The nation's leading drug policymaker believes Utah's Winter Games in 2002 will be the most drug-free in recent memory, building on successful drug-free efforts in Sydney, but it will require a concerted effort to make that happen.
Some of the strongest support is coming from within the ranks of the athletes, said Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the federal drug czar. "Athletes are demanding that we do it.
"Winners are uniformly suspect," he said, and they are driving the move to "go transparent and respond to some international rules," including a "common code of banned substances."
"How can we have sports records that are being artificially generated by sports pharmacies?" McCaffrey asked.
Recent events have shown a change in attitude. When the United States suggested that Olympic anti-doping efforts should be overseen by an independent international agency, McCaffrey said he received "essentially a blow-off from the IOC."
But the United States was not standing alone in its desire to see the Games drug free. McCaffrey had what he calls a huge groundswell of support. And the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), a semi-independent agency, was born in time for the Sydney Summer Olympics.
The Sydney Games were "unquestionably the most drug-free Olympics in modern history," he said during a meeting with the Deseret News editorial board as part of his two-day stay in Utah to promote a no-drug-tolerance agenda for professional athletics. He also spoke Wednesday in Park City to the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command. Thursday, he was to convene the first-ever White House Task Force on Drugs and Sports in Salt Lake City.
During both the Atlanta and Los Angeles Games, McCaffrey said, "allegedly positive" drug test samples disappeared.
The antidrug message got through even before the Sydney Games. McCaffrey said China dropped 27 people from its team before it went to the Games. And athletes from all over the world who did use banned substances were disqualified and even stripped of medals
To promote the no-doping effort, Olympic officials will conduct 5,000 out-of-cycle drug tests of athletes in the next year — half of them with no notice to the athletes.
Officials believe there may even be time to develop a test for human growth hormone before the Salt Lake Games.
There will be "absolutely greater safeguards in Salt Lake," McCaffrey said. "We have to get back to the purity of sports."
McCaffrey said that, as his term as drug czar comes to a close, "I'm astonished at what we did. I was not a volunteer. I did not want this job. But we came a long way. A lot more needs to be done."
E-MAIL: lois@desnews.com