The president of the IOC says he detects a "change in mentality" in America signaling a tougher stance against performance-enhancing drugs.
But Jacques Rogge says US officials must first come clean about doping in the past before they can be taken seriously about fighting the problem now and in the future.
The IOC executive board renewed its demand Friday for USA Track & Field to supply documents explaining why Jerome Young was exonerated after testing positive for steroids in 1999.
Young went on to win a relay gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Games.
The IOC board said USATF officials could be barred from next summer's Athens Olympics if they fail to comply.
Rogge contrasted USATF's refusal to cooperate in the Young case with its new "zero-tolerance" plan calling for life bans for first-time steroid offenders.
"They are courageous for the future but they are not very courageous for the past," he said at the close of a two-day executive board meeting. "If they really want to come out in a very clean way, they should open up their books with the past. Then they could start with a clean state and a new resolve."
Rogge labeled USATF's plan for life bans as a "little bit of a knee-jerk reaction" to criticism of its record on doping, and said such a penalty will be impossible to enforce anyway.
"We all know now in the sports movement that lifetime bans will never be accepted in court, other than for a second or third offense," he said.
Rogge said USATF should instead adhere to the World Anti-Doping Code's standard of two-year suspensions for a first offense and life for a second.
The life ban proposal was approved by USATF's board on Wednesday and goes to a vote of the full membership on Sunday at meetings in Greensboro, North Carolina.
"The Olympic sports world is political, but what we are doing with zero-tolerance is not political," USATF spokeswoman Jill Geer said. "It is to enact meaningful change."
The IOC opened disciplinary proceedings in the Young case in late September, but has been frustrated by USATF's refusal to provide full information on the appeals panel decision which cleared the sprinter.
If the IOC finds he was improperly exonerated, Young and the rest of the 1,600m relay team -- including Michael Johnson -- could be stripped of the gold medals.
Under international rules, a confirmed steroid offense is punishable by a ban of two years -- a penalty which would have ruled Young out of the Sydney Olympics.
The IOC sent another letter Friday to USOC officials asking for their help. Rogge also requested more information on six of 27 doping cases from the 1980s and 1990s which were reported to the IOC by the USOC in September.
"We intend to continue doing all we can to assist the IOC in bringing closure to this matter," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said.
USATF has repeatedly refused to supply information on the Young case, citing confidentiality rules in place at the time. USATF also says it is bound by an international arbitration court ruling upholding its right to maintain secrecy in previous doping acquittals.
"We share the IOC's concern that this case be resolved before the Olympic Games, but we have done everything we can do legally and otherwise," Geer said.
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