Chairman of BOA states drug cheats law may be overturned by CAS – London Olympics 2012
The chairman of the British Olympic Association, Lord Moynihan, has said that the ban imposed by the BOA against drug cheats may be deemed as illegal by the Court of Arbitration of Sports.
The BOA currently imposes a lifetime ban on athletes that have been found to intake illegal drugs.
The lifetime ban of the BOA is currently being challenged by the World-Anti-Doping Agency which states that the BOA law is in direct contradiction with its own law and therefore should be over turned. The BOA had put the Olympic sprinter Dwain Chambers under
a ban of two years after he was found to have an illegal drug in his blood stream.
This two-year suspension in effect puts Chambers under a lifetime ban from taking part in the Olympic Games. It is not only Chambers that has been affected by the law of the BOA, David Millar the cyclist also has been put under a lifetime ban. In case the
CAS takes the decision in favour of WADA, both Chambers as well as Millar will be able to take part in the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games.
Moynihan said, “I’ll be disappointed if we didn’t win because we fought hard to represent the interests of the athletes. The findings may well dwell on fine points of law rather than the very strong moral arguments that are on the side of the athletes.”
On the other hand, the legal director of the BOA, Sarah Sutcliffe, made the following statements on the matter, “When you look at selection policy it takes into account several other aspects and this bylaw is part of a much wider selection policy. We simply
need to show that having a bylaw in place that protects the reputation and integrity of the team is not a sanction.”
WADA asks for a uniform set of laws and penalties for all the athletes taking part in the Olympic Games despite the fact that they belong to different countries. However, BOA’s law on drug cheat differs from all the rest.
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