Sport
Drugs have provided the world of athletics with a fierce opponent ever since the emergence of systematic forms of doping in eastern Europe. Probably the most famous case is that involving sprinter Ben Johnson when he won the 100 metres at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in a world record time. He was later stripped of his gold medal and banned for two years after testing positive for an anabolic steroid. A life ban from the track followed in March 1993 when he gave another positive test.
High jumper, Javier Sotomayor tested positive for cocaine, a mainly recreational drug which also has performance-enhancing characteristics. He was subsequently stripped of his gold medal. The test came at the Pan American Games in Canada, where he was the third gold medalist athlete to test positive for banned substances. Steve Vezina, Canada's roller hockey goalie, tested positive for nandrolone. and women's high jumper Juana Arrendel was stripped of her medal after testing positive for stanozolol. But it was the case of 1997 world champion and 1992 Olympic gold medal winner Sotomayor which grabbed the headlines. Days before Sotomoyaor's test, Dennis Mitchell, the US 100m champion and 1992 Olympic bronze medalist, was banned for two years after a test showed high levels of testosterone. Another American who failed a test during the 1990s was Harry 'Butch' Reynolds, the 400 metres world record-holder when he was given a two-year ban in 1990.
In July 2000, former East German sporting supremo Manfred Ewald was found guilty of doping more than 100 young athletes. He was given a suspended prison sentence of 22 months. Former East German sports medical officer, Manfred Hoppner, 66, was given an 18-month suspended sentence at the same time. The two were charged with complicity in causing bodily harm to young athletes. During the two-month trial a number of athletes and swimmers testified to having suffered from health problems as a result of using the anabolic steroids.
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