Olympic athletes caught dealing face jail

Athletes found dealing drugs at next year's Winter Games will face jail, Olympic chief Jacques Rogge said.

The International Olympic Committee president said anyone found "contaminating fellow athletes" would face the full brunt of Italy's criminal law. An athlete found using drugs would be spared incarceration.

"We do not want imprisonment for athletes," Rogge said. "But dealers, whether they are coaches, athletes, or whoever, are a different matter."

Rogge said the Italian police would be welcomed into the athletes' village if there was suspicion of drug dealing.

Traditionally, the village has been a sanctuary outside domestic law, although Rogge said police did conduct a raid at the Nagano Winter Games in 1998.

Rogge was speaking in Turin at an Executive Board marking the one-year countdown until the opening the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

The Belgian was quick to allay fears that anyone who fails a dope test could be jailed as is the case under Italian law.

Under World Anti-Doping Agency and IOC regulations the only punishment for athletes who fail tests is to strip them of any medals they have won and throw them out of the Olympic Village.

Athletes are then banned by their sport's governing body.

"We do not want athletes to be jailed. They are not a danger to society, whereas dealers are a danger. They endanger other people."

Rogge said the Italian law would be modified to ensure athletes who fall foul of anti-doping at the Games would be spared prison.