離雅典奧運會開幕還有三周，美國奧組委嚴厲譴責美國田徑協會（U.S. track federation）高層忽視了藥檢問題的嚴重性。據悉，美國田協于7月19日公布了參加雅典奧運會的運動員名單，兩名此前藥檢呈陽性的選手仍然名列其中。外電有這樣的報道：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. 田徑是奧運會的第一大項，也是美國奧運代表團的奪金大項，track and field的意思就是“田徑，田徑賽”，相關的詞匯還有ground track field（田徑運動場）；thinclad（田徑運動員）等。