`US should put own house in order'

`US should put own house in order'
REUTERS

Sydney, September 10: The International Olympic Committee official Alexandre de Merode criticised the United States on Sunday for not doing enough to fight doping.

``When you criticise others you have to look into your own garden,'' said De Merode, the chairman of the IOC's medical commission, referring to a US report criticising the organisation's record on doping.

``The United States are making a lot of criticism of other countries but the first thing they have to do is look at what's happening in their own country,'' he added.

The report, which was realeased on Sunday, was leaked to an American newspaper along with critical comments from the director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Barry McCaffrey.

De Merode reacted by denouncing the United States' leniency, citing the anti-doping policy of famed Californian university UCLA as an example.

``I can give you an example and that's UCLA, which provides many National champions,'' he said. ``After a first offence they take no sanctions and after a second athletes are banned for only one competition. Only after the third offence do you have a sanction.

``I have the impression that it's a very light system and that they (the Americans) have to work on ways to have a really strong system against doping in their own country,'' De Merode added.

The IOC official also said he felt testing had to be improved in the United States. ``Their laboratories may make 30,000 analyses a year but we have discovered that the main part of these analyses were conducted by the American army and not especially on Olympic sports,'' he said.

``The fact that professional American sports tolerate doping sends a wrong signal'', he added.

''In (American) professional sports leagues there is no testing,'' De Merode said. ``There are tests for cocaine, crack and things but not for doping. It doesn't concern Olympic sports but it is a problem.''

De Merode said doping would not disappear. ``Will drugs go away completely<\!q>? ``No, certainly not,'' he said on Sunday. ``Doping has always existed and certainly always will.''