Salt Lake samples may be tested for THG

The International Olympic Committee is considering whether drug tests at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, can be re-checked for the recently discovered steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).

Lawyers for the IOC are studying the legality of testing frozen urine samples taken to Los Angeles from the temporary Olympic drug-testing laboratory at the University of Utah's Research Park.

"The samples exist. Now we have to look into all the juridical issues," said the IOC medical director, Patrick Schamasch. "We are reviewing all these different issues, of course. Once we have all the information on the potential legal issues, my proposal will be to ask our president [Jacques Rogge], and he will decide."

The IOC is also asking scientists if the 19-month-old samples are preserved well enough. "We want to be sure that the quality of the sample is still good in order not to face any legal issue with a potential degradation," Schamasch said.

Don Catlin, who heads the Olympic drug-testing laboratory at UCLA, where the samples are stored, said that 200 to 300 samples still exist and could be retested for the previously undetectable drug.

Elsewhere, Fina, swimming's world governing body, will retest hundreds of urine samples from competitors at this summer's Barcelona World Championships for THG. But world football's governing body, Fifa, has decided not to re-examine urine samples.