BOA Refuses to Budge on Lifetime Ban for Drugs Cheats

(ATR) The British Olympic Association tells Around the Rings it will not drop its lifetime ban for drug cheats.

The announcement comes shortly after the Danish Olympic Committee decided to scrap a similar rule.

"There is no change in our position," Darryl Seibel, the BOA's director of communications, told ATR Monday.

"The BOA eligibility by-law reflects the will of British Olympic athletes, who have taken a strong position and made their voices heard in the fight against doping in sport."

Pressure on the BOA to drop its rule has mounted since the Danish NOC last week decided to abandon a regulation that barred any athlete who had served a doping ban of more than six months from competing at the next Olympics.

Denmark's rule had been in place since 2004 but was repealed in the wake of the Court of Arbitration for Sport invalidating the IOC's controversial "Osaka Rule" on Oct. 6. The IOC's doping eligibility rule, introduced ahead of the Beijing 2008 Games, barred any athlete given a doping ban longer than six months from competing at the next Games.

The CAS ruling cleared the way for U.S. 400m star LaShawn Merritt to defend his Olympic title at next year's Games and opened the door for dozens of other former doping cheats to compete at London 2012.

It also put pressure on the BOA to scrap its lifetime Olympic ban on athletes convicted of doping such as sprinter Dwain Chambers.

BOA chairman Colin Moynihantold ATR on the sidelines of the Pan American Games in Guadalajara last month in no uncertain terms whyhis NOC had no plans to back down on its stance.

He said the 19-year-old BOA eligibility bye-law was "totally different" to the USOC/CAS LaShawn Merritt case.

"Ours is a selection rule. Over 90 percent of our athletes at every Games have voted to support that selection rule," he said.

Moynihan added: "As a minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, I introduced 22 years ago, negotiated and then signed the first European anti-doping convention in sport. That built on my experiences as a member of the British rowing eight in the Moscow and Los Angeles Games.

"Then, as now, I believe there must be a fair system with a full appeal mechanism for those who have made a mistake, like the British skier, Alain Baxter. Twenty-nine out of 32 appeals [against the eligibility bylaw] we have received at the BOA have been successful.

"But there should be no route back into the Olympic competition for the serious drug cheats. I believe

that this year the tide is turning. First, over 90 percent of British athletes continue to agree with our selection policy. Second, last month the IOC Athletes Commission agreed to a lifetime ban for athletes convicted of a deliberate and aggravated doping offense.

"Third, the International Olympic Committee in London at its ninth Coordination Commission meeting endorsed the BOA's eligibility rule.

"Some say a four-year ban, or even a two-year ban, is too tough. "What about redemption?" they say. My reply is clear. What about the clean athlete, who has been deliberately cheated out of selection by the knowing drug cheat?"

Reported by Karen Rosen and Mark Bisson.

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