By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

September 14 - Arne Ljungqvist, who has been at the centre of most of sport's major doping scandals for more than 20 years, is to publish a potentially explosive book that will lift the lid on some of the Olympics biggest secrets.



Titled "Doping's Nemesis", the book will outline Ljungqvist's career as an international high jumper before he became the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Medical Commission, a position he has held since 2003.

The 79-year-old professor, who represented Sweden in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, has been at the forefront of the fight against doping in sport. 

The hugely respected Ljungqvist was chairman of the Medical/Anti-Doping committee of the International Association of Athletics Federation for 24 years from 1980 - a period when athletes taking drugs was probably at its worst. 

It was Ljungqvist who sat face to face with Ben Johnson before the Canadian sprinter and world 100 metres record holder took the dope test at the Seoul Olympics that led to him being stripped of his gold medal.

Other high profile athletes whose cases he has been involved in have been Marion Jones, winner of five medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, only to subsequently lose them several years later when she admitted that she had been taking banned performance-enhancing drugs at the time.

He also fought against the systematic doping that was turned East Germany into one of the most powerful sporting machines the world has ever seen.

Ljungqvist, an IOC member since 1994, also recently warned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that his country had to tackle its doping problem more seriously if it was not to ruin the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The English language rights to the book have been acquired by SportsBooks, the Cheltenham-based independent publisher founded by former Olympic journalist Randall Northam.

It is due to be published in April 2011.

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