Sport Today

These reports of drug use ARE disturbing.  I fail to see how it's such a
tragedy for USS however.  They did find a swimmer who was, apparently,
using performance enhancing *** during her training cycle.

What this report means to me is something different: that we should be
testing ALL our elite athletes during their entire training cycle by
requirind unannounced random testing.  The purpose of this testing is not
to punish offenders, although there would clearly have to be consequences,
but to PROTECT them from themselves and from those who stand to gain from
the athlete's performances.

USS should create and impliment a nation-wide drug testing program.  Our
swimmers deserve the protection it will provide them.

Adam Bridge

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Adam Bridge

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                   [Printing to attached desktop printer...]Date: Thu, 2
Nov 1995 20:50:0
4 PST         Y [Yes]


Subject: U.S. schoolgirl swimmer tests positive for steroids

         COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (Reuter) - A 15-year-old
schoolgirl swimmer tested positive for steroids at the U.S.
national championships last August, U.S. Swimming said Thursday.
         U.S. Swimming, the sport's governing body, would not name
the swimmer until Friday's formal statement upon receipt of the
National Board of Review's disciplinary decision.
         The positive drug test is the first for a U.S. swimmer since
the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials when Angel Myers Martino tested
positive for steroids and was kicked off the U.S. team.
         One official indicated the swimmer is expected to be
suspended for one year with the ban going into effect
immediately, making the offender ineligible to compete in the
March 6-12 U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis.
         The positive result for anabolic steroids was at the U.S.
Swimming national championships at Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in
Pasadena, California.
         The meet served as a qualifier for the Pan Pacific Games
Aug. 9-13, the first test event in the Olympic pool in Atlanta.
         The news rocked U.S. Swimming, which has spent thousands of
dollars in drug testing and mounted a successful campaign to ban
the Chinese from the Pan Pacific Championships. China had 11
swimmers test positive during the Asian Games.
         Ironically, John Leonard, executive director of the American
Swimming Coaches Association, is in Hong Kong on a fact-finding
mission to obtain more information on Chinese doping procedures.
         Leonard refused to comment until he learned more about the
situation.
         A former U.S. Olympic coach who would not allow his name to
be used called it ``an embarassment for U.S. Swimming'' that
will set back the federation's effort to clean up the sport.

                   [Printing to attached desktop printer...]Date: Thu, 2
Nov 1995 22:20:2
5 PST         Y [Yes]


Subject: Swimmer Positive For Steroids

        NEW YORK (AP) -- A U.S. swimmer has tested positive for banned
***, creating a delicate situation for American swimming
officials preparing to lead the fight for stringent international
anti-drug programs.
        Reports said the swimmer was a 15-year-old freestyler from
suburban Long Island, who was found with muscle-building steroids
in her system and would face a two-year suspension or probation
from competition. She would be one of the youngest U.S. athletes to
test positive for ***.
        Officials confirmed the swimmer, whom they would not identify,
had failed a drug test at the U.S. Swimming National Championships
in Pasadena, Calif., last August.
        ``Banned substances were found in drug tests for a U.S.
swimmer,'' Steve Roush, assistant executive director of U.S.
swimming, said. ``We have gone through the hearing stage.''
        Despite the first drug case involving an American swimmer in
almost eight years, officials said they still planned to press hard
for tough anti-drug sanctions at an international meeting this
month. Those proposals evolved after seven Chinese swimmers failed
drug tests in 1994, when they dominated women's swimming and set a
handful of world records.
        ``If there is a positive, it merely means that the system --
national, international, whatever -- isn't perfect yet,'' said Ross
Wales, a Cincinnati lawyer and high-ranking official of FINA, the
international swimming federation.
        Roush and other swimming officials steadfastly refused to
identify the swimmer, saying their notification process was
incomplete. They also refused to say what drug was involved.
        But the Atlanta Journal and Constitution said the swimmer was
Jessica Foschi, a member of the Long Island Aquatic Club from Old
Brookville, N.Y., and just 14 when the test was conducted at the
nationals last summer. The paper also said the *** involved were
steroids, which help build muscle bulk.
        Foschi, a student at Friends Academy, was unavailable for
comment. Telephone messages left at her swim club for Dave Ferris,
her coach, were not returned.
        The newspaper said in its Friday editions that the U.S. Swimming
Board of Review decided upon a two-year probation that would allow
her to still try to make the Olympic team while subject to more
frequent out-of-competition testing.
        Foschi was considered a second-level swimmer primed for bigger
things, although probably a longshot to make the Olympic team next
summer. She was ranked 13th in the world in the women's 800-meter
freestyle and had turned in a number of high-quality performances
this season.
        The American swimming program has been remarkably drug free
during a decade in which most other Olympic sports worldwide have
encountered repeated drug scandals. Records showed that the
positive test confirmed Thursday was the first involving a U.S.
swimmer since Angel Myers flunked a test for steroids before the
1988 Olympics.
        But the positive test could not have come at a more inopportune
time for American swimming leaders.
        Later this month they go to Rio de Janiero to try to convince
FINA to impose stiffer drug penalties, including mandatory tests
for world record-holders, automatic two-year suspensions for
steroid use by individual swimmers and -- harshest of all -- two-year
bans on national teams whose swimmers flunk four or more drug tests
in a year.
        U.S. officials said they would not change their stance because
of the test result.
        ``I think it shows we are policing ourselves,'' Roush said. ``It
shows we are concerned with what happens in our own backyard.''
        Wales said a single test results would have little effect on the
debate.
        ``I think everyone, and that includes the Chinese, is on the
same page, in that we all want to defeat doping in our sport,'' he
said.
        The Rio meeting is the latest effort to attack the drug problem
in swimming and is aimed primarily at China, whose women's teams
have rapidly become the fastest in the world. Last summer, the
United States, Canada and Australia banned China from the Pan
Pacific Championships in Atlanta in protest of what they said was
rampant drug use.

