Athletics: Us Seeks Life Bans for Steroid Cheats

A US proposal for the introduction of life bans for any athlete who tests positive for anabolic steroids will be discussed at the International Association of Athletics Federations congress, which opens in Helsinki today.

The US wants the rest of the world to use the rule it adopted in December 2003 after the full extent of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative scandal emerged.

The new rule will need the support of the majority of the 209 national representatives due to attend, but the IAAF's ruling council has recommended the proposal should not be accepted. The IAAF reduced the length of a first ban from four years to two in 1997. Life bans apply for a second offence.

USA Track & Field's proposal also conflicts with the World Anti-Doping Agency, whose code recommends a two-year suspension for first-time offenders. The proposal is also flawed, IAAF officials believe, because it applies only to steroids and does not cover other banned drugs, such as erythropoietin (EPO).

The US's handling of Jerome Young is still controversial. The runner was found guilty of a doping offence in 2000, but was exonerated on appeal by USATF. He ran in the qualifying rounds for the gold-medal-winning 4x400 metres relay team at the Olympics that year in Sydney.

Citing privacy rules, USATF did not divulge his name to the IAAF - it emerged in 2003, after he had won the world 400m title in Paris. The IAAF retrospectively suspended him for two years and recommended that his team-mates - including Michael Johnson - be stripped of their Olympic medals.

A decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last month said only Young should lose his medal. He is now serving a life ban after testing positive for EPO last year.

The United States Olympic Committee has twice threatened to decertify USATF for its lack of co-operation in the Young case.