By Andrew Warshaw

David Millar_World_Championships_Copenhagen_September_21_2011December 18 - Banned drug cheats will be "fully embraced" in the team for London 2012 if the British Olympic Association (BOA) loses its legal case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), chairman Colin Moynihan pledged today.


The BOA are challenging the ruling by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that their lifetime ban from all future Olympics is "non-compliant" with their code.

Moynihan insists the BOA bylaw, introduced in 1992 in order to prevent athletes who have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs from representing Team GB at any Games, has the overwhelming support of British athletes.

But he conceded the likes of sprinter Dwain Chambers, the world indoor 60 metres champion, and cyclist David Millar (pictured), the two-time world time trial silver medallist, would be welcomed back into the fold if the CAS decision goes against the BOA.

"I don't believe it would be the right decision [but] if [the bylaw] is overturned by the lawyers, you can rest assured they will be fully embraced into the team, they will have the same treatment as anybody else and we will wish them luck," Moynihan told BBC Radio's Sportsweek programme.

"[But] we are going to CAS to try to win this case; we believe we need to do so on behalf of clean athletes and reflect the 90-95 per cent of athletes who consistently ask for this selection policy."

"We have full autonomy under the Olympic Charter to decide who we are going to select and we believe that is a very strong position in front of CAS.

"This is not a double sanction or double jeopardy, this is a selection policy."

Colin Moynihan_head_and_shoulders_October_6_2011Moynihan (pictured) totally rejected the suggestion that WADA's two-year ban on drugs cheats, effectively giving them a second chance, was fairer and more compassionate than the BOA's unilateral stance.

"Those who have knowingly cheated clean athletes out of selection did so knowingly knew the consequences of it," he said.

"It doesn't leave me angry, it leaves me very sad about those guys.

They made the decision to cheat their fellow athletes, they knew the price they were going to pay.

"Ultimately when you talk about redemption you've got to talk about the redemption of those clean athletes who were denied selection as a result of an athlete who was taking a cocktail of drugs to enhance their performance, and deny the athlete who has trained week in week out, year in year out, the chance of getting selected for the pinnacle of their sporting career, namely the Olympic Games."

Moynihan said the WADA code, despite being accepted by the majority of national Olympic federations, was flawed.

"My worry at the moment is that the so-called World Anti-Doping Agency has a policy which is obviously different to us, that you only lose two years, however serious the offence is," he said.

"So if you time it right after an Olympic Games, you would never miss an Olympic Games.

"Where's the redemption for clean athletes?

"We've got to be tough about this and make sure we do not have competition between chemists' laboratories.

"We've got make to sure there is a fair appeals mechanism for those who have made a mistake.

"But those who knowingly have gone about secretly taking a whole bunch of drugs to cheat a clean athlete out of selection should have no place in the Olympic Movement."

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