Olympic roll of shame gets longer

Almost daily, another individual or team is withdrawn, pulls out or is expelled from these Games. Many occurred in the lead-up to the weekend's initial action. Yesterday, the roll of shame lengthened again.

* The Romanian weightlifting team has been banned from the rest of the Sydney Olympics for doping offences, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said. Lifters Traian Ciharean and Andrei Mateias were expelled on Friday after failing dope tests. A third man, Razvan Ilie, tested positive in May.

* It had already been revealed that 20 athletes recorded suspected positive tests for banned drugs in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics.

* Taiwanese weightlifter Chen Po-pu was expelled from the Games on Wednesday after testing positive for methandienone.

* Another seven athletes from Canada, Taiwan, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan were kicked off their Olympic teams for recording positive dope tests.

* China axed 27 athletes from its Olympic team even before they left for Sydney, allegedly due to fears that they would not pass new tests for the banned red blood cell stimulant EPO.

* Ukrainian shot putter Aleksandr Bagach was also likely to be banned after testing positive for huge levels of anabolic steroids earlier this year.

* Uzbekistan Olympic official Sergei Voynov, aged 45, has been summonsed to face court after being detected allegedly trying to bring a banned substance, human growth hormone, into Australia.

* German Olympic 5000 metres champion Dieter Baumann, who tested positive to banned anabolic steroids (nandrolone) twice last year, has yet to get official approval to compete. He was cleared over the summer by the German federation's legal panel, which ruled there had been irregularities in the collection, storage and transport of his urine samples. An IAAF judgment will be delivered by tomorrow.

* Mark Richardson, the British 400m champion who tested positive for steroids, was also to have his hearing in Sydney, but quit the Olympic team ahead of the Games. His hearing has been postponed until after the Games.

* Kazakhstan swimmer Yevgeniya Yermakova tested positive for furosemide and was ejected from the Olympics on Wednesday. The 24-year-old freestyle spri*r is a member of Onehunga Swimming Club and had swum in the Auckland summer and winter carnivals. The test was carried out during an international competition in Monaco in May.

* A two-time world high-jump champion, the world record-holder and the 1992 Olympic champion, Javier Sotomayor of Cuba, was stripped of his gold medal in last year's Pan American Games in Winnipeg after testing positive for cocaine. The IAAF banned the 32-year-old for two years, but reduced his suspension to one year earlier this month, citing "exceptional circumstances" and his exemplary 15-year career.

* Apart from Chen Po-pu, two other Taiwanese weightlifters have tested positive in the past few weeks and have been banned by the International Weightlifting Federation. They include three-times world champion Chen Jui-lien and her teammate Wu Mei-yi.

- AGENCIES