Sebastian Coe vows to punish drug cheats after becoming BOA chairman

Lord Coe has said that he will continue the British Olympic Association's push for tougher penalties for drug cheats after taking over as chairman of the organisation.

The 43 members of the National Olympic Committee on Wednesday voted by acclamation for Coe to take over from Lord Moynihan, who announced after the London Olympics that he was stepping down as chairman a year early.

Moynihan fought a high-profile and fractious battle with the World Anti-Doping Agency over the BOA's ability to ban athletes for life who had been suspended for doping, but was ultimately forced to drop the bylaw. Coe backed the BOA's fight and, while likely to be more consensual in style than Moynihan, has promised to continue to lobby for a harder line.

"You know where I come from over drugs. I've been battling that for as long as I've effectively been a competitor. My stance is still non-negotiable and this organisation was quite right to believe that it has to be within the interests and power of the organisation to decide what is best for that organisation. Ninety-nine per cent of the athletes supported that bylaw and I am sorry we weren't able to uphold it," Coe said.

"We will need to think about how we adapt to that landscape. I will chair an organisation that will always take a zero-tolerance approach to drug abuse in sport but we have to recognise that we are in a much more complex and complicated legal landscape than we were 30 years ago."

Wada is currently consulting on its new code, with pressure for the two-year ban to be increased to include the Olympic Games that follows. Coe will oversee the development of a new three-year strategy for the BOA and hinted he would refocus the organisation on its traditional remit of preparing British teams for the Games.

Under Moynihan, it had expanded to include a high performance coaching unit under Sir Clive Woodward, who stepped down last month.

"This is not an organisation that delivers elite level sportsmen and women. That is the role of the federations, it is the role of UK Sport through their funded programmes. This organisation has a monumental responsibility to manage those teams and to promote Olympism throughout the country," Coe said.

"Being given the custody of Team GB every two years is a monumental responsibility. This is a service-led organisation and it needs to be a world-class organisation in the delivery of those services at Games time.

"In the landscape of British sport, where we are all concerned about that pathway between playground and podium, the BOA will want to play a role in that. Its particular roles and responsibilities will be something we all want to discuss in the run-up to Rio."

Despite extending its overdraft to £5m for the first quarter of next year and recording a loss of £411,000 in last year's accounts, the BOA expects to break even as a result of the formula under which the London organising committee will return the first $8m of any surplus to the BOA.

There is believed to be confidence within the BOA that Locog will indeed produce a surplus, despite continually saying that it would only break even. Under the formula, the first $8m of any surplus goes to the BOA and the next $4m to the British Paralympic Association.

The BOA chief executive, Andy Hunt, has completed a cost cutting programme to slim down the staff from 87 to 52 and will aim to sign a series of new sponsorship deals once Coe is on board.

Coe will combine his role as chairman of the BOA with his positions as vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, a board member at Nike and a government adviser on the Olympic legacy.

By Owen Gibson

Source: www.guardian.co.uk