Well, what do you think...?  (These articles are from the clarinet new
service here on the 'net....)

Article Unavailable

In article

OK, here is where we have to put our money where our mouths are.  I say,
BAN HER FOR LIFE....PERIOD!  No matter what FINA or the IOC say at RIO, we
must set the example.  I dont care about the Nationality, if you are
caught cheeting once, you are a bad risk to do it again.  Ban her AND her
coach if it is shown that he had knowlege of it.

Don

Don Haut
Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
University of Missouri-Columbia

314-882-3171

i know jessica foschi and her family. my 15 year old son is also a swimmer
with  long island aquatic club.
jessica's parents are among the most kind, loving thoughtful people i
know. jessica is a humble, quiet, intelligent young woman. long island
aquatic club head coach dave ferris is an inspiring and caring coach who
relates well to parents and swimmers alike.
the fact that the review board today placed jessica on probation rather
than suspension may well demonstrate that there were extenuating
circumstances.
while i understand the vehement reaction that others may have upon hearing
news of a positive drug test, i ask that such harsh judgments be withheld.
after all,  the review board heard all  the evidence and found that only
probation was in order.

Was this her or her coach, or parents?  I feel bad for her but she
does deserve to be be banned for life.  It also would be a good
message to send considering China and all.
"Everthing about life is funny"
          -Monica Seles

I agree.

<snip>

Applause from at least one, down-under

Sport, religion and politics do not mix.

brd

Whoa! Doesn't you want to know more about the test before you call for such a harsh penalty. What was the substance?? What was the l=
evel relative to the normal value? Was a split sample run at an independent lab? We have no idea what a "positive" test means withou=
t this information.

Michael

I saw in the Sacramento Bee this morning that the offending swimmer was
let off with a two year probation because her offense might have been "set
up."  I also read that the head of United States Swimming will appeal
because it undermines the very purpose of testing for ***. A
no-tolerance policy is JUST THAT.  You can't say: "throw the bums out" and
then say "well, except for this person who clearly doesn't deserve it."

I clearly believe that drug testing at championships events is the WRONG
way to enforce a no-tolerance policy.  We should be testing EVERYONE,
randomly, who can benefit from taking performance enhancing *** during
training.  Which means going out into the field and having entire TEAMS
pee into cups.  The nature of the offense says that a couple days warning
to a team won't make a difference: you have to be tested or you won't
swim.  

Will this be expensive?  You bet it will.  EVERYONE should pay for it by
maybe doubling their USS dues because EVERYONE needs the protection.  It's
our promise to our swimmers that they will be able to compete fairly.  AND
it's our promise to our swimmers that we won't allow them, or someone
else, to risk their lives simply to enhance performance.

The reason for this testing is NOT to punish offenders.  Just the
opposite: by promising to check everyone during a training cycle we'll
help to make drug use much less likely.  BUT -- if an offender is found
then that person must be suspended from swimming.  Perhaps for life.  That
way teams will have a reason to make sure their programs are pure: because
the risk of being caught is so terrible.

