By Gina Holland, Associated Press, 10/01/01

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to accept a challenge of athletic drug testing, ending Mary Decker Slaney's hopes of reclaiming a medal that she had to relinquish after being accused of cheating.

Slaney, a legendary American distance runner, claims that birth control pills may have led to her only positive test in a 25-year career.

She contested the reliability of the method used to detect levels of testosterone, as well as forced arbitration that athletes must use in testing disputes.

Slaney was stripped of the silver medal she won at the 1997 world championships after an arbitrator with the International Amateur Athletic Federation concluded that she had used performance enhancing drugs in 1996. The arbitrator said she was ineligible to compete for at least two years after that test.

Testosterone is a natural hormone that builds muscle mass. The athletic federation threshold for determining what is known as "doping" in sports does not take into account females' bodies, Slaney said.

The use of the test on female athletes "is a sham, designed to protect their commercial interests by convincing the public that they are tough on drugs, at the expense of innocent athletes," Slaney said in her appeal.

She said the case could have affected other athletes who compete in international events and are required to be tested.

A judge in Indiana ruled in 1999 that federal courts did not have jurisdiction and that the arbitrator had the final word. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that in March 2001.

Slaney said in the appeal that she never agreed "`in writing or otherwise" to arbitrate disputes with the federation.

Her suit was against the Colorado-based United States Olympic Committee and the federation.

The Olympic Committee told the Supreme Court that arbitration is best for prompt resolution of eligibility disputes, keeping athletes from pursuing protracted litigation.

Slaney, a member of three Olympic teams, was the 1983 World Champion in the 1500 and 3000 meter events.

She is remembered most for a competition at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She was considered a favorite, but midway through the race she and barefooted South African runner Zola Budd became entangled. Budd tripped Slaney, who fell and injured her hip.

The United States of America Track and Field Inc., the governing body for track, had sided with Slaney. It reviewed her contested drug test and in 1997 determined there was insufficient proof she did anything wrong.

That decision was overturned in arbitration.

Slaney said in her appeal that the test, started in 1984, is flawed and should be abandoned.

She said women's hormone levels fluctuate and that in her case she may have tested positive because of her menstrual cycle or because she had recently begun taking a new kind of birth control pills.

The dispute involves a urine sample given on June 17, 1996, at the Olympic trials in Atlanta, where she competed in two races.

The case is Slaney v. The International Amateur Athletic Association, 00-1941.

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