Is this the first time a swimmer’s been banned for life? I don’t remember coming across reports from other countries imposing a lifetime ban for dopesters. But, to be honest, I haven’t really dug into the matter.

Anyways, good luck to Ouyang Kunpeng on his future endeavors.

More about drug use among Olympians here.

What’s that again? Some athletes will be using Viagra? That’s right. Apparently some of them have used it in previous events and will, no doubt, be using it in the Olympics.

Because authorities aren’t sure whether Viagra really enhances athletic performance, they are allowing it to be used in Beijing. I’m pretty sure those who will use it will be very popular with the ladies [and the gays].

Can you imagine the results if male swimmers, and gymnasts, and divers, and wrestlers will use Viagra to enhance their athletic performance? Hah. The ratings of the Olympic Games will skyrocket to be sure. The Games will overtake the World Cup as the most watched sports event. And Beckham, that exhibitionist who’s turning women into silly Beckham maniacs and who’s making a lot of men jealous/envious will totally become a has-been.

Read AP story on Viagra use by athletes here.

PHOTO SOURCE: crosstec.de

Olympic gold medalist Antonio Pettigrew admitted publicly for the first time Thursday that he used performance-enhancing substances during a long, successful sprinting career in which he passed all drug tests.

So our Doper’s List of Shame continues to grow longer. Pettigrew was coached by American Trevor Graham who, as we reported here, is under trial for allegedly lying to federal investigators.

PHOTO CREDIT: usatf

She failed a drug test according to the IAAF and has been banned for two years. She will miss the Beijing Olympics and her results from the past two years have been wiped off the record books.

PHOTO SOURCE: AFP

To read the charges filed against Trevor Graham, click here. His trial starts May 19 in San Francisco, California.

He was banned by the Italian Athletics Federation last July for “having contact with” Italian doctor Carlo Santuccione, who has been linked to doping and is alleged to have provided illegal drugs to athletes. The Commission on Arbitration for Sports overturned this ban following an appeal by Gibilisco.

PHOTO SOURCE: AFP/Getty Images

From the New York Times:

A government witness list filed Friday publicly identified Antonio Pettigrew, winner of a gold medal in the 4×400-meter relay at the 2000 Olympics, as a user of banned performance-enhancing drugs.

Pettigrew, a four-time world champion from 1991 to 2001, was among eight athletes on the witness list for the coming trial of the track coach Trevor Graham, who is accused of lying to federal agents. Graham’s trial is to begin May 19.

Read the rest of the article.

A DPA Report: A second doping test on a group of 11 Greek weightlifters who initially tested positive for banned substances was also found to be positive, making the athletes unlikely competitors for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics, reports said Friday.

The second test was conducted in a laboratory in Cologne, Germany and confirmed results first announced on April 4, which found almost the entire men’s and women’s national teams to have failed tests conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Read the rest here. The sad thing about positive doping reports like this is that they no longer have shock value. Reports about use of banned drugs by athletes have become staple in the daily news so we, members of the public, shrug our shoulders and say, “Huh, what else is new?” Sad.

Associated Press: Former track star Tim Montgomery has been indicted on heroin distribution charges, the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported Thursday.

The 33-year-old sprinter was arrested Wednesday on a sealed indictment, accused of dealing more than 100 grams of heroin in Virginia over the past year, according to the newspaper.

Montgomery was being held at the Portsmouth city jail, said Karin Johnson, public information officer for the Portsmouth sheriff’s office. She said U.S. marshals brought him in Wednesday night.

Montgomery told the newspaper he knew nothing of the accusations and that his arrest was a “total surprise.”

“You get caught up in the achievements,” he said. “You get blinded and make really bad mistakes.”

The former 100-meter world-record holder is to be sentenced May 16 in a New York-based check-kiting conspiracy. Montgomery, who pleaded guilty, admitted he helped his former coach, Olympic champion Steve Riddick, and others cash $1.7 million in stolen and counterfeit checks. He faces up to 46 months in prison.

Riddick is serving a five-year prison term. Montgomery’s former companion, Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones, is serving a six-month prison term for lying to investigators about the check-fraud scam and using steroids.

Montgomery won a gold medal in the 400 relay at the 2000 Olympics and a silver medal in the 400 relay at the 1996 Olympics.

In December 2005, Montgomery was banned from track for two years for doping and he retired. All of his performances after March 31, 2001 were wiped from the books, including his world record of 9.78 seconds in the 100-meter dash in September 2002.

Olympic gold-medal-winning snowboarder Ross Rebagliati has settled a lawsuit over a television series that he had accused of defaming him.

The Canadian snowboarder reached the out-of-court settlement with CTV Television network and producers of the series, “Whistler,” according a statement released by his spokesman on Friday. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

What was the lawsuit about?

Rebagliati said he was defamed by a character in the syndicated series named Beck MacKaye, who was portrayed as a former Olympic snowboarder and resident at the Whistler, British Columbia, ski resort whose death was linked to alcoholism, womanizing and blackmail.

Rebagliati, who lived in Whistler when he won the gold medal at the Nagano Winter Games in 1998, alleged the “reprehensible” character was so similar physically and in sports history that people thought the character was modeled on him, or created by him.

Haha. Those lazy producers. They should have created a less obvious character. But then again, maybe they were asking to be sued.

Rebagliati, in case you forgot, was originally stripped of his gold medal because he tested positive for marijuana. He got back his medal when it was pointed out that the Olympic rule book doesn’t say you can’t smoke dope.