DB7

I'm in two minds on this, I can see why 'clean' athletes wouldn't want him as part of the team and that his taking the place of another athlete would grate. But shouldn't wrongdoers have the chance of redemption?

dremble wedge

I'd be more convinced by the hand-wringing on the part of the Athletics authorites if they hadn't swiftly reversed their ban on Christine Ohorugu when it became clear she might actually win something.

She broke the rules and was given a lifetime Olympics ban which was rescinded as soon as she won gold in the World Championships. If Chambers was in any danger of actually winning a medal I suspect the Athletics establishment would have another 'rethink'...

CaptainWaggett

Most athletes seem to be keeping pretty quiet about it - you'd expect the 'clean' ones to be calling for life bans but nobody seems to care that much, even the other sprinters. Which does raise certain suspicions...

Hasn't Chambers spent the last few years in a sport (American football) which doesn't do drugs testing? Which has also raised certain suspicions. Are cheats allowed to return after 4 years in other sports?

batman

Football has handed 2yr bans out on some players for drugs offences.

I wish I had claws.

SirOllyBolly

A No from me.

Who knows what long term benefits his drug taking may have enhanced his ongoing performance - will that end after the ban is over?

But more importantly than that - his character says its alright to cheat to win. Not the Olympian ethos.

SirOllyBolly

"What fresh lunacy is this?"

CaptainWaggett

Chambers loses appeal

penfold

There's a big difference; the byelaw in question (Drugs-banned athletes automatically excluded for all future Olympics) was put in place 16 years ago, when a drugs ban meant you had been caught cheating, and tested positive. Ohorugu served a short ban for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and missing random unannounced turn-up tests....but the 16-year old Byelaw hadn't been updated to take this into account, didn't differentiate (then) between the two very different degrees of 'crime', hence the revision of her Olympic ban...rightly so, in my view. Ferdinand's 'crime' was arguably worse...he had to fulfil an appointment and didn't turn up. He's still playing...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Chevyman

I believe that Dwain Chambers was fully aware of the lifetime ban when he took the drugs.

I also believe that many potential young athletes may receive a clear message, if the ban isn't applied, that they might get away with it too and be allowed back after a lapse of time.

Even after todays' decision he still has the right of appeal.

A number of well respected athletes voiced their opinions against Mr Chambers; most notably Sir Steve Redgrave, our greatest olympian ever, and Dame Kelly Holmes.
Steve Redgrave and Kelly Holmes sign up to stop Dwain Chambers joining Olympic squad - Olympics News - Telegraph

I believe that as far as an athlete taking illegal drugs is concerned a life ban should be for life

If I wasn't meant to drive that fast, the pedal would stop half way!!

Lord Brett

Chambers appears to be clocking roughly the same times now he's supposedly clean that he was when he was caught taking drugs. Call me cynical, but that's kinds suspicious.

batman

Perhaps the drugs he was taking were crap ... or unnecessary.

I wish I had claws.

Chevyman

These were the "little helpers" he was alleged to have taken:-
FDA Statement on THG

Same or similar to those used by Marion Jones which resulted in her being stripped of her Olympic medals. It was also recommended that her relay teammates be stripped of theirs.

If I wasn't meant to drive that fast, the pedal would stop half way!!

CaptainWaggett

Remember Ben Johnson - the 3 people who cam second, third and fourth in that 100 metres final have all subsequently failed drugs tests.

TheParaders

Yeah strange one that, Rio gets 8 months for missing a test and Mutu gets 7 months for testing positive. Go figure.

scholes

Chambers drug taking was a premeditated crime and hardly the accidental taking of a cough medicine containing banned substances.
Not only does it impact on him but also on others.
When he was stripped of his 4x100m Relay medal in the 2003 World Championships, the irony was that so were his team-mates. So need we wonder why there's been so many letters of support from top athletes for the courts to uphold the BOA byelaw.
The policing of banned substances (traceable since the mid-eighties) has prevented East German female athletes from sweeping all before them- Heike Dreschler and Grit Breuer being the exceptions.
Since then it has ben claimed that the late Flo Jo took banned substances. Her WR time of 10.49secs for the 100m still stands. This when during most of her career she rarely ducked beneath 11 seconds.

scholes

If it's the 1988 100m final you're talking about, yes, I do seem to recall Carl Lewis
was accused of using drugs, but I didn't realise he failed a test.