Drug Test May Cost Wrestler Gold Medal

An undisclosed freestyle wrestler is in line to become the third athlete from the Sydney Olympics to be stripped of a gold medal after failing a drug test.

Two wrestlers tested positive for banned substances during the final weekend of the Sydney Games, a senior Olympic medical official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Wednesday in London.

One of the wrestlers won a gold medal and the other did not, said the official. The identities of the two competitors were not disclosed. Of the eight gold medals awarded in freestyle wrestling, four were won by competitors from Russia and one each by wrestlers from Azerbaijan, Iran, Germany and Canada. The International Olympic Committee medical commission will hold a hearing on the cases Monday in Switzerland.

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Files at the Salt Lake Organizing Committee yielded more evidence of efforts Olympic bid executives made to influence IOC members to award Salt Lake City the 2002 Winter Games.

A consultant’s notes, headlined “What is needed for” three members of the IOC, figure in the bribery indictment of bid chief Tom Welch and deputy Dave Johnson.

The scribbled two-page memo, obtained by the Associated Press, was written by consultant Mahmoud Elfarnawani on hotel stationary during the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Games. Elfarnawani suggested Salt Lake bidders invite to the U.S. sons or grandsons of IOC members Mohamed Zerguini of Algeria and Bashir Attarabulsi of Libya.

Zerguini received a “serious warning” from the IOC last year after a Salt Lake ethics panel reported the bid committee paid $14,500 in cash to one of his grandsons, Raouf Scally. One of Attarabulsi’s sons, Suhel, received $60,000 in expenses and pocket money to attend two Utah schools, an English language center at Brigham Young University and a community college. Attarabulsi resigned in the wake of the scandal. His family cost the bid committee $91,000, according to federal prosecutors.

Elfarnawani’s memo also suggests a favor Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt could do for an exiled Tunisian prime minister. Leavitt’s chief lawyer said Leavitt never received the request.

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Salt Lake City organizing committee President Mitt Romney said more than $23 million worth of tickets were requested for the 2002 Winter Games in the first 24 hours, setting an Olympic benchmark.

SLOC projected sales of $8.1 million. Romney said the average purchase was staggering--$2,005, double what was forecast. The largest order--$55,345--came from a person in California.

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Greece’s public works minister, Costas Laliotis, urged the IOC to stop issuing ultimatums about his country’s ability to prepare for the 2004 Sumer Games. Laliotis’ comments came after a top IOC official said Athens must agree to move up the deadline for completion of sports venues by one year.

The comments come in the wake of reports that Gianna Daskalaki-Angelopoulos, the head of the organizing committee, was thinking of resigning because of frustration with government bureaucracy.