Yahoo! August 16, 2000
Sotomayor Looks Toward Olympic Glory
By Erica Bulman, Associated Press Writer.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland. 16 (AP) - After an easy victory in his first competition since a one-year drug suspension, Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor is thinking about Olympic gold.
After dominating a mediocre field at the low-key International Track Meet of Montauban on Tuesday - winning at 7 feet, 53/4 inches - the Cuban world record holder was already looking ahead to bigger and better things.
"The dream of course would be the Olympic title,'' said Sotomayor, who holds the world mark of 8-01/2. "Montauban is like a preparation test. I know I can do well in Sydney. But whatever the color, if I get a medal in Sydney, it would prove I'd come back to my highest level.''
But what Sotomayor truly hopes is that the Olympics will serve to improve his image.
"I had two goals. The first to participate in Sydney, and now that's assured,'' said Sotomayor, who had his two-year-ban for a positive cocaine test reduced to one earlier this month, making him eligible for Sydney. "The second was to clear my image, even if the decision of the IAAF
council did not erase the sanction completely. Maybe I can do that in Sydney.
"We'll see in Sydney what I can do for my image.''
A two-time world champion and the 1992 Olympic champion, Sotomayor was stripped of his gold medal in the high jump at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, in July 1999, after testing positive for cocaine.
Last June, a three-person International Amateur Athletic Federation arbitration panel overturned a ruling by the Cuban Athletics Federation that let Sotomayor continue competing domestically and in other non-sanctioned meets, and banned him for two years.
But earlier this month, the IAAF cut Sotomayor's drug suspension, citing "exceptional circumstances'' and an exemplary 15-year career.
But the IAAF refused to clear his name completely.
Sotomayor maintains he never took the drug, and Fidel Castro and Cuban sports officials have staunchly supported him.
But despite the reduced sentence, claims that Sotomayor tested positive in more recent controls have continued to haunt the Cuban.
Less than two weeks ago, IAAF vice president Arne Ljungqvist accused Sotomayor of failing a subsequent out-of-competition test and said he should still be banned.
However, since a positive result for a stimulant such as cocaine is not considered an offense when it is taken out of competition, the IAAF arbitration panel was not advised of the second positive result.
As much as Sotomayor is looking forward to the Olympic games, what lies beyond is just as important for him.
"After Sydney, I'll see with lawyers what's the best thing to do. I can imagine the possibility of civil court to clear my name,'' he said. "The first injustice was my disqualification at the Pan Ams and my suspension.
"However, the main injustice is that I'm treated as someone who has taken banned substances.''
INS Honors Elian Gonzalez Agents
BRUNSWICK, Ga. 15 (AP) - Scores of agents who had roles in the seizure of Cuban Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives were honored Tuesday by INS Commissioner Doris Meissner.
In a ceremony at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Meissner praised more than 100 Immigration and Naturalization Service workers for their long hours of work in bringing "Operation Reunion'' to a close.
The operation ended April 22 when eight heavily armed Border Patrol agents took the boy from the Miami home.
Meissner said the seizure was necessary and that all agents "did an outstanding job under some of the most trying circumstances imaginable.''
Cuban-Americans who opposed Elian's court-ordered return to Cuba with his father protested his seizure.
Many objected to the display of force captured in an Associated Press photograph that showed a goggled agent holding an MP-5 submachine gun as he took 6-year-old Elian, who had been rescued five months earlier after a boat carrying him from Cuba wrecked at sea, killing his mother and others.
Officials Blast Cuban-Born Athlete
HAVANA, 15 (AP) - Accusing Cuban-born long jump world champion Niurka Montalvo of being a traitor for fighting to represent her adopted country of Spain in the Sydney Olympics, national sports officials on Tuesday defended their decision to block her participation.
"It's treason,'' Alberto Juantorena, president of the Cuban Federation of Athletics, said during a nearly 2-hour government television program dealing with the "theft of athletes.''
"Niurka had 16 years of high-level training in Cuba,'' said Juantorena, a double gold medalist in 1976 Olympics. "She is the fruit of Cuba's sports movement.''
Montalvo, 31, competed for Cuba in Atlanta but has lived in Spain for nearly three years.
Cuba's insistence that it won't budge on its decision not to let Montalvo represent Spain comes one month before the start of the Sydney Games and amid a new battle by the communist country to draw international attention to what it says is the common practice by rich nations of wooing the best
athletes from poor ones.
The practice violates the spirit of the Olympic Games, maintained Jose Ramon Fernandez, president of Cuba's Olympic Committee and a vice president in the country's Council of Ministers, or cabinet.
Montalvo was granted Spanish citizenship last year after marrying a Spaniard and needs approval from Cuba to participate in Sydney.
Under the Olympic Charter, any athlete who has competed in any Olympics and changes his or her nationality must wait three years before competing for their new country.
Last Wednesday, Yueling Chen, a 1992 Olympic champion race-walker for China, was cleared to represent the United States at Sydney. Chinese officials had originally refused to give her permission, then reversed their decision after a request by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Cuba's veto of Montalvo sparked fury among Spanish sports officials who even said that they would reconsider relationships with Cuban athletics. They also threatened to break off aid to the Cuban athletes if sports authorities of the Caribbean country don't reconsider Montalvo's case.
Talks between Spanish and Cuban government officials were expected this week. International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch said Friday that a solution could only be made at a political level.
Fernandez said Cuba continues to believe in the basic principles of the Olympics, which were established to promote friendly competition among amateur athletes of the world's nations.
Cuban authorities often complain about growing commercialization of the games, and sports in general. More than anything they oppose attempts toward the country's top athletes to abandon Cuban sports for money.
"The theft of athletes is the result of the excessive commercialization of athletes,'' Fernandez said. He called for a ban on the practice of some sports agents who send messages and make monetary offers to athletes from Cuba and other developing countries during the Olympics and other
amateur sports competitions.
Amid the controversy, Cuban athletes training in Spain for the Sydney Olympics, including high jump world record-holder Javier Sotomayor, were told on Sunday by sports officials of their country to leave Spain.
The 15 Cuban athletes arrived in May in Guadalajara, a city 38 miles east from Madrid, where they have based their training camp for the last 15 years, and were planning to stay there until Sept. 5. | 