Italy’s leading high jumper Antonella Bevilacqua, under...

Italy’s leading high jumper Antonella Bevilacqua, under the threat of a doping ban, vowed to fight any effort to stop her from competing in the Olympics.

“If they ban me I will lodge an appeal so that I can continue to compete,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in the southern Italian town of Foggia. “I would cry if I were to win a medal and they then took it away from me. But the thing they can’t take away is my dignity.”

Bevilacqua, caught with the banned stimulant ephedrine in her body twice in May, plans to travel to Atlanta on Monday and take her place in the Italian team despite indications that the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) is poised to suspend her following two positive drug tests.