OLYMPIC GAMES

Dwain Chambers and David Millar will be cleared to compete for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics on Monday after the British Olympic Association’s life ban for doping offenders was ruled to be illegal.

Telegraph Sport can reveal that the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) has ruled that the BOA’s life ban does not comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code and is therefore unenforceable. The judgment will be formally published at 3pm on Monday.

As a result the BOA is powerless to prevent sprinter Chambers, cyclist Millar and possibly shot putter Carl Myerscough, who has also been banned for a doping offence, from competing in London this summer if they are selected.

The BOA chief executive, Andy Hunt, has said Chambers and Millar will be given “100 per cent support” if they are selected despite his organisation’s opposition. CAS is understood to have ruled against the BOA on the grounds that its life ban was an additional sanction on top of the penalties that were handed down to Millar and Chambers.

Under the terms of the Wada code, doping penalties must be uniform around the world. As a national Olympic committee the BOA is a signatory to the code and therefore bound to comply.

Both Chambers and Millar received two-year bans for doping offences. Chambers was banned in 2003 after failing a drugs test, while Millar was excluded from cycling in 2004 after admitting using the blood-booster EPO following a French police investigation.

Both Chambers and Millar have competed regularly in international competition for Great Britain at World and European Championships.

Myerscough failed a drugs test in 1999, though he has denied taking banned substances.

The ruling also potentially clears the way for Rio Ferdinand to play in the Olympic football tournament were he selected as an over-age player by coach Stuart Pearce. Ferdinand was banned for nine months in 2003 for missing a drugs test, an offence that would previously have made him ineligible for Team GB. If he misses out on the Euro 2012 squad he could now feature in Pearce’s selection.

CAS was asked to rule on the issue after Wada declared that the BOA was “non-compliant” with the code, a major embarrassment to the United Kingdom as the Olympics loomed.

The BOA had argued in its submission to CAS that it should be free to select whoever it chooses for the team, claiming that its by-law was a matter of eligibility rather than a sanction.

CAS appears to have rejected that argument and ruled in line with the recent precedent of the American sprinter LaShawn Merritt, who successfully challenge the International Olympic Committee over its similar law last year.

Under its 'Rule 45’ the IOC banned athletes from at least one Olympic Games in addition to their doping ban. Rule 45 was ruled illegal by CAS last November, and the same panel, chaired by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, has now reached a similar decision on the BOA by-law.

The decision finally settles an issue that has hung over London’s preparations and stirred fierce debate among present and former athletes.

The BOA has repeatedly said it was acting out of principle, and has been able to claim the support of a majority of its present athletes, who said they supported the ban in the most recent survey of opinion.

Following the CAS hearing in March, BOA chairman Lord Moynihan said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome of the case, though privately the BOA accepted that it was unlikely to win.

“Our selection policy is there with overwhelming support from the athletes. That simply says that we will only accept clean athletes, we won’t select those who have knowingly cheated clean athletes out of a place on the team,” Moynihan said at the time.

He has received support from the chairman of the BOA Athletes Commission, Sarah Winckless, and leading Olympians including London 2012 chairman Lord Coe and Sir Steve Redgrave.

Others have taken a less hostile position, with Sydney triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards and Kriss Akabusi arguing that former cheats who have served their time deserve a second chance. He said: “Athletes should get a second chance [but] two years is simply not enough. The world needs to unite and introduce four-year bans.”

BOA spokesman Darryl Seibel refused to comment or confirm the contents of the CAS judgment, which it received on Sunday afternoon.

In a statement the BOA said: “The British Olympic Association can confirm that today, it has received from the Court of Arbitration for Sport the written decision in the arbitration between the BOA and the World Anti-Doping Association.

“As the decision is to be announced first by CAS, and out of respect for CAS and the Arbitration Panel, the BOA will be offering no comment today.”

By Paul Kelso, Chief Olympics Correspondent

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

April 28 - A total of 18 Olympians, including nine-time Olympic gold medallist Mark Spitz, are suing worldwide Olympic sponsor Samsung, claiming that the South Korean company's London 2012 Facebook app uses their names and images without permission.

The app works through your Facebook profile to build a "family tree" of Olympians you're connected to.

Samsung claims its database for its Olympic Genome project includes more than 10,000 past and present Olympians and Paralympians.

