Sotomayor, the world record-holder in the high jump and the only man to have cleared the 8-foot barrier, was stripped of a gold medal at the Pan American Games last month based on results of a urine test done at Dr. Christiane Ayotte's Olympic-approved National Research Institute.
But Cuban sports officials have refused to suspend Sotomayor, instead attacking the credibility of the lab whose services they once used eagerly at bargain prices.
"I'm especially sad about this," Ayotte said Tuesday. "In past years we helped the Cubans a lot with their testing. We offered to do tests for a really low cost because they had no money.
"We had a close relationship with Cuban sport authorities. It's a shame for us, that we're being rewarded this way after we helped them for years."
Accusations of sabotage against Sotomayor have been led by President Fidel Castro. In a speech, he said Cuba would set out to create its own lab to "safeguard our athletes' and our homeland's honor" and to "help defend our country from any traps, dirty tricks or underhanded stunts."
Cuba's defense of Sotomayor's case is more political rhetoric than science, Ayotte said.
"They say they have evidence, but to now I've seen nothing," Ayotte said. "There were also three Cuban weightlifters caught positive for the banned substance Nandrolone in the Pan Ams. ... They collected urine samples from the lifters once they returned to the island and sent them off to an accredited European lab and the result came back negative. They're saying since these results from the lifters were negative, it casts doubt overall on the work we did during the games."
Ayotte said one Cuban doctor alleged the level of cocaine reported in Sotomayor's system was so high he would have been unable to jump, "that he'd have been falling asleep. That's not compatible with cocaine. It's a stimulant. Nothing is supported by scientific evidence."
A number of Cuban officials witnessed the testing of a secured B sample of Sotomayor's urine to confirm the cocaine finding.
"They say they don't trust the result of the lab and, frankly, I don't know what to answer," Ayotte said. "I believe the consul general of Cuba was present and two Cuban medical authorities and a representative of the Pan American medical commission. Everyone was there. Everyone witnessed all the process. The chain of custody was checked. The sample showed no sign of tampering."
She said Cuban investigators have not visited the Montreal lab since the tests to seek any evidence or information.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press