Four American swimmers beaten by East Germans at the 1976 Olympics are likely to have a request for their silver medals to be upgraded to gold discussed by the IOC next month.

IOC director general Francois Carrard confirmed yesterday a letter had been received and said: "I think that there will be a preliminary discussion."

The letter, signed by US Olympic Committee president Bill Hybl, will come before an IOC executive board meeting being held in Lausanne from December 11th to 14th.

The letter deals with the US women's 4x100 metres medley relay squad of Linda Jezek, Lauri Siering, Camille Wright and Shirley Babashoff who finished second, 6.6 seconds behind the East Germans, at the 1976 Montreal Games.

However, a successful appeal would be likely to encourage more and the IOC already has a similar request over British swimmer Sharron Davies, who finished second behind East German Petra Schneider in the 400 metres individual medley at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Schneider, whose 400 individual medley world record stood for an astonishing 15 years and was broken only last year, has conceded she unknowingly took hormone drugs and has had constant health problems since she retired from the sport in 1984.

The IOC has always resisted the idea of applying retroactive legislation and reopening cases from the distant past.

The concept of rewriting sporting history by withdrawing medals for performances achieved decades ago is fraught with legal problems. East German athletes, for instance, are not the only ones to have been found guilty of doping offences.

There have also been suggestions that a time limit, possibly one of four years, from one Olympics to the next, might be applied.