Threat to axe Olympic road race
DateJanuary 20, 2013
Samantha Lane
INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee member and former world anti-doping chief Dick Pound says the men's road race could be suspended from the Olympics if the scene is revealed to be rotten to the core.
The former IOC vice-president argues that if men's road cycling was as toxic as history suggests, then other Olympic sports are at risk of becoming infected.
Clarifying earlier comments that sparked outrage among riders in other disciplines, Pound said he did not believe all cyclists should suffer due to the lifetime ban of Lance Armstrong and the many expected to crash with him. But if it is proved that a doping culture in the men's road ranks was the norm, and that cycling's world governing body somehow shut its eyes to the problem, he said that should bring serious consequences.
''If it turns out that a majority of the riders, and a majority of the teams, are doping and if there is any collusion on the part of the UCI [Union Cycliste Internationale], then there's a problem that is serious enough,'' Pound told CNN.
''If you're a president of the International Olympic Committee you say, 'Hold it, we have a real problem that could spread to the entire Games and all of the sports in it. Cycling, you have become an embarrassment'.
''And in the range of ways of dealing with that … is that you say to the sport, 'Why don't you take a rest until you get cleaned up?'
''If you found that the problem was limited to the men's road race, then you could suspend that discipline until it got sorted out.
''It was not a call to expel cycling, that's a fairly drastic remedy, but it's one that I think you have to put in the menu of possible responses.''
When Pound first raised the matter of suspending cycling from the Olympics last week, an IOC spokesman diplomatically termed the observation ''premature''.
Meanwhile, UCI president Pat McQuaid wasted no time declaring that Armstrong's selective confessional to Oprah Winfrey proved there was ''no collusion or conspiracy'' between the ex-rider and cycling's international federation.
Armstrong has made it clear - although he has not explained why - he is ''not a fan'' of the UCI. But he has insisted he made financial donations to the organisation purely because he was asked to, not as a means of covering up positive drug tests.
''It was disturbing to watch him describe a litany of offences including producing a backdated medical prescription to justify a test result,'' McQuaid said. ''However, Lance Armstrong also rightly said that cycling is a completely different sport today than it was 10 years ago.''
McQuaid said the UCI would ''welcome'' Armstrong's participation in a truth and reconciliation process that would, theoretically, provide amnesty for former dopers who were willing to come forward.
But World Anti-Doping Agency boss David Howman indicated on Saturday that a truth and reconciliation process is not on WADA's agenda.
''That's not going to happen in a hurry,'' he said. '' Under the code that we operate under, which relates to every sport in every country in the world, there's no such thing.
''I think one of the opportunities Mr Armstrong had was to front up when he was asked to by USADA [US Anti-Doping Agency] last year. He didn't.
''He had another opportunity to appeal what USADA determined. He didn't. And now he's scrambling.''
Read more:
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cycling/threat-to-axe-olympic-road-race-20130119-2d07b.html#ixzz2IVcLHilM