The discovery of organized doping at a Chinese sports school has put the reputation of Chinese sport at risk just two years from the Beijing Olympics, International Olympic Committee member Kevan Gosper said on Friday.

 

Chinese state media reported on Thursday that teachers at the Liaoning Anshan Athletics School in China's northeast had been caught injecting teenagers with performance-boosting drugs.

 

China's sports administration has accused the school of "collective doping" after the teachers were caught injecting the students with testosterone and other banned substances, reports said.

 

Australian Gosper, who is deputy chairman of the IOC coordination commission for Beijing, said the news was a setback for Beijing Games organizers.

 

"It's extremely disappointing news for the Beijing sports authorities, it's a setback for BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) and it's destabilizing for the Olympic athletes preparing for 2008," Gosper told The Australian newspaper Friday.

 

"Drug abuse at school level is dismaying news," he said. "It is a blatant disregard for the health and ethical wellbeing of young people and it is strictly in defiance of Chinese law.

 

"I remember when we (Sydney) were organizing the 2000 Games that if there was anything that was playing negatively in the media about Australian sport, that we were very sensitive to that."

 

Gosper praised the action of the Chinese Olympic Committee in uncovering and announcing the drug conspiracy.

 

"The fact that the Chinese Olympic Committee raided the school and the Chinese agency Xinhua has reported it first demonstrates the serious view taken by the Chinese authorities on this issue," he said.

 

"Within the IOC we believe the Chinese are very serious about drugs in sport. They understand that there is no mileage in it for them. Any doping puts everyone's reputation at risk."

 

Gosper said the Anshan doping scandal was certain to be on the agenda when the IOC coordination commission visits Beijing in October for its next scheduled visit.

 

"This will be top of the list," he said. "Everyone will be concerned about this."

 

Gosper said the IOC was continuing to pressure China to allow drug testers the "freedom and ease of movement" they needed to do their job effectively.

 

(China Daily August 26, 2006)