Some of you may have heard of a drug scandal that arisen in the last few weeks in Australia.
It started when empty vials and used syringes were found in the room of a cyclist at the Australian Institute of Sport. The cyclist was Mark French, former junior world champion and a rider who was widely regarded as having a very bright future.
He has admitted to injecting vitamins and a product called “Testicomp” a homeopathic product containing traces of a glucosteriod.
Disturbingly, however, empty vials of equine growth hormone (aka horse steriods) were also found. French denied any knowledge of use of the horse steriods. He said that 5 others also used his room for injecting vitamins etc.
The names of the other 5 have now been published. See the Sydney Morning Herald article for the names (and there are some big ones):
Whilst French has been found guilty of possession and trafficking by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and suspended from competition for 2 years and banned by the Aust Olympic Commission for life, it must be stressed that the allegations against the other 5 have not even been investigated yet.
Still it will be interesting to watch how the authorities and the Australian public react to this matter.
I have been following on the news each evening. If it is true, ban him. Last I heard he was negotiating a deal to escape the life ban in exchange for names.
It needs to be clearly dealt with as we in Australia are very quick to point at others on these issues and we need to be seen to be just as harsh on our own athletes.
What shits me is all the politicians jumping up and down to get their name in the news.
Just another shameful episode to damage the reputation of cyclists and cycling.
The Mark French aspect of the case is just the tip of the iceberg.
The big issue is whether the other five riders (now named in the press) will be found to have been involved and what that will mean for cycling and the Australian Institute of Sport.
the AIS will get a shake-up of procedures, testing etc. If people are of this mindset to cheat, you won’t stop them, just have the checking in place to weed them out.
i don’t think it is a total negative on the system. It least it shows that they are being detected. You would be a little more suspicious of an institution that never had any abnormalities.
it’s sad. although this guy received a ban for life from the australian olympic comitee, he only has a 2year suspension from competition. WTF? does that mean that if he would change his citizenship that he would be allowed to competete in Olympic competition after the 2 year suspension? After all its AOC that put the lifetime suspension on him, not the IOC.
It’s against my philosophy and ethics to do such a thing, but as long as the suspensions are that mild, cycling (and other sports) will remain a dirty. think about it. do drugs, train like an animal and then in the worst case you get suspended for two years. I doubt that one will lose all the performance enhancing benefits. And alot of the fans are fü<{n stupid enough to forgive those athletes…don’t understand it. Federations around the world should follow Australians example and not only introduce lifetime bans, but use those penalties.