Yes, a no-tolerence policy is hard.  It's time to do the hard thing.  The
right thing.  Protect out athletes.  Protect our sport.

Adam Bridge

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Adam Bridge

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I say, ALLOW ALL ***....PERIOD!  There have been numerous examples
already, if not so many in swimming, in other sports.  Examples don't
do any good.  We keep finding better ways to cheat.  The detectors
can't keep up with the cheaters.  If winning is that important to
them, let them use whatever *** they want.

Either that or stop all these young people from cheating by having
extra human growth hormone.  I'm 45 and I could be competing in the
Olympics if all these adolescents with their high hormone levels were
out on their fannies.  Let's have a level playing field here.  Why
should some 18 year old snothead win all the races just because his
balls pump out extra toblerone for a few years?

And what about girls?  Why shouldn't they get to inject hormones up to
the same level as boys?

I say, FORCE EVERYBODY TO HAVE THE SAME HORMONE LEVELS...PERIOD!

PERIOD!

martin
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P.O. Box 1034 Bekkajordet       Tel. : +47 330 46900
N-3194 HORTEN, Norway           Fax. : +47 330 42297

Martin Smith of the Norwegian fjords writes:

already, if not so many in swimming, in other sports.  Examples don't
do any good.  We keep finding better ways to cheat.  The detectors
can't keep up with the cheaters.  If winning is that important to
them, let them use whatever *** they want.

extra human growth hormone.  I'm 45 and I could be competing in the
Olympics if all these adolescents with their high hormone levels were
out on their fannies.  Let's have a level playing field here.  Why
should some 18 year old snothead win all the races just because his
**** pump out extra toblerone for a few years?

the same level as boys?

Nothing like satire to get at the heart of an issue.  As a dad with 2
swimming daughters, the Jessica Foschi case chills me to the bone.  A 15
year old American girl?  Who did this?  It is scary.  Make a girl 5% into
a man and you have a potential world champion.  Cancels out the efforts of
100 other girls at the same level doing workouts 11 times a week and
giving up all of their childhoods and high school years to the sport.
Basically destroys women's athletics.

Bummer.

-Larry Weisenthal

Well, IDIOT, that's exactly what's happening.  We're seeing female
athletes using male hormones to increase the amount of training they can
tolerate.  You don't see men doing it (taking steroids as swimmers)
anymore because they can't afford the muscular side-effects.  Of course
this use of steroids in female swimmers takes a substantial toll on the
woman -- some of the effects don't go away and there may be indications of
profound systemic damage.  We're finding out a lot about this as
inventories on the East German women are being assessed.

There was a very good (long) article in the "San Francisco Chronicle"
about two years ago by Joan Ryan.  There are some severely damaged women
out there.  There may be more.  It can be prevented.  We should.

Adam Bridge

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Adam Bridge

CompuServe: 72707,401
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You're not serious and this is not really an issue to be made light of.
If *** were allowed across the board,as some weightlifting
associations are permitting by no longer testing for them, it would
effectively end our sport. Swimming depends on young swimmers and their
families to survive in almost every country in the world. If we add
out tacit approval of drug use then how many of these families will look
at swimming as a wholesome sport for their children?

But let's not lose sight of what the real drug issue is. Dealing with
individual cases of performance enhancers is easy: there's an established
procedure. The problem that is facing the global swimming community
RIGHT NOW is the institutional use of *** by CHINA and the failure, or
better yet, the REFUSAL of the IOC and the FINA to deal with it. This
refusal, all by itself, can destroy our sport no matter what we do in the
U.S., Norway or anywhere else for that matter.

Who cares! She cheated! She should be banned. Her coach should be banned
for life. How can you call a coach CARING if he gave her steriods that
will stuff up her body!

That is the most pathetic double standard thing I have heard.

How can you call for a complete ban of the Chinese then when one of your own
swimmers test positive the US only give a suspended sentence! (You as in the
USA Swimming Assosiation not you personally.)

A positive test is  a positive test. Ban her for at least 4 years. The coach
should get a life ban and should be sent to gaol for giving a 14 year old
girl steriods.

You might know this girl personally and feel that she should not be treated
harshly. But *** and cheating is destroying the sport I love and this girl
is contributing to this. Maybe you can tell her how people arround the world
feel about drug cheats.

Geoff

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Segmentation fault (core dumped)