Drugs In Sport: Independent Survey - Jordanian is Games' first drugs casualty

Derrick Whyte
Thursday 10 December 1998 20:02 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A JORDANIAN weightlifter was sent home from the Asian Games village in Bangkok yesterday after becoming the first athlete to fail a drugs test at Asia's leading sporting event. Games officials said Ayed Jassar Khwaldeh had tested positive for the banned diuretic triamterene.

Ayed admitted using the drug to bring down his weight on a three-week training camp. It was the first positive drug test in the four-day-old Games after more than a dozen positives at the 1994 Games in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The OCA said that when Ayed was weighed on the day of his 56kg division competition on Monday he was 55.8kg, while prior to the competition his weight was 60kg.

It also resolved to issue a "strong warning'' to the Jordanian National Olympic Committee and subject Ayed to the sanctions outlined in the rules of the International Weightlifting Federation.

Swimmer Sharron Davies said yesterday that she hopes Olympic leaders will act on evidence of drug use by former East German athletes.

The International Olympic Committee opens a four-day executive board meeting in Lausanne today to consider rewriting the record books. The British Olympic Association has filed a petition on behalf of Davies, who won the silver medal in the 400m individual medley at the 1980 Moscow Games behind East Germany's Petra Schneider.

In addition, the US Olympic Committee is seeking "appropriate medal recognition" for the American women's relay team which finished second behind an East German quartet at the 1976 Montreal Games.

Davies finished 10 seconds behind Schneider in Moscow but Schneider admitted to Davies recently that she was on drugs from the age of 14 and now suffers from heart problems and other side-effects. Davies wants the record books to show that Schneider took drugs.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in