Ruling Seen As Blow To Drug Enforcement

An American swimmer barred for steroid use was told she can go back in the pool, a ruling that officials feared could undermine programs aimed at removing drugs from sports.

Although it upheld the positive test for steroids against Jessica Foschi, the Court for Arbitration in Sport reduced a two-year international ban against the 16-year-old to just six months and made it retroactive to August 1995, when the urine sample was taken.

That means the freestyler from Old Brookville, N.Y., is immediately eligible for international competition. She had been eligible for domestic meets in the United States, and her international ban was scheduled to expire in about six weeks.

CAS was established by the International Olympic Committee to handle disputes between athletes and their sports federations and national Olympic committees.

“I hope CAS isn’t saying that we’re shifting the burden of proof to the point where an athlete can take drugs, deny, deny, deny, then take your six months and run,” said Ross Wales, a vice president for FINA, swimming’s governing body. “Six months in the life of an athlete is nothing.”