EPO Use Hit New Heights in Salt Lake

As many as 100 drugs tests at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City showed traces of the banned performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin, known as EPO, an Olympic official revealed yesterday.

However, almost all those suspected of having cheated avoided sanctions because the test was not sophisticated enough to prove beyond doubt they had been using the drug.

"The amount of people using EPO was frightening and confirmed our worst fears," a senior International Olympic Committee official said. "But there was absolutely nothing we could do about it."

For the first time all endurance athletes were tested for EPO during the games in February. They underwent a combined blood-urine test that in many cases suggested they had taken the drug but had stopped several days before they were due to compete.

"Legally, the results would not have stood up because EPO disappears from the body very, very fast," said the IOC official. "We were just delighted to have made an example of the ones we caught."

Officials are unsure which competitors actually showed traces of the stimulant because unless a sample tested positive it was not linked to the athlete who gave it. In other words, one athlete competing in several events could have produced more than one sample showing traces of EPO.

Salt Lake City organisers conducted 1,000 tests for EPO and were able to celebrate after announcing three positive results, all involving cross-country skiers who were found to have taken darbepoetin, a new form of EPO.

One of the most widely abused drugs in sports, EPO enhances endurance by stimulating the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. It has been linked particularly with cycling and long-distance running.

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