As Romanians at home protested in the streets over the decision to uphold the disqualification, it was revealed that Raducan had been treated “like a criminal” by the other leading competitors when she went to the gymnasium.

And Ion Tiriac, the former tennis player, said he was going to resign as president of the Romanian Olympic Committee (ROC), because he had made a mistake by introducing a rule banning any competitor for life for being found positive for drugs. He would then feel free to argue her case at any ROC hearing.

But the most telling testimony today came from Nadia Comaneci, who won Romania’s last Olympic all-around title in 1976. She said that she had talked at length with the shattered youngster.

Raducan: appeal failed © AP

Comaneci said: “Andreea said that other people had looked at her as if she was a criminal. Everyone in the gym turned their back on her. I have tried to make her understand what is happening. She is only 16 years-old. She knows what has happened but does not understand why.

“The drug she took does not make her run faster or vault higher. She only took it because she said it may make her breathe better. I told her: 'You are innocent but you are not going to get the medal'.” Raducan was given the drug by a Romanian doctor who has been working with gymnasts since Comaneci won the 1976 combined exercises title in 1976 with seven perfect 10s. He has been suspended from attending the next three Olympic Games.

Both her team-mates, Simona Amanar, the silver medal winner, and Maria Olaru, the bronze medal winner, are giving back their medals in protest at the decision because they feel that Raducan is the Olympic champion. Tiriac said that Olaru had also taken a cold pill during the competition but this was not found in the dope tests.

Raducan said: “It is not for me to judge the decision that was made. I know in my heart that all I did was innocently to take a pill that was given to me. I do not understand why this has happened.”

Comaneci said that there was a policy of “zero tolerance” in these Games. The three-man panel of the CAS, which is noted for its leniency towards competitors, this time accepted the argument of the IOC that a strict liability test must be applied, the consequence being automatic disqualification as a matter of law and in fairness to all other athletes.

The CAS pointed to its case law, which held: “It is the presence of a prohibited substance in a competitor’s bodily fluid which constitutes the offence irrespective of whether or not the competitor intended to ingest the prohibited substance.” The CAS concluded that “in balancing the interests of Miss Raducan with the commitment of the Olympic movement to drug-free sport, the Anti-Doping Code must be enforced”.

Pseudo-ephedrine is a stimulant and its presence in a competitor’s body could well aid performance. The IOC believe that if they had let off Raducan, it would have set a precedent for other competitors to take the drug and then use the same excuse.

Asked whether there was any more action that Raducan could take, Tiriac replied: “A rich tennis player could fight for 150 years because he earns so much more than a gymnast.” He said he fully supported the action to stop another Romanian, the discus thrower Melissa Melinte, to be stopped from competing here because she had taken nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, but the case of Raducan was a different matter.

What may have deceived the Romanian officials was that the International Gymnastics Federation have only recently added pseudo-ephedrine to its list of banned substances. However, it has been a substance banned by the IOC for many years and doping at the Games comes within the jurisdiction of the IOC not of the IGF.

John Goodbody and Craig Lord
The Times