Paralympics: Powerlifters suspended in Games drug-testing shock

By GREG ANSLEY

SYDNEY - At least four powerlifters have been suspended as Paralympic officials wait for confirmation that athletes tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in pre-competition tests last weekend.

Weightlifting recorded four of the 11 positive tests recorded in Olympic competition, with four athletes subsequently stripped of their medals.

The results of random A testing for the Paralympic powerlifters were being confirmed by the Australian Drug Testing Laboratory with the results of the second B sample expected today.

If the B results confirm the presence of banned substances in Games that have had only one previous drug scandal in their 40-year history, the athletes face expulsion from the Paralympics.

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) medical director Michael Riding confirmed that the four powerlifters were from four countries.

IPC president Dr Robert Steadward said the only good news was that the introduction of pre-competition tests had proved effective and had avoided the possibility of having to later strip winners of their medals.

The announcement that the athletes had returned positive samples came as the Games also faced growing anger at the system of classifying disability, which saw Australian shot-putter and team vice-captain Hamish MacDonald blocked from defending his Atlanta gold medal.

The British team have also complained that several of their gold medal chances have been lost by reclassification of disability, leading Dr Steadward to concede that the system needed overhauling.

But he said the Games was not the place to do it.

The IPC had said that the disabilities of five athletes had been reclassified under a new system to improve the complex task of fairly matching the competitive abilities of Paralympians.

Yesterday, as Dr Steadward defended the MacDonald decision, officials from the teams involved in the positive drug tests were present during laboratory analysis of the B tests, although the identity of the athletes was not disclosed.

The news has rocked the Games, which until yesterday had bathed in a virtually drug-free reputation and the perception that disability athletes were somehow above the obsessive and often self-destructive ambitions of their able-bodied counterparts.

No positive tests were returned during the Atlanta Paralympics, and the only other case of drug use came when a member of the American wheelchair basketball team was found to have used painkillers during the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics.

The team were stripped of their gold medal as a result.

But in the run-up to the Sydney Games, Dr Riding warned that disability athletes were no different in their approach to sports, or in their determination to win, than able-bodied athletes.

The potential for an upsurge in Paralympic drug use had been recognised in the adoption by the IPC of testing procedures and a list of banned substances almost identical to those of the Olympics.

This included, for the first time, random out-of-competition testing, which embraced up to 600 of the 4000 athletes competing in the Games.

Dr Steadward said IPC member nations had to take responsibility for the use of drugs. They had to educate coaches, governments and the athletes.

"I'm disappointed that we still have athletes who feel they need to take drugs to compete.

"On the other hand, I feel good that we were able to prevent these athletes from competing and avoid further difficulties."

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