British sprinter Dwain Chambers, awaiting a court ruling to decide whether he can compete at the London Olympics, received little support on Sunday from the Games’ chief Sebastian Coe.
Chambers won bronze in the world indoor 60m on Saturday, but finds himself in the ironic position of being unable to represent his country at the Olympics because of his doping-blighted past.
The former European 100m champion, who was banned for two years after testing positive for the anabolic steroid THG in 2004, is currently barred from appearing at the Olympics due to a British Olympic Association (BOA) ruling.
The BOA will argue before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday that their bylaw, which bans convicted drugs cheats from competing in the Olympic Games, does not violate the World Anti-Doping Agency code.
But if CAS find the BOA’s bylaw to be non-compliant with the world anti-doping code, Chambers will be cleared to be selected for Team GB.
Coe, an outspoken advocate for longer bans on drugs cheats, described the 60m final as resembling a “rehabilitation of offenders”.
American Justin Gatlin, the 2004 Athens Olympic 100m gold medallist who has served a four-year doping ban, won gold, meaning two of the three podium finishers had blighted pasts.
“It did look a bit like it was the rehabilitation of offenders,” said Coe, a two-time 1500m Olympic gold medallist.
“We have a two-year ban for a first offence and you’re back in two years, but I don’t think that it should stop us moving back to four years.”
Turning his thoughts to CAS, Coe said: “This is not anti-Dwain Chambers or (American hurdler LaShawn) Merritt or pro-them. I do believe this is actually about the autonomy of a sporting organisation to make judgments and bylaws that they think are in the best interest of that sport.
“I have a problem if individual sports, individual organisations, are not able to set those parameters because I think it is really important. They are responding to what they think is the right route for them.”
“There is a forfeiture of trust,” Coe said of drugs cheats.
“I do think a NOC (National Olympic Committee), ie the BOA, must have the right to agree that sanction if they think it is in the common interest of the sport.”
That was not changed, he added, by the paradoxical fact that Gatlin will be able to run at the Olympics given the US Track and Field’s parameters that say that once a ban is served the athlete becomes automatically available for any competition.
“I have never really felt that you should benchmark your morality against other people. That is not a criticism of the American system. You do what you think is right, you don’t do it because you are trying to benchmark against other systems,” he said.
