Tuesday, May 01, 2012
BOA confident Britain will have a clean team in London
By Alan Baldwin
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain can expect to be represented by a 'clean team' at the London Olympics despite a ruling on Monday that allows previous doping offenders back into the ranks, according to British Olympic chief Colin Moynihan.
"I am as confident as I can be that we will have 550 athletes who have fully understood the consequences of taking performance-enhancing drugs and that have not done so," the British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman told reporters.
"I absolutely hope that all the work that has been done with them... will ensure that we have a clean team which we have been successful in doing on many occasions in the past."
Moynihan was speaking after a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision overturned the BOA's lifetime Olympic bans and opened the door for British sprinter Dwain Chambers and cyclist David Millar to compete despite previous doping convictions.
The BOA chairman hoped the Games would be free of positive tests but recognised that might not be a true reflection of the reality.
"On the whole, it's only the dopey dopers that are caught during the Games," Moynihan asserted.
"You have to be really staggeringly stupid to take performance enhancing drugs, go to a Games and know that you are likely to be tested and think that somehow you are not going to be caught.
"Most of the real challenges when it comes to doping in sport come long before the Games, during winter training periods outside the arenas where there are testing processes known to be available."
Researchers have warned that up to 100 new drugs could be available in the run-up to London with some possibly undetectable by current tests.
One in two competitors, including all medallists, will be tested at the Games which start on July 27 with an estimated 400 daily tests - more than at any previous Olympics.
(Editing by Alison Wildey)
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