The most high profile case is that of Dwain Chambers who tested positive for the banned substance THG back in October 2003. He served a two year ban from athletics, a time he spent attempting a career in American football for the Hamburg Sea Devils and rugby league for the Castleford Tigers; both extremely unsuccessfully. He’s since re-established himself as Britain’s finest sprinter with a personal best of 9.97s. Although he’s been able to compete at the World and European Championships as well as the Diamond League and Indoor Circuits; he’s faced Olympic exile since the Sydney 2000 Olympics where he recorded a season’s best 10.08, though it was only worthy of fourth place.
Unfortunately for him, his name will be brought up every time this topic is discussed. Despite many other drug cheats being in the same boat as Chambers, his case is the one that will be debated given its well-documented nature. Other athletes that are now eligible for selection to represent Team GB include; David Millar (cycling), Carl Myerscough (shot put), Peter Meakin (canoeing), Jade Mellor (boxing), Callum Priestley (hurdling), Dan Staite (cycling) and Jamie Stevenson (shot put).
It’s an area of the sport that is frequently being argued and there’s a huge difference of opinion that’s split straight down the middle. There are those that are of the opinion that he should be given another chance and others that are completely against him pulling on the Great Britain vest.
Among those that believe Chambers should be involved in the Olympic team is former Olympic bottler Colin Jackson who said,
“Dwain is in the top tier of sprinters in our country,”
“There is no doubt that he will be at the Olympics.”
Jackson added, “Fans are used to him being in the team so already he has been accepted and it has no relevance to the other athletes.”
One could assume that the environment of Team GB would be compromised if Chambers were to be included, though this is not the opinion of British sprinter Tyrone Edgar who tweeted,
“Good news we can now have D. Chambers in our 4x100m for Olympic Games,”
“We need all our big guns running if we gonna win a medal in London.”
From a purely competitive outlook, Dwain Chambers would undoubtedly feature in the sprint team, but surely the Olympic Games are bigger than that? For so many reasons, he shouldn’t be pulling on the Olympic vest. This is the opinion of James Cracknell who gave a riveting interview to Richard Bacon on BBC Radio 5live. The double-Olympic gold medallist said,
“I have no respect for him on any level.”
“Especially as he was cheating and he still didn't win. He made the decision to cheat, therefore there is not going to be a level of respect from someone who hasn't.”
Cracknell, who won his rowing medals at Sydney and Athens in 2000 and 2004 added, "From a personal point of view, when Dwain Chambers tested positive he, as most cheats do, said 'I didn't take anything, it was my supplements.”
“It turns out Dwain was busy injecting himself with all sorts of stuff. It wasn't his supplements. He affected the performances of other people. He lost his team-mates relay medals. He cheated his opposition.”
When it was put to him that everybody deserves a chance for redemption by Bacon, using the analogy that if someone is arrested for burgling a house, surely they shouldn’t be locked up forever; Cracknell’s reply was rather indisputable,
“If someone is about to rob a house, they know that if they get caught that they will face time in prison. Dwain Chambers knew if he took drugs and got caught, the rule stated that he’d never run at the Olympics again, but he did it anyway.”
Plenty of current and former athletes have echoed Cracknell’s views including Sir Chris Hoy, Lord Sebastian Coe, Dai Greene and Roger Black. The former had the following to say in the wake of the announcement,
“It's a sad day. It's hard to cheer someone on who's purposefully tried to cheat other athletes. I'm not going to boo him, I'm just going to be indifferent.”
He added: “I like Dwain. I think he's remorseful, but it's easy to be remorseful when you're caught out. He didn't have to do it in the first place, because most of us didn't.”
The one caught in the centre of the whole hullabaloo will now wait patiently and carry on training to see if he is to be selected for the sprint team. Earlier this year, he admitted that he’d been training to peak for the Olympics in London. He said,
“Ultimately, what I’ve always wanted to do is be able to perform in front of the home crowd. I haven’t been able to do that for a long time.
“I realise I’ve made mistakes but I just want to finish my career on a high. Every time I get the opportunity to compete for my country it is an honour and I threw that away. I never want to throw it away again.”
His manager Siza Agha said: “Dwain and I will take time to digest the decision. What we have seen by the BOA has been a crude and defiant display fuelled by misguided statements suggesting that we have standards and the rest of the world doesn’t.”
Agha has made an extremely valid point, the BOA have indeed excelled themselves in terms of trying their utmost to eradicate drug cheats from their sport. The reason that the by-law got overturned by CAS is that it wasn’t in compliance with WADA. The BOA had signed to comply with WADA and by attempting to implement the doping by-law of lifetime Olympic bans to athletes who proved positive to illegal performance enhancing substances; it was an extra sanction that was non-compliant to the World Anti-Doping Code.
CAS have almost urged the rest of the world to follow in the footsteps of the BOA in signing a new treaty that will impose lifetime Olympic bans for drug cheats across the board. The agreement as it stands is far too lenient in the eyes of many and the case of Dwain Chambers in particular is more than fair. He served a two year ban from athletics whilst still being able to earn money through playing sport and then he returned to the sport of athletics earning money and representing Great Britain in every event barring the Olympics. Hardly a deterrent is it?
The Olympics is seen as the pinnacle of an athlete’s career. It’s not comparable to anything else in their sport. It bears a resemblance to Wimbledon in the tennis world and the Masters for golfers; although it’s essentially just another major, there’s something a bit extra special about it. It should be a privilege to be a part of and a privilege that shouldn’t be handed to those who have blatantly cheated other athletes, their team-mates, the thousands of people who have paid obscene amounts of money to attend the event and the millions watching around the world. It could be argued that there’s a case for a total ban from athletics, though the powers that be would never agree to such a terminal indictment.
The British are regularly accused of being too nice and not taking a firm enough stance when it comes to punishment. Here, the BOA are front runners in trying to clean up the sport but have unfortunately shot themselves in the foot by being signed up to an agreement that sees their punishment rendered unenforceable. Hopefully, other nations around the world take the same stance; so that drug cheats are never given the Olympic stage.
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