Daley Thompson backs BOA in drugs ban fight
16/12/2011
Former Olympic champion Daley Thompson has backed the British Olympic Association ((BOA) in its battle to ensure athletes who have served drugs bans can never compete in the Games for Britain.
With the chance to enjoy corporate hospitality at the London 2012 games just months away the BOA is defending its position in the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a ruling by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) that this lifetime ban breached its code.
Thompson told BBC Sport: "If we are the only country in the world prepared to have those high standards, then so be it."
He argued the strength of the stance taken against drugs in sport is currently not strong enough.
The BOA is now unique in being the only national association to impose such lifetime Olympic bans, but chairman Lord Colin Moynihan argued last week as he announced the court action that such a policy upholds "the values of fair play, integrity and clean competition."
By Keith Prowse
