BRIEFLY : STUDY CASTS DOUBT ON MCGWIRE'S ELIXIR.

Byline: - Daily News Wire Services

The dietary supplement used by Mark McGwire does nothing to boost men's strength and instead might promote breast enlargement, heart disease and cancer, a study suggests.

The study, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, compared androstenedione (pronounced an-droh-STEEN-die-ohn) with a dummy pill in 20 men ages 19 to 29 during an eight-week weightlifting program.

The supplement, a steroid, is made of a naturally occurring hormone the body uses in tiny amounts to make the male hormone testosterone.

Androstenedione supplements contain many times the amount found in the body naturally, and McGwire has said he uses the substance to speed recovery from minor injuries.

OLYMPICS: European Union sports ministers threatened to set up their own doping agency if the International Olympic Committee fails to accept their demands. French sports minister Marie-George Buffet outlined the program during an informal meeting of the ministers in a German castle in Paderborn.

The head of the Olympics' biggest revenue source accused a major sponsor of damaging fund raising for American athletes through ``cynical . . . self-serving'' attacks on the IOC.

NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol described David D'Alessandro, the president of John Hancock insurance and the most vocal corporate critic in the Salt Lake City scandal, as a ``bully'' motivated by a thirst for publicity.

BOXING: Murray Rose, an Associated Press sports writer and editor for 46 years and one of the country's best known boxing writers during his career, died Monday. He was 84.

FOOTBALL: Veteran quarterback Steve DeBerg, 45, retired from the NFL again and has been named the Atlanta Falcons' quarterbacks coach, the team said.

HORSE RACING: Mr. Prospector, who went from an undistinguished racing career to prominence as the nation's top thoroughbred stallion, died Tuesday. He was 29.

MOTOR SPORTS: The family of a man killed by flying debris during a May 1 open-wheel auto race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina has filed suit against the Charlotte-area speedway and the Indy Racing League. Dexter Barry Mobley, 41, of Statesville, N.C., was one of three spectators at the IRL's Visionaire 500 who died after a fiery wreck launched a wheel and other debris over safety fences and into the grandstand.

HOCKEY: More than 1,000 fans turned violent outside Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo after being told they could not purchase Stanley Cup Finals tickets. The limited number of tickets available to the general public sold out in eight minutes.

Two men picked up a metal barricade and rammed it into a locked glass door as arena employees and security officers waited nervously for police to arrive.

A burst of rain dispersed much of the crowd after a few tense moments, but others parked themselves on lawn chairs outside the arena, where they insisted they would stay.