Wheelchair Team Might Regain Gold Medal

The U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team has a chance to have its gold medal reinstated, if an appeal hearing granted this week goes its way.

The team beat the Netherlands in the gold-medal game at last summer’s Paralympics at Barcelona, then lost the medal after its star player, David Kiley, tested positive for a banned drug.

Drug testing was carried out for the first time at the Paralympics in September, using the same laboratory as the 25th Olympic Games and following the protocol and banned list of the International Olympic Committee. Kiley was found to have small traces of Darvocet in his system. Darvocet, a narcotic, is considered a mild painkiller and carries about two-thirds the strength of codeine.

The National Wheelchair Athletic Assn. filed an appeal on behalf of the entire team. All 503 American athletes were pretested before leaving for Barcelona and asked to declare any drugs they were taking. Such precautions were especially important because wheelchair-bound persons may require daily doses of prescribed drugs, such as painkillers and muscle relaxants. Both types of drugs are on the banned list.

At a meeting Thursday in Milan, Italy, the International Coordination Committee of World Sports Organizations for the Disabled agreed to hear the appeal, tentatively scheduled for March.

Kiley, who is director of wheelchair sports and recreation at Casa Colina in Pomona, was out of town and could not be reached for comment.