cannabisnews.com: Two U.S. Gymnasts Test Positive for Marijuana Two U.S. Gymnasts Test Positive for Marijuana Posted by FoM on February 08, 2002 at 16:11:59 PT By Larry Siddon, The Associated Press Source: Associated Press Two U.S. gymnasts tested positive for marijuana in recent out-of-competition drug sweeps conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The American pair was not identified. WADA said the cases were pending before the International Gymnastics Federation.They were among 27 athletes from 18 countries who failed WADA drug tests. In all, the agency conducted 3,639 out-of-competition tests since early last year, including 1,621 in Winter Olympic sports. Some 1,200 of those were done in the last two months. Of those found with banned drugs in their system, only 16 received penalties. Another athlete — Swedish hockey player Mattias Ohlund — was warned about drug use but not penalized, while six other unidentified athletes were spared sanctions under medical waivers.The remaining four cases, including those of the American gymnasts, remain under review by international sports federations, WADA said. It identified the other athletes only as a Hungarian wrestler and a Brazilian sailor.Dick Pound, an IOC member from Canada who also is WADA's chairman, said the relatively low numbers of positive tests and sanctions was encouraging and set the stage for "the most doping-free Olympics and cleanest competition ever.""As these results show, the fact is the opposite of the myth that all athletes cheat," Pound said. "It simply is not true. Less than one-half of one % tested positive and required sanctions."The test figures were included in the final pre-Olympic report by WADA, established with the help of the International Olympic Committee more than two years ago as an independent agency to oversee world drug policy and conduct drug exams.Seventeen athletes were identified in the WADA report, all of them names that had been released earlier by their sports or national Olympic committees.They included Ohlund, a Vancouver Canucks defenseman, who was allowed to remain on the Swedish hockey team because the drug involved was used to help him heal from eye surgery. The substance, acetazolamide, also can be used to mask the use of performance-enhancers.Latvian bobsledder Sandis Prusis, caught for the steroid nandrolone, also is competing after an arbitration panel overturned the IOC's own ban. It upheld the original sanction, a four-month ban that expires Saturday.Two other Olympic athletes were removed from their teams — Polish bobsledder Ireneusz Zamlynski for flunking a test for nandrolone last December; and Russian cross-country skier Natalia Baranova-Masolkina for using EPO, a hormone that boosts production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells and is felt to have widespread use among endurance athletes.The Russian Olympic Committee complained about Baranova-Masolkina's test results but still sent her home from the Olympic Village. It said it was awaiting "technical data" before deciding on an appeal.WADA conducted 193 out-of-competition blood tests for EPO, or erythropoietin, on winter sports athletes in the run-up to the Salt Lake City Games. It also conducted 20 EPO tests for the International Rowing Association.Pound also said that WADA, in cooperation with the NHL and its players' association, had tested 111 NHL players prior to the games. Ohlund was the only hockey player who flunked a test."This shows that, even in major professional sports, where there is a will there is a way," said Pound, who has been critical of drug testing in U.S. pro leagues.Source: Associated PressAuthor: Larry Siddon, The Associated PressPublished: February 8, 2002Copyright 2002 The Associated PressRelated Articles:Snowboarder Sees Hopes Go Up in Smoke http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11911.shtmlRebagliati Says US Won't Let Him Go To Olympicshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11904.shtmlDude!!!! No Marijuana for The Snowboarders http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11874.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #12 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on February 09, 2002 at 08:29:39 PT How do some countries compete?? I was wondering the other day. How do the Jamaicans get through this? And the New Zealanders? And all the other countries with such high percentages of cannabis use. What kind of tests do they use - urine or hair or blood? And why does the guy from prohibitionist Sweden get just a warning while the rest get a harsher punishment?? [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Lehder on February 09, 2002 at 05:42:31 PT Football, Hitler, Jung We are a stuffed shirt nation and why did they mention 9-11? They mentioned 9/11, again, in the Olympics, eh. Wish I'd seen the start.Considering the Superbowl again, I've entered some darkly symbolic places trying to understand what 9/11 has to do with football - especially the banner of names that was slowly raised and then dropped in a way so much like the collapsing WTC towers. The banner was even about the same color as the towers. And all the while with a very electrified, modern looking band singing lyrics which to me were mostly undiscernable but obviously "patriotic." The people were like zombies, all with hands pumping up and down in the air. Add the beer commercials, the drugs=terrorism ads, the chronic mj smoker McCartney, the piss tested players shot full of cortisone and pain killers, the general violence of football.... What is this? I wish I had a video tape of the half-time show to study it all some more. ( There was also the commercial showing a kid spill a bag of - what were they? - candies? charms? brightly colored baubles of some kind? - Then a man sorts them out using a metal spatula and as he collects the sorted charms for the kid he is transformed into a pharmacist sorting pills with the same spatula and the commercial says, "meet joe blow, pharmacist...." I find this very strange. Somebody tell me what all those brightly colored little objects are - maybe I'll understand the commercial better then. I wanna be sure to buy the right pills.) But the Olymics are an international event, so we're seeing a mild repeat of Bush's "you're with us or you're against us" message. It may not be entirely inappropriate to allude to 9/11, even as an official part of the program; but a tragedy is being transformed to propaganda. Now of course the zombies will claim because I question the strange symbolism entertains and woos us that I favor terror attacks. Oh, well. What else is new? I saw only the Superbowl half-time and neither of the drus/terror message and no Olympics. But I've seen or read enough to know that these events and messages are symbols and as a whole they define a religion - a system of beliefs that are not to be questioned and which satisfy some mass emotional need. If we are living in the Fourth Reich, then this politicized pageantry is the equivalent of Speer's Ice Palace of vertically directed flood lights. And to millions of people it's just as beguiling. And it's just as insubstantial and just as ominous. