London 2012 Olympics: BOA's Lord Moynihan wants tougher sanctions in fight against drug cheats

Speaking at a forum of international sports federations in Lausanne on Tuesday, Moynihan defended the BOA’s right to set its own selection criteria, insisting that the ban “sends out a very strong and positive message that doping in sport is wrong and in contravention of the values of the Olympic Movement”.

He also called for tougher punishments for drug cheats than the current two-year suspension laid down in the World Anti-Doping Agency code, and called for an independent review of WADA’s performance in the fight against doping in sport, including its sanctions policy and testing procedures.

“The system put in place by WADA has failed to catch the major drug cheats of our time,” he said. “The likes of Marion Jones, many cyclists and the BALCO operation are only a few of those who have been tracked down and prosecuted, not by WADA but by the law enforcement officers. So now is a time for change. Now is a time for informed review.”

Moynihan’s hard-hitting comments signal his determination to stick with the BOA’s eligibility by-law, which excludes athletes guilty of serious doping violations from competing at the Olympic Games in a British vest.

The BOA has come under increasing pressure to scrap the by-law following the success of American athlete LaShawn Merritt in overturning the International Olympic Committee’s ‘Rule 45’, which sought to ban athletes who have served drug bans of six months or more from taking part in the next Olympic Games after their offence.

Merritt, the Olympic 400metres champion who served a 21-month ban after testing positive for a banned drug, won a judgment against the IOC at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled that ‘Rule 45’ amounted to double jeopardy and was “invalid and unenforceable”.

The ruling means the BOA’s by-law could be open to a legal challenge from sprinter Dwain Chambers or cyclist David Millar, both of whom served two-year drug bans and are therefore excluded from next summer’s London Olympics.

Last week, the Danish Olympic federation announced that, in the wake of the Merritt ruling, it was dropping its own ban on drug cheats competing at the next Olympic Games.

The eligibility issue will be top of the agenda at Wednesday's ’s BOA executive board meeting, the first to be held since the Merritt court case, though the tone of Moynihan’s speech suggest he is in no mood to follow the Danish example by backing down.

His criticism of WADA also represents a firm riposte to the agency after it wrote to the BOA following the Merritt judgment urging it to test the legality of its by-law.

The BOA says the by-law has the support of more than 90 per cent of British athletes, though it has been criticised by Chambers’s lawyer, Siza Agha, for leaving no room for redemption for reformed athletes.

Moynihan said: “We need to ask where in this case is the redemption for the clean athlete denied selection by a competitor who has knowingly cheated?”