Boxing: China unveils life ban for steroid abuse

THE Chinese Swimming Association has announced it is to impose a lifetime ban on swimmers - including first time offenders - caught using steroids.

Wu Shouzhang, CSA official and vice-president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, told an anti-doping conference: "We deeply regretted the series of shameful drug scandals in the 1994 Asian Games and the World Swimming Championships in Perth. The CSA plans to increase the number of drugs tests this year to 600 and impose more severe sanctions."

Four Chinese swimmers were found to have taken the illegal diuretic Triamterene, a masking agent for anabolic steroid use, and banned from participating in the championships in January. The failed tests followed the disqualification of Yuan Yuan after customs officials found 13 vials of human growth hormone in her bags.

In total, 27 Chinese swimmers have tested positive to doping tests in the last decade, with seven testing positive to the steroid dehydrotestosterone at the 1994 Asian Games in Japan.

The CSA proposed an 11-point action plan to stamp out drug abuse after Australia. In addition, all swimmers will have to put their winnings into a bank account that will only be accessible when they retire and if they have a clean doping slate.