By Karolos Grohmann
BEIJING (Reuters) – A 50-year-old doping case involving then-16-year-old American swimmer Rick DeMont, who won a gold medal at the 1972 Olympics only to have it stripped due to a blunder by team officials, will be difficult to review following law changes since then.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), who took DeMont’s medal back after he tested positive for a banned substance even though he had properly declared his asthma medicine before the Munich Games, said on Tuesday a review could face legal hurdles.
His case was thrust back into the spotlight following a positive doping test for 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, who won gold at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, with the Russian figure skater allowed to carry on competing due to rules protecting minors.
DeMont received no protection as a teenager even though, as opposed to Valieva, he was proven to have done everything properly and within competition rules.
“It is a general principle of the law that the law that was applied to a case is the law valid at the time the infringement was made,” IOC Executive Board member Denis Oswald told reporters.
Oswald, who is the permanent chair of the IOC’s disciplinary commission, said that at the time there was no World Anti-Doping Code, which sets out procedures for positive cases while also offering mitigating factors for which Valieva has seemingly benefited.
“The law regarding doping in 1972 is not the same as now. It is difficult to go back and review a case based on a new law that did not exist at the time,” he added.
DeMont told Reuters in an exclusive interview on Monday it was not worth the effort to attempt to get back the gold medal he won in the 400 metres freestyle.
“It doesn’t seem like it is worth the energy,” he said.
The United States Olympic Committee in 2001 welcomed DeMont back into the Olympic fold in a written statement and cleared his name.
Asked if DeMont’s case was much stronger than that of Valieva – who faces a doping investigation into her positive test – with the American having never taken any substance to boost his performance, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “Every case is different. There may even be a statute of limitation.”
DeMont’s U.S. team’s officials had failed to hand in the documents regarding his asthma medication to the IOC and by testing positive he is the youngest ever Olympic medallist to be punished for doping, even though it was not his fault.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
