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British say Gold's Law should still set the standard

2012-03-09 10:46 AIPS


 Lord Moynihan, Chairman BOA. Photo/Philip Barker

LONDON, March 9, 2012 - Britain’s Olympic chiefs believe international backing for their zero tolerance regulation on doping will help them win their fight to preserve their ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
 
“The IOC Athletes Commission has voted to support the British position, that is a highly influential global commission, the European Athletes Commission met, they support the British position, so if anything, the tide has turned in our favour in recent months,” said British Olympic Association Chairman Lord Moynihan.

“Anybody who has knowingly taken drugs to enhance performance and to cheat fellow athletes out of selection will never be selected by the BOA. That's the position the athletes want and it is the position that we have supported," Moynihan said, claiming that over 90 per cent of British team members support the stance.

Back in 1981, Seb Coe had laid the ground with a speech to the IOC in Baden-Baden as the spokesman for the first Athletes’ Commission.

“We call for a life ban on the offending athletes, we call for a life ban on the coaches and so-called doctors who administer this evil,” he told members.

The British by-law was introduced in March 1992 by then BOA Chairman Sir Arthur Gold, a long time advocate of drug free sport in the years he led the European Athletic Association.

“He was a strong voice in favour of clean sport, clean athletics and a great leader of the BOA, and to work with him on this and to see it put in place nearly twenty years ago and now to find myself defending it is a position I know that he’d have supported."

The wording, modified in 2004 now notes that:

“The BOA does not regard it as appropriate to select athletes or other individuals for accreditation to Team GB who have at any point committed a serious doping offence.”

In 2008, sprinter Dwain Chambers challenged the BOA by-law in an attempt to gain selection for the British team in Beijing. The action at the High Court in London went in favour of the BOA.

Cyclist David Millar is another high profile competitor excluded from the team under current regulations.

“I think you have got to reflect that there are many clean athletes out there in the country who train hard week in week out, month by month, throughout their lives to achieve the pinnacle which is selection by Team GB,” said Moynihan.

“If they are cheated out of selection by those who have knowingly taken drugs to enhance their performance, they never get any redemption, they never get a second chance, they're never heard of again.”

The British Olympic Association is the only National Olympic Committee to enforce a life ban for doping offenders.

“I’m hopeful that when we come to the revision of the WADA code, the position that we have taken will be very closely looked at and I hope, adopted” said Moynihan. (By Philip Barker, AIPS Europe EC Member)

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