I'm sure that you and dlish are talking about the same incident. Unfortunately, it's pretty much accepted that the "inadvertent" ruling by the USOC was pretty much complete and utter bullshit.
Carl Lewis's positive test covered up - smh.com.au
The USOC has gotten better in recent years, but they spent well over a decade colluding with their top athletes. There are still systemic problems, in my opinion.