SYDNEY, Australia — China is cutting 40 athletes and officials from its team for the Sydney Olympics, including seven rowers who failed blood tests for the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO.
"I'm very pleased," International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch said Wednesday of the doping withdrawals. "I'm very happy. This is very good news. It shows the new system for detecting doping substances will work very well. . . . The objective is to have clean Games."
Sydney organizers said they were notified by the Chinese Olympic Committee of the withdrawals.
IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch received a letter from the Chinese rowing association confirming that seven rowers were being withdrawn from the Olympic team after they tested positive for EPO, or erthyropoietin, during doping controls in China.
Schamasch said blood tests showed the athletes' EPO levels were above the allowable limit.
Last week, the IOC Executive Board approved the introduction of a combined blood and urine test for EPO at the Sydney Games. EPO, the drug of choice among endurance athletes, stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, and experts say it can improve performance by up to 15 percent.
Until now, no test had been able to detect the use of synthetic EPO.
In Sydney, an athlete will be considered guilty of EPO use only if both the blood and urine tests are positive. Schamasch said the Chinese rowers were dropped based only on blood testing.
China, tarnished by a series of doping scandals in swimming and other sports, has been carrying out sweeping drug tests to prevent the embarrassment of positive results during the Sydney Games. With Beijing bidding for the 2008 Olympics, China is particularly eager to be seen as cracking down.
Liu Jianyong, secretary general of the Chinese Rowing Association, said the rowers had withdrawn to protect their health and uphold the fairness of the Olympic Games.
"We are trusting the Chinese," Samaranch said. "They are fighting against doping. This is an example for many other countries. This is good news for the image of sport."
The reasons for the withdrawals of the 33 other Chinese team members was not clear.
"I would be surprised if all 40 were (for drugs)," IOC vice president Dick Pound said. "My guess is you'll find they were in some elimination tournament and didn't make it."
Pound, chairman of the new World Anti-Doping Agency, welcomed the withdrawal of the seven rowers as "a huge step forward."
"Anyone who takes EPO now knows they will be caught, increasing the chances they won't do it," he said.
IOC vice president Anita DeFrantz, a former U.S. Olympic rower and a vice president of the international rowing federation, said the reduction in the Chinese team sent the right message to athletes.
"This is a warning to all athletes who wish to come to the games with drugs in their system — stay at home," she said. "I've said for a long time any athlete who is using drugs who can not compete with his or her own ability should stay at home. Do not come to the Games if you are not coming clean."
The IOC began out-of-competition testing for EPO in Sydney and elsewhere in Australia last week. So far, 10 athletes have been tested, Schamasch said. The IOC expects to conduct 400 or more EPO tests through the end of the Games.
A total of 3,200 drug tests will be carried out before and during the Games, the biggest anti-doping program in Olympic history.