Drug stain on US gold

Olympic champion reported to have tested positive for banned steroid.

An American gold medallist at the 2000 Olympics had tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid the previous year, it has been claimed. The allegation was made during a meeting of the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal and increases pressure on the US governing body to name the athlete so it can be decided whether he or she should be stripped of the medal.

Details of the case emerged during an inquiry undertaken last year by the Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren on behalf of USA Track and Field, and the findings were presented to the WADA on Tuesday. It is alleged that McLaren found evidence that the athlete tested positive for nandrolone on July 6 1999 but was allowed to continue competing until being banned for two years eight months later.

However, the athlete was cleared at an appeal in July 2000 and allowed to compete in the US trials and then the Olympic Games.

USATF has acknowledged that one of its athletes had tested positive and had been allowed to compete in Sydney after winning an appeal. But it claims that the rules in effect at the time forbade it from identifying the competitor.

The rules of the International Association of Athletics Federations stipulate that, when an athlete fails a drugs test, the national governing body should inform it of the name. But the US used to inform the IAAF only if the athlete had been found guilty at the end of the appeals process.

It is claimed that the athlete who won the gold medal is one of 21 who had failed drugs tests but never had their identities revealed because they were cleared.

In a letter in February to Lamine Diack, the president of the IAAF, the chief executive of USATF Craig Masback said rules in effect at the time "precluded, and continued to preclude, USATF from providing the information that you are seeking". He added: "Deviating from this position would have serious legal implications."

Masback claimed that the McLaren commission supported USATF's decision to allow the athlete to compete in the Olympics and found its interpretation of the disclosure rules "defensible".

In January the International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said that he found USATF's position incomprehensible and WADA's chairman Dick Pound urged the IAAF to expel USATF if its requests for information were not met.

Together with USATF, the IAAF has referred the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court will adjudicate this summer on whether USATF should release the athlete's name.

If the IAAF wins it could launch its own investigation and, if it finds the athlete guilty, apply a two-year suspension retrospectively and take back the medal.

· Jonathan Edwards produced the longest triple jump in the world this year, then insisted that until he flew out to 17.67 metres he was wishing he had stayed at home.

The Olympic, world and European champion, competing for the first time this year, won the Notturna di Milano meeting for the second successive year after struggling with a gusting following wind.

"After three rounds I thought I was going nowhere," he said. "Then I got it together. I'm stunned to have jumped so far."

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