of 2,000 tests in and out of competition," Rogge told reporters in a conference call.

"If parameters are abnormal then they will be communicated to the international federations. Our (blood) values will be fitted into the long-term values of international federations."

He said in case of a discrepancy "a disciplinary hearing will be opened."

Rogge said he did not expect a double-digit figure of doping offenders, with the past two winter editions of the Games recording seven positive cases each time.

"It is hard to say. We had seven positive cases in Salt Lake City and seven in Torino. Something around that would not be surprising in Vancouver."

"I would hope that it would less than that."

The IOC has in past Games used local law enforcement officers in their fight against doping, with armed police raiding Austrian athletes' quarters at the 2006 Turin Games.

"It is up to (Canadian) police to decide if there should be judicial action," Rogge said. "We are under Canadian laws. Border authorities will give information to the IOC when an accredited person will try to smuggle drugs into Canada."

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