Item 1: TOKYO (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee meets July 31- Aug. 1 in Lausanne, Switzerland, to review a blood test and a French-developed urine test for EPO, the hormone erythropoietin, and to decide if a test for EPO will be ready for the Sydney Games. Both human growth hormone and the EPO hormone are performance- enhancing substances that can't be detected by current drug tests. EPO is a natural hormone that regulates the amount of red cells in the blood. The use of synthetic EPO allows athletes to boost their number of red blood cells, increasing the blood's oxygen- carrying capacity. Michael Knight, president of the Sydney organizers, said Wednesday he hoped there would be enough time to approve tests for EPO. EPO is believed to be widely used by athletes in cycling, distance running and other endurance sports. Item 2: The Kenyan federation decided to dump marathon runners Moses Tanui, Elijah Lagat and Japhet Kosgei from the Kenyan Olympic team and replace them with Eric Wainana, Kennedy Cheruiyot and Ondoro Osoro. According to a Reuters story David Okeyo, the Kenyan AAA secretary, said Tanui's exclusion was recommended by a panel of coaches monitoring the athletes. "They recommended the change, saying the three became complacent after being selected and were not training to required standards," Okeyo said. Of course these two news items are entirely coincidental and no relation between the two events should be construed. After all, the Eastern Bloc never left any of their best athletes at home in last-minute 'eve of the meet' decisions, only providing an explanation that the athletes 'current fitness did not meet standards'. Which we know now to have been a euphemism for either (1) the athlete is threatening to defect, so we can't let him/her out of the country, and/or (2) athlete failed a final doping screening- the stuff didn't wash out as fast as projected- so is being left home rather than risk being exposed on a world stage. Of course Eastern Bloc euphemisms are never used by any other countries. :-) RT
