Dwain Chambers Ban from Olympics Upheld in London

Dwain Chambers today lost his bid in the High Court to over-rule the British Olympic Association’s life ban on convicted drug cheats at the Olympics.

Speaking on the courtroom steps moments after the court delivered its ruling, BOA chairman Colin Moynihan said the decision "sends a powerful and important message".

In his ruling, Judge Mackay said Chambers’ right to work was not a good enough reason to overturn the ban.

"In my judgment it would take a much better case than the claimant has presented to persuade me to overturn the status quo at this stage and compel his selection for the Games."

Chambers is the former world junior 100 meters champion who was stripped of his 2002 European sprint title over a positive test five years ago for the designer steroid THG. The drug is linked to the California-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, which has been implicated in a number of convictions for drug use by Olympic athletes.

Chambers subsequently admitted to taking a cocktail of seven banned substances, including growth hormone and EPO.

As Chambers walked down the steps from the High Court in central London, he may have been walking away from track for a final time.

After serving the mandatory two-year doping ban, and despite a European sprint relay gold medal in 2006 and 60m silver at this year’s World Indoors, Chambers, 30, has been unable to re-establish himself as a professional athlete, with failed attempts to play football and rugby.

In his summing up, Jonathan Crystal QC, Chambers’s attorney, had said of his client, "If he doesn't go to Beijing, he'll walk into the sunset."

Chambers won the UK Olympic trials 100m last weekend, placing him 13th on the 2008 world rankings. It seems probable now that Tyrone Edgar, winner of the European Cup 100m but only fourth in the British trials, take the place of Chambers in the British 100m Olympic line-up.

Because the hearing only sought a temporary injunction, rather than a full legal challenge to the BOA by-law, it may not carry much legal weight in terms of other national Olympic committees applying their own rulings on drugs cheats.

Britain, Norway, Romania and, recently, China, are the only four NOCs which have this additional penalty to WADA’s global anti-doping rules.

It seems unlikely that Chambers will now seek a full hearing into the legalities of the by-law, although if he wanted to appeal against today’s ruling, his legal team needed to lodge papers with the Court of Appeal before 2pm London time.

The BOA made no motion to recover its costs from fighting the appeal.

"This was a matter of principle for the BOA, and not a personal matter against Dwain Chambers," Moynihan said, "and we understood that he is not a man of means and that he would have to work for many years to meet our costs.

"The ruling has shown that our by-law is reasonable. We represent the athletes and the athletes want a zero tolerance policy on drugs. WADA’s principle of a two-year ban is not a universal principle - the IOC is introducing a rule under which Dwain Chambers would be banned from Beijing.

"He hasn’t served his time as far as the BOA is concerned."

Moynihan did not comment on the fact that, of the last 29 appeals to the BOA for exemptions from the Olympics ban, 26 have been granted, including those of former world triathlon champion Tim Don, Christine Ohuruogu, the 400m sprint world champion, and skier Alain Baxter.

There was little support for Chambers after the ruling. Richard Pound, the founding president of WADA and a barrister by profession, has questioned the legality of the BOA’s by-law, as it represents a second punishment for one offense. Edwin Moses, double gold medalist from the U.S., called the BOA lifetime ban as "almost like a death sentence".

John Regis, an ex-world champion who went on to become Chambers’ agent, had little sympathy for his former client. "It’s unfortunate but it is the right ruling. You have to protect the integrity of the sport."

With reporting from Steven Downes in London.