COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Athletes competing in the 1985 National Sports Festival next month at Baton Rouge, La., will be tested for drug use in the first stage of a stepped-up $800,000 campaign to keep banned substances out of the 1988 Olympics, the U.S. Olympic Committee said.
USOC secretary general George D. Miller said a positive test for use of a banned substance will result in punitive action by the governing body of the sport involved.
Miller told members of the USOC's executive board during a recent meeting that 20 of the 38 national governing bodies have signed a memorandum of agreement with the USOC detailing drug regulations and procedures.
He said the USOC has committed more than $800,000 to the testing program for the period leading up to the 1988 Summer Olympics at Seoul, South Korea.
The first stage of the campaign will involve testing medal winners - and other athletes on a random basis -- at the National Sports Festival beginning July 24 and edning Aug. 4.
Miller said USOC officials will use mobile labs and other facilities to test 350-400 athletes at the festival, with results being analyzed by the USOC-certified laboratory at UCLA.
Miller said the USOC made no change in its own current policy of testing all athletes at the Olympic and Pan American Games trials. Athletes testing positive at the trials forfeit their chance of selection to the teams for those international events.
'The new program should go a long way in convincing our athletes and coaches that the use of banned substances is a thing of the past,' Miller said. 'We have had more than a year of education for our athletes on the use of these drugs, and the time has come that tests proving positive will result in penalties.'
