Rumor Mills Working Overtime, TAC Says : Track and field: Report that Burrell, Everett and Kingdom tested positive for drugs is decried as latest example.

SEATTLE —  At an unprecedented news conference that brought together track and field officials and athletes and their agents, the message was sent out Friday that widespread rumors about drug use among the sport’s elite athletes must stop.

It was the first time that officials of The Athletics Congress had responded directly to drug allegations.

The conference was prompted by a report in an Austrian newspaper this week that runners Leroy Burrell and Danny Everett and hurdler Roger Kingdom had tested positive for banned drugs at meets last summer. All three athletes have denied the allegations, as has TAC and the International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs track and field internationally.

TAC President Frank Greenberg said that with this case, rumors in the sport had “reached a new level.” He said that TAC officials, gathered for the group’s convention, had spent the week fielding calls from reporters around the world, asking if Burrell, Everett and Kingdom had taken drugs.

Burrell has been the world’s fastest sprinter for the last two years. Everett, who briefly attended UCLA, was the bronze medalist in the 400 meters at the Seoul Olympics. Kingdom is the world record-holder in the 110-meter hurdles and a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Rumors that the athletes had failed drug tests have circulated for weeks, but until Wednesday they had not been published. In its lead sports story Wednesday, the Austrian newspaper Ober-Osterreichische Nachrichten said two sources had confirmed the drug positives.

That article was called “highly vicious” and “inaccurate and irresponsible” Friday, and it was cited as an example of what is seen as the growing negative portrayal of the sport.

“Both these athletes and TAC feel that our sport has been harmed by this negative publicity,” Greenberg said in a prepared statement. “It’s time to move forward and raise our sport above such whispered gossip.”