PARIS (AP) -- Track and field's governing body opens an arbitration hearing Friday into Mary Slaney's controversial drug case -- with much more at stake than the future of the 40-year-old distance runner.
Challenging the International Amateur Athletic Federation, Slaney's legal team will argue that the widely-used testosterone-epitestosterone (T-E) ratio used to suspend Slaney is flawed.The T-E test, used by many sports, detects the presence of testosterone, a naturally occurring hormone that also is taken in concentrated form to improve performance.
"If the hearing finds for Slaney, it would open a wide opportunity for female athletes to challenge anti-doping tests," Arnold Beckett, a former member of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission, said.
Slaney, the 1983 world champion at 1,500 and 3,000 meters and considered the best ever U.S. women's distance runner, tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the 1996 U.S. Olympic trials.
Claiming that USA Track & Field dragged in investigating the matter, the IAAF suspended Slaney in May 1997.
USATF then imposed its own suspension. Slaney challenged the ruling, and in September 1997 the USATF cleared her of the charges.
Though the IAAF also cleared Slaney to compete, it refused to accept the USATF ruling and referred the case to arbitration.
A three-member panel will meet in Monte Carlo and is expected to convene for three days. The hearing will re-examine evidence from the case.
A T-E ratio should normally be about 1-1, but Slaney's original sample reportedly was higher than the 6-1 ratio that triggers a formal investigation.