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Olympics Notebook
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Published: July 25, 2008
Agency is increasing education of athletes about illegal drugs
■ The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is ramping up its education program for athletes heading to the Beijing Olympics, reminding them of rules and emphasizing the need for athletes with special exemptions to get their paperwork in order.
The agency wants to be sure that athletes are familiar with International Olympic Committee rules that govern the games, which will begin Aug. 8.
Recently, the issue of "therapeutic- use exemptions" has come up. Some athletes are allowed to take prescribed medicine that is on the banned-substance list, but only if an exemption form has been filled out.
Over the past month, USADA has issued public warnings to three athletes for failing to file the proper paperwork. The most notable was gymnast Morgan Hamm, who took a prescribed anti-inflammatory shot without proper clearance. USA Gymnastics has cleared him to compete at the Olympics.
The other two warnings came because athletes -- basketball player Rebekkah Brunson and heptathlete Ryanne DuPree -- failed to file for exemptions for prescribed asthma medication.
Asthma sufferers would be expected to encounter more problems if pollution in Beijing does not clear substantially.
■ The International Olympic Committee said that Iraq will not compete at Beijing because of Iraqi government interference. The IOC suspended Iraq's National Olympic Committee in June after Baghdad dismissed elected officials and installed its own people who are not recognized by the IOC.
The IOC Charter forbids political interference in the Olympics movement.
Iraq missed a Wednesday deadline to submit a team for the Beijing Games because of a stalemate between the two sides. Five Iraqi athletes were expected to compete in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. Their spots will be offered to athletes from other countries.
The IOC said that the Iraqi government did not accept an invitation to come to its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, to try to end the dispute.
■ Discus thrower Robert Fazekas of Hungary, who was stripped of his gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics for doping, will compete at the Beijing Games.
Hungary's Olympic Committee said that it approved Fazekas' request yesterday after Fazekas met the Olympics qualifying standard at a competition in Slovenia earlier this week. Fazekas, his coach, his doctor and athletics officials guaranteed in writing that Fazekas did not commit any doping offenses during training or the games, the committee said.
■ Xu Yonghe wants tickets to the Olympics, and he was willing to camp out in sweltering heat on a dusty path for 45 hours to get them.
Xu, of Beijing, was at the head of a line of thousands waiting on lawn chairs, under tents or on bamboo mats for the last batch of Olympics tickets that went on sale this morning.
There were about 250,000 tickets left after three previous rounds of domestic sales decided by a lottery system. Xu, with an umbrella to keep the sun off him, had been waiting since noon Wednesday. The tickets, priced from the equivalent of $15 to $117, were for soccer, baseball, gymnastics, diving and track and field.
■ London 2012 organizers said yesterday that the Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Center will be ready to stage test events a year before the games despite being completed later than planned.
While the Olympic Delivery Authority conceded that the British government's financial watchdog was correct when its latest report highlighted delays to the venues, it said that the changed schedule had been agreed upon with contractors and still would allow a full year of tests before the games.
■ Weightlifter Hossein Rezazadeh, a super heavyweight known as "Iranian Hercules," will not participate in the Beijing Games because he has been advised by doctors to stay home to avoid "heavy and stressful activity," state television reported yesterday.
Rezazadeh won gold medals at the Sydney and Athens Olympics and in the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar but hasn't competed internationally since injuring a knee in a traffic accident last year.
■ Andrew Hoy, a three-time gold medalist in equestrian events, was cleared yesterday on charges of abusing a horse. Eventer Madeleine Brugman, whom Hoy trains, had been accused by the International Equestrian Federation of using illegal spiked boots on a horse at a competition in Portugal, in March.
But a tribunal set up by the FEI ruled yesterday that there were "contradictions and inconsistencies" in the world governing body's case, saying the FEI "did not meet its burden of proof and did not provide evidence of a nature sufficient to substantiate a case of abuse against either Madeleine Brugman or Andrew Hoy."
Hoy competed for Australia at the last six Olympics and won team eventing gold in 1992, 1996 and 2000. He will not compete in Beijing.
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