SUMMER GAMES SPOTLIGHT : BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 13 : LOGAN CLAIMS HE’S CLEAN--NOW

The first U.S. track and field athlete ever to test positive for anabolic steroids in the Olympics, hammer thrower Jud Logan of North Canton, Ohio, said in a prepared statement Thursday that he is a victim of circumstances.

Logan, who placed fourth for the highest U.S. finish in the hammer throw since 1956, said that the drug discovered in his system, clenbuterol, was not on the International Olympic Committee’s banned list during the five months he took it from October, 1991 to February, 1992.

“It’s very traumatic to myself, my family and the USA Olympic team that six months later it is possible to test positive for asthma medication and shed negative publicity upon the hammer and my teammates,” he said.

“As all athletes, I look for safe, legal vitamins and minerals to enhance performance. Upon hearing that clenbuterol was to be put on the banned list, I immediately stopped its use.”

But, although he is not allowed to discuss specific cases, Dr. Donald Catlin, a member of the IOC medical sub-commission, said that an athlete probably would not test positive if he quit using the drug six months before a test because it usually passes through the system more quickly than other steroids.

“It’s conceivable, but highly unusual,” Catlin said.

Logan said that he took the drug because it was recommended as “a safe alternative to steroids.”

Clenbuterol, an asthma medication legally available in Europe but not the United States, has been called a “doper’s delight” because it acts as both a steroid and a stimulant. Aware of its popularity with athletes looking for an unnatural edge over the competition, the IOC placed it on the banned list earlier this year.

Two British weightlifters who were sent home from the Olympics tested positive for clenbuterol last month in London, as reportedly did German sprinter Katrin Krabbe recently.

Logan, 32, faces a possible four-year suspension from The Athletics Congress, which governs track and field in the United States, unless it is determined that clenbuterol should be classified as a stimulant. The penalty in that case would be a three-month suspension.

“It’s a drug that can be banned under two categories,” Catlin said. “The (international track and field federation) has to decide which one.”

This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and Baltimore Sun, all Times-Mirror newspapers.