Snowboarding made its debut in this year’s Winter Olympics in a big way with the disqualification of Canadian Gold Medal winner Ross Rebagliati for testing positive for marijuana.

Rebagliati, 26, had his best performance of an 11-year career in Sunday's giant slalom, winning the first Olympic gold medal of a sport described as "wedded to its free-living surfing roots."

He was tested immediately after the race and two urine samples both showed the presence of 17.8 parts per million of cannabis metabolite -- just above the 15 ppm threshold set by the International Ski Federation which administers the sport.

There are two important points here. Chemical and cultural. One is that it is the metabolite, the residue, not the drug itself that is detected. Cannabinoids are not water-soluble and are detectable much longer than the residues of drugs such as cocaine and opiates. So there was no question about him being under the influence of cannabis. These tests would not even determine this, and had he been tested prior to the competition he might have passed, because his urine would have been less concentrated.

The cultural point is that skiing and snowboarding have represented two different cultures, but the Ski Federation represents the snowboarders. Until recently, snowboards were banned from most major ski resorts. Now they are seen as their salvation as boarding has brought in a new generation. A storm ahead?

A Close Vote

Francois Carrard, Director-General of the International Olympic Committee, said the case had been hotly debated in two separate IOC bodies. First it was discussed by the IOC's medical commission, which voted 13-12 for a formal recommendation that Rebagliati lose his medal and be disqualified. The IOC's ruling executive board voted 3-2 to support the recommendation, with two members abstaining.

The odd thing about this debate is that it may put the Olympics officials in the position of saying that marijuana is a performance-enhancing drug. They say that performance-enhancing nature of marijuana is being challenged. Of course, this flies in the face of prohibitionist propaganda, which says that marijuana hurts performance.

Marijuana ranks very low on the IOC's list of prohibited substances, above alcohol but below local anesthetics, cortico-steroids and betablockers, and far beneath anabolic steroids or growth hormones. It is this point that makes the facts about marijuana, not just the social disapproval or legal status the real question. Marijuana is more prohibited than alcohol, which hurts performance, but less than others, such as pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs, which could help.

The IOC's own anti-doping rules do not even prescribe an acceptable threshold for the concentration of cannabis metabolites in an athlete's urine, so the IOC used skiing's 15-ppm limit as its guide. The IOC's rules did give it the option merely to give Rebagliati a severe reprimand, in which case the outside world would probably never have heard of the positive test.

IOC executive board member Kevan Gosper, who was travelling at the time of the board meeting and so did not take part, said he was not happy the voting figures of the medical commission and the board were released. Why?

For Rebagliati, the challenge will be based in part on the fact that the levels concerned are very close to the threshold and the options open were either a warning or a sanction.

Canadian team chief Carol Anne Letheren said IOC board member Pound, a lawyer who handles the IOC's marketing, would help prepare Rebagliati's appeal.

"Ross indicated to us that he hasn't used marijuana since 1997," Letheren told a news conference. "He claims the small amount found in his system is due to the significant amount of time Ross spends in an environment where he is surrounded by marijuana-users." Stop and think about that for a moment.

Letheren said the appeal, which would be decided by the IOC-established Court of Arbitration for Sport within 24 hours, would be based on three arguments.

First, the team would argue that marijuana was not a performance-enhancing drug and could, in fact, harm an athlete's chances of success.

It would also argue that only some sports federations test their athletes for marijuana and thus the IOC regulations on marijuana were not being implemented fairly.

Finally, the appeal would make the case that the amount found in Rebagliati's urine was so minute as to be irrelevant.

"We think the appropriate remedy in this instance would be a severe reprimand," Letheren added. Why someone should receive a severe reprimand for being around marijuana smokers is an aspect of Olympic regulations that seems unclear.

Michael Wood, Canada's snowboarding team leader, said Rebagliati last came in contact with marijuana smoke at a party at home on January 31 to see him off, but had not smoked it himself that evening.

This is possible, just possible. I have been in rooms so smoky the portraits on the walls were getting red-eyed.