cannabisnews.com: Auch Slams Rebagliati For His Marijuana Use!





Auch Slams Rebagliati For His Marijuana Use!
Posted by FoM on July 24, 1999 at 09:09:20 PT
Wendy Long Vancouver Sun 
Source: Vancouver Sun
WINNIPEG -- As summer sport athletes prepared for Friday's opening ceremonies of the XIII Pan-American Games a prominent Canadian winter sport athlete put the heat on athletes, sport leaders and administrators to behave more responsibly in what are tempting, confusing and often precarious times in international sport.
Three-time Olympic speedskating medallist Susan Auch told delegates to a pre-Games ethics in sport conference she was distressed by the fame gained by Whistler snowboarder Ross Rebagliati at the Nagano Olympics, where he won gold in giant slalom, tested positive for marijuana but retained his medal due to a rules loophole between the International Olympic Committee and international snowboarding's governing body. "I don't think we as Canadians should have celebrated this as much as we did," she said in recounting her chagrin in watching Rebagliati embraced and feted by Canadian sport officials at a post-Nagano luncheon, then later being told by schoolchildren he was their hero despite his having tested positive for an illegal substance. "Ross tested positive. We were warned to no end about this kind of thing before we left. When you are an athlete that means you're a role model and you have a responsibility to act in an ethical way . "We did a terrible thing by letting it seem okay. We are teaching young people this kind of thing is okay and that's a terrible thing." Auch's blunt assessment of the issue was one of many powerful points made at the conference here. Earlier in the session Vancouver's Marion Lay, a former national team swimmer and administrator for the national sports centre in Vancouver, spoke on gender equity issues in sport while former Canadian Olympic Association president Roger Jackson discussed the problem of drug use in sport. Auch, now retired, spoke to both issues as a woman athlete and international competitor who has suffered the indignity of gender testing while being frustrated by what she feels is still insufficient testing of international athletes and the inconsistency of penalties levied to cheaters. "It's a privilege to be an athlete and the athlete doesn't necessarily have a right to come back after being found guilty of cheating," she said, applauding the rigorous drug testing of athletes in Canada while lamenting more countries have not followed the same hard course. "If there were more consequences they would think twice about cheating." Jackson also believes many athletes, if asked, would admit drug use is still a problem internationally. "That's sad," he said. "In Canadian sport I am confident the message is getting out there but in terms of the international perspective I am less convinced the battle is being won." When asked about a push from athletes to have blood testing replace urine testing at the Olympics in Sydney Jackson noted the urine sample is still suitable for detecting many banned substances. He cautioned a privacy issue is looming because blood samples offer an opportunity to learn much more about an individual's health and history than merely the presence of banned drugs. Last Updated: Saturday 24 July 1999
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Comment #1 posted by timbudd on July 24, 1999 at 09:54:23 PT:
performance pot
Can someone please tell me where to get this performance enhancing pot so I too can cheat at sports. This is one of the most inconsistent arguements I've come across. If marijuana is bad for and supposedly hinders various aspects of your life, then how is using it cheating. Why anyone would be so adamant about interjecting political values into the world of sports, particularly the Olympics which is structured to be above politics, is entirely beyond me.
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