Athletics: Olympic officials call for enquiry into US use of drugs

Leading olympic athletes, coaches and officials have called for an open investigation into allegations of a drugs cover-up by the United States, dating back to the 1988 Seoul Games, which implicates among others, the nine-times Olympic champion, Carl Lewis.

Documents released in the US earlier this week suggest that 19 Olympic medallists failed drugs tests between 1988 and 2000 but were allowed to continue competing at top level.

Lewis is said to have tested positive for three stimulants banned by the International Olympic Committee – pseudo-ephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine – two months before he was due to compete at the Seoul Olympics, an offence which carried a 12-week ban.

He went on to claim the gold medal in the 100 metres final after Ben Johnson, who won the race in a world record of 9.79sec, was disqualified, having tested positive for steroids.

According to documents made public by Dr Wade Exum, the United States Olympic Committee's director for drug control between 1991 and 2000, his organisation initially disqualified Lewis after he tested positive at the US Olympic trials, but then accepted his appeal on the basis that he had taken a herbal supplement and was unaware of its contents.

Lewis received a warning after US officials ruled his positive tests were due to "inadvertent" use. Martin Singer, Lewis's lawyer, said: "Carl did nothing wrong. There was never intent."

The documents, which name more than 100 athletes who competed despite failing tests, including Joe DeLoach and Andre Phillips, respective Olympic champions at 200m and 400m hurdles in 1988, were released to Sports Illustrated magazine and the Orange County Register newspaper.

However, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has said Exum's claims were groundless because he had planned to use them in a law suit against them for racial discrimination and wrongful dismissal. Exum's case was dismissed through lack of evidence.

Darryl Seibel, a USOC spokesman, said the organisation sees no reason for an audit or review, and that there was no evidence that any of the cases were mishandled.

But Dick Pound, the head of the World Anti Doping Agency, said he would like to get all the details from the files. "The more we know the better it is," Pound said. "The more the world knows and the US public knows what the USOC was doing, the more likely they are to fix the problem."

The American sprinter Evelyn Ashford, who won the women's Olympic 100m in 1984 and was runner-up in 1988, is one of several athletes who has called for a review of the test results, with the findings made public. "It should all be done in the open," Ashford said. They should clean up the mess that they made.

"For so many years, I lived it. I knew this was going on, but there's absolutely nothing you can do as an athlete. You have to believe the governing bodies are [doing] what they are supposed to do, and it is obvious that they did not."