Craig Masback, executive director of USA Track and Field, responded by saying the cases cited by de Merode allegedly occurred a decade before he was working at USA Track and Field. I have no idea whether it's true. I don't understand why he wouldn't have mentioned it before. The USOC, however, said those cases had been made public 12 years ago by Robert Voy, then head of the American committee's drug office. Pre-games samples in 1988 found eight track athletes with traces of Mahuang, a trade name for ephedrine, contained in a nutritional supplement called Super Charge, according to USOC spokesman Mike Moran.
Ephedrine is a banned stimulant that is often found in nonprescription cold remedies.
None of the athletes had prior drug positives, and all the positive results were overturned on appeal under provisions for allowable or accidental first-time use, Moran said. There was no cover-up. Since we adjudicated and found them innocent under our due-process rules, there was no reason to inform the IOC about it. Moran said Voy had made the tests public at a USOC media briefing before the Seoul Games and wrote about them in a later book on drugs in sports. I don't have the proof that it's happening today, but I'm not astonished.