Bubka Questions Lifetime Bans

[rainbowgirl28]

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/050214/4/9384.html

Bubka To Question Olympic Lifetime Ban
Mon 14 Feb, 5:09 PM


International Olympic Committee member Sergey Bubka plans to question the British rule which prevents drug offenders from ever again representing their country at Olympic Games.

The Ukrainian, whose pole vault world record of 6.15 metres has stood for 12 years, admits there is merit in the stance taken by the British Olympic Association, but fears Britain and Romania are out of step with the rest of the 200-plus IOC member countries who do not enforce such a ban.

Bubka said: "In some way you are trying to stop this big threat of doping in sport - you try to stop this disaster continue to spread all over."

Bubka, who is a member of council of the International Association of Athletics Federations, said: "I think this matter deserves to be studied in more detail.

"Of course, under current doping rule regulations today, after the first doping offence you have the opportunity to be back (in competition).

"This (a lifetime Olympic ban) is really tough action."

After hearing of the plight of UK pole-vault record holder Janine Whitlock, who is just returning from a two-year drug ban, Bubka pledged to raise the matter at IOC level.

Whitlock has constantly maintained her innocence after she tested positive for an anabolic steroid at the Commonwealth Games trials in 2002.

"For that reason I have some sympathy, but this is the decision of your country, to be so strict, to be so tough," said Bubka. "For some reasons I think you have good arguments for that."

The British Olympic Association has adopted a hardline policy whereby the accused have to prove there were mitigating circumstances and handed a lifetime ban from competing for Britain at the Olympics.

Dwain Chambers, Carl Myerscough and Whitlock are three leading UK athletes who fall into this category and none have realistic hopes of competing in Beijing in three years' time.

Myerscough and Whitlock have already had their appeals rejected, whilst European 100m champion Chambers is unlikely ever to be reinstated under current BOA policy following the scandal surrounding his THG case.

The penalties for Whitlock, who yesterday won her 12th national title at the Norwich Union European Trials and AAA Championships in Sheffield, have been catastrophic.

Whitlock, who qualified to compete at the European Championships in Madrid next month, no longer receives any financial help or medical support from UK Athletics because of the lifetime ban imposed by the BOA.

UKA have sympathy for Whitlock's plight and want her back in the fold after she served a mandatory two-year ban, a punishment endorsed as sufficient by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

UKA supported Whitlock's application for Olympic reinstatement for the offence, but the BOA rejected her appeal and stood firm on its ruling.

Whitlock also faces the likelihood of missing next year's Commonwealth Games as the English Commonwealth Games Council also operates a similar policy.

[VaultNinja]

Don't do drugs, and you don't have to worry about it you damn cheaters.

[mikepv1]

Don't do drugs, and you don't have to worry about it you damn cheaters.

F*ckin' A!
My sentiments exactly.

[vaulter870]

vaultninja's got a point dont do the drugs and dont worry about it

[souleman]

But in her defense, ......ah let me seee...,......oh yeah here's the ticket......ah yeah......those anabolic steroids got in her body from the......uh let's ah seee now.......yeah!.....from the tuna salad sandwiches that she was eating......ya see?....They feed the tuna the steroids to make them....ah......bigger, yeah that's it..... tuna on steroids....yeah that's the ticket.....tuna on steroids......and she ate the tuna and that's how the steroids got in her body. So I guess looking at it that way....she had no idea that steroids were getting into her body. So she's innocent....right? Later................Mike