(ATR) IOC president Jacques Rogge tells Around the Rings he is "surprised" and "disappointed" to hear about the doping positives returned by Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell.
The U.S. sprinter, who has run the three fastest 100m this year, and the Jamaican former world record holder both revealed they had failed drugs tests Sunday.
Olympic 4x100 meters relay silver medalist Sherone Simpson, like Powell, has also tested positive for banned stimulant oxilophrine at last month's national championships.
Speaking to ATR in the Dutch city of Utrecht where the European Youth Olympic Festival opened yesterday, Rogge said: "I was surprised and disappointed but I feel strengthened by the measures that have been taken by USADA, by WADA and the world of sport in general."
He added: "It’s always disappointing when you hear bad news but at the same time this is confirmation that out-of-competition testing really is effective.
"I think that’s what we have to remember about that. To continue to do out-of-competition testing, testing, testing all the time and storing blood profiles and freezing the samples and re-examining them within the eight years statute of limitation."
News that Gay’s A sample from an out-of-competition test in May had returned a positive for an unnamed banned drug led to him pulling out of next month’s IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow. The world champion in 100, 200 and 4x100 relay in 2007 was informed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Friday. He is now waiting for the results of his B sample.
"I don't have a sabotage story. I don't have lies. I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down. I made a mistake," the 30-year-old said in a statement.
Powell, who held the 100 meters world record before Usain Bolt lowered it in 2008, was one of five Jamaican athletes who tested positive for a banned substance at last month’s national trials, the Jamaican Gleaner newspaper revealed on Sunday.
In a statement, he said he had "never knowingly or wilfully taken any supplements or substances that break any rules. I am not now nor have I ever been a cheat".
Both men ran impressive times in the 100m at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne earlier this month. Gay ran 9.79 seconds to beat Powell, who clocked 9.88.
It set up an appetizing contest between Gay and Bolt in the blue riband event at the IAAF worlds until the U.S. track star withdrew in disgrace on Sunday.
The IAAF is already reeling from the revelation last month that Jamaican Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown tested positive for a banned diuretic.
Rogge said the latest doping positives were bad for athletics but insisted they shouldn’t cast a cloud over the world champs.
"People will not forget about it but I think the magic of competition will take over," he told ATR.
The IAAF reacted to the doping positives of Gay and Powell, saying the fight against doping had been "enhanced not diminished" each time new doping cases were uncovered.
"The IAAF's commitment to anti-doping in athletics is unwavering because we have an ethical obligation to the majority of athletes who believe in clean sport," spokesman Nick Davies said in a statement.
"The fact that we are able to detect and remove from the sport athletes who have breached our anti-doping rules should be seen in this context."
Reported by Mark Bisson
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
