IOC Official Cautions Australian Coaches
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Australian officials will be made to look “bloody foolish” if they continue to accuse Chinese swimmers of doping and an Australian tests positive for illegal drugs, International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Phil Coles said. Coles, one of Australia’s two IOC members, was responding to comments from Australian swim coach Don Talbot and former Olympic coach Forbes Carlile that outstanding results in the recently completed Chinese National Games in Shanghai were achieved by drug-taking. “I’m not saying they did or they didn’t, we’ll wait and see what happens with the testing after the Chinese National Games are over and, indeed, in Perth (at the World Championships) next year,” said Coles. When Coles was asked how Australia would look if one of the country’s athletes tested positive, he replied: “We’ll look very bloody foolish, and that’s why I’m telling everyone and I’m taking (Australian Olympic Committee president) John (Coates’) line that I think everyone should shut up.”