Salt Lake City samples are clear of THG, says Rogge

The International Olympic Committee said yesterday that none of the samples taken during last year's Salt Lake City winter games showed up the designer steroid THG.

"These scientific findings are reassuring and confirm my initial gut feeling that THG was used on a limited scale," said the IOC president, Jacques Rogge. "Nevertheless, the IOC will remain vigilant and will continue to deploy all means and resources to fight against doping."

The IOC retested athletes' samples taken during the Winter Olympics after THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, was uncovered this summer when a track coach sent a syringe with the substance to the US Anti-Doping Agency.

Five track and field athletes and four NFL players tested positive for THG. Two positives for THG were recorded in retesting of samples from the althletics world championships in Paris last summer, while the international federations governing swimming and rowing turned up no positives in rechecking of samples from their own world championships.