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by happy_hempster on February 09, 2002 at 05:06:50 PT: Acapolco GOLD medal I think you guys should come up with the Acapolco GOLD medal for sports figures who come out, or are forced out.Great newshawking, get this story to your local press NOW!E-mail, fax and phone it in! Cannabis News Delphi Mirror [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by FoM on February 08, 2002 at 21:45:12 PT I watched the Opening I try hard to find good in most things but it was very hard watching the Olympic opening. I was very disappointed. They only had one part that was good but it wasn't worth watching. They didn't have any good music to speak of. I felt like I stepped back in time but had modern technology to add the glitter. We are a stuffed shirt nation and why did they mention 9-11? They bring you down and how can you enjoy a sporting event when you're reminded of the World Trade Center Tragedy? [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by goneposthole on February 08, 2002 at 21:30:28 PT super duper olympics super duper super dupingsuper duper pageantrysuper duper pompsuper duper ceremonyIt is super duper ten to the infinite powerInspite of all of what it is, the tower of the olympic torch with its twists and what notkind of looks like a rolled up joint. At least it appears they have done one thing right.One redeeming quality about it all. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by The GCW on February 08, 2002 at 20:39:35 PT The Duke / Lehder illustrated it well. Boycot it. But even if you observe, toke. Is that still a form of boycot? the olympics are a biannual, two-week long commercial for drug testing. Are Oly participants with all its implications, supporting terrorist? If the benefactors terrorize cannabis acceptors, then this all has the effect of confronting cannabinoidians. A calculated portion of all the take, will be used to terrorize those who partake in what we were given. Oly / Utah is protected by more militia types than what is in Afghanistan. Utah, from the beginning got the Oly, by deceit. The whole thing is a dirty laundry skeleton closet. I am free of TV, but suspect it will be a kind of twisted Oly. I heard on the radio, CO. Gov. Owens is flying with Bush to the Oly and sitting together. When CO passed amendment 20, Owens called up the Feds to point like well, a pointer. Instead of holding his arms open to the will of the people at the booth, he called to tell the Feds to come get 'em.Is Bush, dog grooming? Does Owens like it like that?Is that more tough love? [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Lehder on February 08, 2002 at 19:47:50 PT paul is dead entropy mentions the case of "Ross Rebagliati, the canadian snowboarding gold-medalists that was recently barred from entering the United States pending delivery of a "clean" sample to a U.S. drug test."This contrasts with the Superbowl apperance of Paul McCartney who spent ten days in a Japanese jail for entering that country with a pound of cannabis, "me smoke," yet is welcomed in ours despite prolific drug use. He appeared during the Superbowl half-time program, that vapid religious ceremony, wherein he claimed a patriotic feeling toward America and marveled over the bannered list of names. He sang A Hard Day's Night along with the off-key sportscasters like a buffoon. It's quite a dumb religion, this drug-war and terror patriotism. I would have liked Lennon's opinion.I think john wayne is right. i'm boycotting the olympics and all events sponsored by the u.s. official religion. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by john wayne on February 08, 2002 at 18:45:01 PT the olympics are a biannual, two-week long commercial for drug testing. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by The GCW on February 08, 2002 at 18:11:53 PT The day after...with out the pig. Cannabis might be avoided by most athletes for the present festivities. But it would be way cool if the day after all the flexing, many athletes publically toke up.Those gymnasts are lucky. Bush genealogy hasn't started using the death penalty for THC intoxication, yet.The chess team might not be so fortunate.And how much can we make for turning them in? How do you afford your rock n roll life style? Never try to teach a pig to sing. It only wastes your time and it annoys the pig. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by entropy on February 08, 2002 at 17:53:15 PT: systems are breaking down... good news! people young and old of all social standings injest cannabis, the more people that test positive, the less the test really means in terms of demonization of the subject. steve kubby (of pot-tv.net) is right, if you like cannabis, you'll love the future!it does annoy me, however, to hear such a deal made of such a simple harmless act, especially in the case of Ross Rebagliati, the canadian snowboarding gold-medalists that was recently barred from entering the United States pending delivery of a "clean" sample to a U.S. drug test. This man has never been convicted of any offense, and he is an amazing athelete, and regardless should not be so deameaned by a corrupt system. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by MikeEEEEE on February 08, 2002 at 17:15:42 PT War on some drugs What if it was the drug alcohol?Keep Amerikan drug war prejudices out of Olympics. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by mayan on February 08, 2002 at 16:33:36 PT LEAVE US ALONE! Marijuana is not regarded as a performance enhancing drug. They should leave these people alone. They should leave everyone alone! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment