Report: Swiss to fight Olympian drug use

Bern, Switzerland -- Switzerland is determined to clamp down on drug use by Olympians competing in track and field events.

Info.ch, the Swiss news and information platform, Wednesday said officials would begin the crackdown July 1 after getting the government's approval.
The report said the anti-doping initative will be called Antidoping Schweiz (ADS): Swiss Anti-Doping and will eliminate dual responsibilities for Swiss Olympic and the Federal Sport Office.

"We owe it to young sportsmen and women to take the fight against doping seriously," former skiing champion Corinne Schmidhauser said.

"We are taking this step only now, four years after the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and the introduction of the first anti-doping code," said Matthias Kamber, who was in charge of the anti-doping section of the Federal Sport Office. "(But) it is a great step forward. We are really being stretched. I can foresee huge problems."

Switzerland once was a model in the anti-doping movement, but now lags behind other nations.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.