离雅典奥运会开幕还有三周，美国奥组委严厉谴责美国田径协会（U.S. track federation）高层忽视了药检问题的严重性。据悉，美国田协于7月19日公布了参加雅典奥运会的运动员名单，两名此前药检呈阳性的选手仍然名列其中。外电有这样的报道：As the scandal from the U.S. investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative continues to shake track and field, Jim Scherr, the chief executive of the USOC (United States Olympic Committee), said he was disturbed that the drug-related issues had dominated pre-Games attention and taken it away from athletes who rarely find the spotlight. 田径是奥运会的第一大项，也是美国奥运代表团的夺金大项，track and field的意思就是“田径，田径赛”，相关的词汇还有ground track field（田径运动场）；thinclad（田径运动员）等。