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Monday, March 5, 2001

Raducan headlines
Team Cup rosters

At least 11 Sydney Olympians
to compete here later this month,
including the Romanian gymnast
who was stripped of her gold

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By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

Romania's Andreea Raducan, the gymnast who was stripped of her individual all-around gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, will headline the 2001 Pontiac American Team Cup March 30-31 at the Blaisdell Arena.

USA Gymnastics confirmed all but one roster member today for the international event involving the U.S., Romania and China.

Sponsored by the Hawaii Tourism Authority and OHANA Hotels, it's the first major gymnastics competition scheduled in Honolulu in 15 years. The men's competition will take place the first day while the women will compete the second day.

The Sydney Olympians committed to come include four Romanian men, two Romanian women, two Chinese women and three American men. The U.S. women's roster won't be announced until March 26.

Raducan, who attracted worldwide sympathy when she was punished by the Intertnational Olympic Committee for taking an aspirin before the individual all-around competition, will be joined by Andreea Isarescu, also a member of the gold medal winning Romanian squad.

Ling Jie and Huang Mandan, members of the Olympic bronze medal Chinese women's team, are also expected to compete. However, no members of the Chinese men's team that won gold in Sydney will compete, as orginally expected.

Raducan, who was allowed to keep her team gold and her silver in the vault, was stripped of the all-around gold because the banned substance pseudoephedrine was detected in the aspirin. The drug, found in many over-the-counter remedies, is classified by the IOC as a stimulant.

The Romanian team doctor who gave Raducan the apirin was suspended by the IOC through the 2004 Athens Games.

Romanian officials argued that Raducan should not be penalized because she was just following the team doctors orders. But the IOC wouldn't budge on its policy that the mere presence of a drug in the body of an athlete is a doping case.

Each of the men's and women's team will have six athletes. Five will compete on each individual apparatus. The team with the highest point total will be the overall team champion.

Named to the competition are:

Team USA-Men: Paul Hamm, Morgan Hamm, Sean Townsend, Mike Dutka, Brett McClure and Guard Young.

Team China-Men: Zhao Zhe, You Yanan, Dai Tengfei, Liu Jinyu and Jianhui Xie. Women: Huang Mandan, Ling Jie, Peng Sha, Zhou Lan, Kang Xin and Huang Jing.

Team Romania-Men: Marian Dragulescu, Rares Orzata, Nistro Sandro, Dorin Petru, Ioan Suciu and Dan Potra. Women: Andreea Raducan, Andreea Isarescu, Alexandra Barac, Carmen Ionescu, Silvia Stroescu and Sabina Cojocar.

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Sydney 2000 Olympics