But the athletes who also include Greg Louganis, the four-time Olympic diving champion, and Janet Evans, another four-time Games champion, have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles claiming that Samsung is using their names and faces to create the impression they endorse Samsung products, including Galaxy tablets and phones.

Along with Spitz, who won a record seven gold medals at Munich in 1972 to add to the two he claimed at Mexico City in 1968, Evans and Louganis, 13 other swimmers are named, including Amanda Beard, Jessica Hardy, Dara Torres, Jason Lezak, Cullen Jones and Eric Shanteau, who allo hope to compete at London 2012.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the double Olympic heptathlon champion, and Phil Dalhausser, a Beijing 2008 beach vollyeball gold medallist, are also named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Samsung is profiting from the app and "denying plaintiffs compensation for the use of their names and images," according to the suit.

"They're using names and images to sell products, and they've admitted in interviews that they're trying to create a more positive image for Samsung," said Richard Foster, the athlete's attorney.

"California law says you can't use anybody's name or image to market a product unless you have their consent."

Foster claims that "these athletes survive on endorsements," and some have deals with Samsung's competitors.

Being associated with the Samsung app creates ongoing problems, he said, because "once you use a celebrity's name or image to sell a product, they're tied to that product category.

"It makes it difficult for them to get an endorsement deal with other companies in that product category."

The suit also accuses Samsung of violating Section 3344 of the California civil code, which makes it a crime to use someone's name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness for commercial purposes without the person's explicit permission.

The athletes claim Samsung did not get their permission.

Samsung claim they are "disappointed by the lawsuit" and that they worked closely with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) for more than year in developing the app.

"Athletes have had the opportunity to voice their opinions on the programme and to control their participation," the company said in a statement.

"Samsung will continue to support Team USA and the spirit of the Olympics in our efforts."

Foster claimed that the communication consisted of an e-mail sent to each athlete, informing them of the app and telling them to return an attached letter if they wished to opt out.

He claimed not all of his clients received the e-mail, while others may have deleted it without reading it.

At least "three or four" returned the opt-out letter but were still included, claimed Foster.

"Samsung essentially said, 'If we don't hear from you, you've entered into a contract,'" Foster said.

"Silence is not acceptance of a contract."

But spokesman Patrick Sandusky said the USOC and Samsung began the Olympic Genome Project so Americans could find connections with American athletes and not as a way to commercialise athletes' names.

"We have honoured the requests of the athletes who have filed suit to remove their names, as we offered to do months ago, and of course we will remove any athletes that do not wish to be listed,'' he said.

-Duncan Mackay

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

The British Olympic Association could be landed with legal costs of up to £200,000 if, as anticipated, it loses its attempt to bar Dwain Chambers and David Millar from competing in this summer’s Olympics.

The BOA is increasingly resigned to its policy of life bans for convicted drug users such as Chambers and Millar being overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), though it may have to wait up to another week for confirmation.

While the BOA is anticipating a ruling from the CAS next week, Telegraph Sport understands the verdict may not be handed down until handed down until Friday of next week, or sometime the week after.

The CAS has already postponed its own deadline of mid-April to give it more time to rule on the case, brought following a challenge from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

Neither party has yet received a copy of the CAS judgment, and the CAS agreed not to publish the verdict this week after the BOA requested any verdict avoid London’s '100 days to go' celebrations.

The CAS was asked to mediate after Wada ruled that the BOA’s life ban does not comply with the global doping code, under which the maximum ban for serious offences is two years, or four in aggravated circumstances.

As Millar and Chambers have long-served their initial bans, and have both appeared in British teams at global events, they would be free to compete in London if the BOA is defeated. The BOA argues that it should be free to choose who it selects, and to consider “character” issues such as doping when doing so.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London organising committee, on Friday backed the BOA’s stance. “I think it is right for sporting organisations to have the autonomy to decide who they want to see in their teams,” he said.

The cost implications of the case are among the issues the CAS is considering, with the losers potentially liable to meet the fees of the other side as well as their own.

Both the BOA and Wada employed some of the most experienced and expert figures in sports law to argue their cases, and the total costs have been estimated at £100,000-£200,000. With the BOA’s budgets under constant pressure it is a cost it can ill afford as it prepares to send its largest-ever team to an Olympic Games.

