WinterSports2002.com, Friday, February 08, 2002

U.S. bobsledder loses appeal, won't compete

Pavle Jovanovich drug-test failure means 2-year ban

By Lois M. Collins
Deseret News staff writer

U.S. bobsledder Pavle Jovanovic won't be competing in the 2002 Winter Games — or anywhere else for two years.

Jovanovic had been given a nine-month doping suspension after he tested positive for the steroid norandrostenendione. He appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Late Thursday afternoon, a day after an expedited hearing, CAS dismissed the appeal and banned him from competition for two years.

"That's good for sports and it's good for the Olympics," Richard Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said of the full two-year ban, the normal penalty for a doping offense.

In making its decision, CAS found that the sport's own federation rules call for a two-year suspension. And the three-member arbitration panel re-emphasized the "strict liability" that says an athlete is responsible for what he ingests, regardless of how he or she ingests it.

The Deseret News was not able to reach Jovanovic, 25, of Toms River, N.J.

Terry Madden, director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, took issue with what he called "misstatements" made by Jovanovic's supporters.

He denied that Dr. Donald Catlin, head of the IOC doping lab at UCLA that first detected the steroid during routine testing, had characterized the substance as not performance-enhancing.

And while Jovanovic said that he likely ingested the substance in a tainted nutritional supplement — he said he uses about 31 of them —Madden said that was never proven.

Jovanovic was expected to be a key member of the two-man and four-man bobsled teams driven by Todd Hays until he failed the doping screen at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Park City in December.

The U.S. bobsled team had named Steve Mesler to replace Jovanovic if he lost the appeal.

E-mail: lois@desnews.com

© 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company