02/10/2001

Associated Press

BERLIN – Alexander Leipold, the wrestler stripped of his Olympic gold medal on drug charges, was temporarily banned from competing in Germany on Friday.

The German wrestling federation DRB won an injunction in front of its legal committee which prevents Leipold from competing until it can appeal the lifting of his suspension.

Another DRB legal committee had overturned his suspension Jan. 26, ruling the federation had acted too late in suspending Leipold after finding he had tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone.

"We're shocked – this can't be possible," Leipold's wife, Juliane, said.

Leipold has competed once for his club since his ban was lifted, but will not be allowed to wrestle for VfK Schifferstadt Saturday in the semifinals of the German team championships.

A date hasn't been set for the DRB to have its appeal. It wants to suspend the wrestler for a year.

Leipold's ban was overturned because the first legal panel ruled the federation should have suspended him, according to its regulations, within seven days of being notified Oct. 3 that he had failed his drug test.

Leipold wasn't suspended by the DRB until Oct. 18.

Leipold also is seeking to have his two-year ban from competing internationally lifted. He has an April 22 hearing scheduled before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The German freestyler won Olympic gold in the under 1671/2-pound class at Sydney. He was stripped of his medal by the International Olympic Committee after the positive finding. The IOC awarded the medal to losing finalist Brandon Slay of Amarillo, Texas.

Claims have been made of irregularities in Leipold's testing.

A German wrestling official claimed Leipold has a receipt proving he handed in a 50 milliliter urine sample, while an 85 milliliter sample was tested at the Olympics.