Any costs will be mitigated by the fact that the BOA’s counsel in the case, Adam Lewis QC and David Pannick QC, are understood to have agreed to appear for significantly reduced rates.

As well as who meets the parties’ costs, the CAS panel is also considering who should pay for the cost of the arbitration as a whole. In normal sports arbitration cases the CAS is a free service for governing bodies and agencies, but the court is thought to have ruled that this case may not qualify.

The BOA’s life ban has looked vulnerable since last November when, following a challenge by US sprinter LaShawn Merritt, the CAS ruled that an International Olympic Committee’s rule banning doping cheats from at least one Games in addition to its ban was incompatible with the Wada code.

Following a hearing before the CAS last month, the BOA has had little reason for optimism, with those close to the case on both sides predicting that the bye-law would be overturned.

The judgment may not be clear cut, however, with suggestions that even if Chambers and Millar are cleared to compete there will be significant comfort for the BOA in the ruling.

The CAS panel is likely to restrict itself to the legal issue of compliance with the Wada code, and could offer support for the BOA’s desire to preserve team places for clean athletes.

That CAS ruling in favour of Merritt exposed the gap between the desire of the Olympic movement to be tough on doping, and the rules of the agency it founded to police them, Wada.

Wada relies for its legitimacy on a single global standard for doping supported by all its signatories, including on sanctions. Currently it operates a standard two-year ban, and argues that the BOA and IOC rules represent additional sanctions.

Chambers’ lawyer, Siza Agha, said he would not comment on the outcome of the case until it has been published.

Meanwhile, Dave Brailsford, performance director of British Cycling, said he would consider selecting Millar, the British team’s “captain on the road” when Mark Cavendish won the world title last year, if he was eligible.

“My job is to pick the fastest team, the best team that can win that race in London,” Brailsford said. “I will get shown a list of people who are eligible, then I will look at performance and decide.”

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

April 15 - London 2012 has set itself the target of completing the Parade of Nations during the Olympics Opening Ceremony on July 27 in only an hour-and-a-half by restricting the number of officials able to take part in the event, it was revealed here today.

The Parade, during which participating athletes march into the stadium, country by country, led by a sign with the name of their country and by their nation's flag.

Led by Greece, as has been the tradition since Antwerp in 1920, more than 200 countries took more than two hours to complete the Parade at Beijing in 2008.

London 2012 hope that by restricting the event to accredited competitors and a limited number of key officials that this time it will be much quicker, which could help encourage some of the top athletes to take part.

London 2012 are also optimistic that the proximity of the Athletes' Village to the Olympic Stadium will also mean as many competitors as possible are able to take part.

"London 2012 is working hard to make the athletes parade as positive an experience for athletes as possible," Debbie Jevans, the London 2012 Director of Sport, told the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly.

"Athletes, for example, will be able to walk to the stadium as it is so close to the Olympic Village inside the Park and no buses will be required."

The athletes will be cheered on during the 1500 metres wlak by more than 2,500 schoolchildren who will line the route, Jevans announced.

They will also be able to watch the event on giant screens before they march into the arena.

Britain's athletics and swimming teams have already announced that they will miss the Ceremony because they will be preparing for their events.

But the British Olympic Association (BOA) has now agreed a policy with the other sports so that everyone is given the chance to take part in the event.

As the host nation, Britain will be the last team to march in the Ceremony.

"We would like every athlete to be given the opportunity to take part, except where there are exceptional circumstances, such as when they are competing within 72 hours and would have to consider how it would impact on their preparations," Andy Hunt, Britain's Chef de Mission, told insidethegames here.

"We think there is a reasonable contingent of athletes who want to march because it's an incredible opportunity.

"Let's get back to basics where athletes should be at the centre of the Opening Ceremony.

"I hope that London 2012 will set a new standard."

London 2012 has developed its Opening Ceremony plans in consultation with Frankie Fredericks, the four-time Olympic silver medallist, who is the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission.

"London 2012 have put everything in place so that the athletes feel like they are part of the event," he told insidethegames.

"Now it is up to the delegations and athletes to help keep the Ceremony short.

"We need to understand that if it takes three hours to march then athletes are going to get to bed too late."

-Duncay Mackay

Source: www.insidethegames.biz