Three Athletes Test Positive For Drugs
Forty-eight hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, and
three athletes test positive for drugs.
A Taiwanese weightlifter, a Bulgaria triple jumper, and a Kazakh
swimmer will have to become spectators.
Taiwan's Chen Po-Pu had been training with the rest of the team in Sydney
this week. He became the first athlete to get expelled after a positive
test for methandienone.
He was silent as he boarded a plane for home.
The IOC also announced that Kazakhstan swimmer, Yevgenia Yermakova, had
been barred from the Olympics for failing a drugs test.
Earlier, an International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAFF) spokesman
said Bulgarian triple jumper Iva Prandzheva had tested positive for the
steroid nandrolone.
But this was not the first time for her. Prandzheva was one of only two
people caught for taking drugs at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She was
banned for two years.
Despite these reports, the drug-free Olympic athletes continue to focus
on their goal-- to win the gold.
