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I felt terrible. It was like giving up part of your life. It was something that I've worked for years to get, then, all of a sudden, I'm putting it in a ... box and mailing it back. It was a big part of my life that was gone.Trooper Johnson, DISABLED ATHLETESANTA CLARA, Calif (AP) — Troop-er Johnson couldn’t stop smiling.On that day in 1992 in Barcelona, |HhkJohnson and his teammates on the U.S. ■HppfPrwheelchair basketball team had swept Hp||§F Mthe Paralympics — the competition for ^H|||g yjgSLelite physically disabled athletes held HI 1 ^in conjunction with the Olympics. Ilk ■A glossy photo of the awards ceremo- ggnHMkny shows Johnson decked out in red, MB|||||rwhite and blue and flashing a grin asbright as the metal clutched in his hand. nHHlk ^pr“I was the happiest guy in the world jThis was the culmination of what hadbeen a three-year dream for Johnson. * gBBHK;to reach the top of a field as competitive r i||P: §|v-:On the flight home, teammate David Kiley received several mysterious tele- , / / I *phone calls and “we kind of started re- / § galizing that something had gone wrong,” I ji 4 JwiiinL mmJohnson said. * / f * «11 WThe stunned team would later discov- j f f » tmm \er that two days before the big game, f Jf , | -rKiley had been awakened by intense f M 1pain in his legs, and had taken a Dar- i |f / tvocet, a derivative of the pain killer Dar- f § a®?von. Darvon is not a performance-en- f Mhancing drug, but is a banned substance i/m ...^.at the Paralympics. * §* J4(When Kiley was tested after the team I-Ibeat the Netherlands, 39-36, a traceamount was found in his system. Ttn.„, a mAmkAr r^iKiley was suspended for two years. T °?P® ,7* . ,!^u .. •The entire team was disqualified, and during a wheelchair basketball game .forced to return their medals or risk being banned from future competition.And ever since, they’ve been trying to It was a long trip down to the post of-get their medals back. fice.I felt terrible. It was like giving up part of your life. It was something that I’ve worked for years to get, then, all of Johnson held out as long as he dared, a sudden, I’m putting it in a ... box and February 1993, and then took the mor- mailing it back. It was a big part of my tifying step of asking his parents to give life that was gone,” he said, back the medal they had hung on a wall Ironically, Johnson was among those devoted to Johnson’s sporting exploits. who were pleased when paralympic ath-cola, president of the nonprofit league.One appeal was rejected in 1993 the committee that ran the 1992 games Team members later learned the deci sion was made before they spoke.After months of negotiations, botl sides agreed in mid-March to take th( case to the Court of Arbitration for Sporl in Lausanne, Switzerland.The medals, initially sent to the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, are now being sent to the Swiss court for safekeeping.The Americans are not arguing that the list of banned substances — essen-tially the same as that used in the Olympics — should be modified. They include everything from illegal drugs to anabolic steroids to over-the-counter nose sprays, all to protect athletes’ health and prevent unfair advantages.But Douglas Carlson, representing the U.S. association, says his group disagrees with the penalty and with the procedure that led to it.Kiley admits he should have known better. He got the pill from a coach, neither man realizing at the time that it was on the banned list, he said. Both were suspended.“I made a mistake. I'm not going to sit here and say I’ve been abused by the system,” Kiley said.Robert Steadward, president of the International Paralympics Committee says Kiley knew the rules and he broke them.“People have to be prepared to suffer those consequences,” he said.But Kiley says the consequences are too harsh.“Take my medal. Use me as the example. Let’s learn from this and let’s move on, but don’t take the 11 other guys’ medals. It’s just not right.”
Newspaper Details
Port Arthur News
Port Arthur, Texas, US
Wed, Apr 19, 1995
Page 8
Full Page
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USA 19 Dec 2019
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