Drug Cheats - Lifetime ban or second chance

This is quite topical due to the recent news that the British Olympic Association (BOA) has to go to the Court of Arbitration of Sport to defend its lifetime ban (selection policy) on drug cheats.  The BOA set this ruling in place in 1992 and to this day still believe it is the correct course of action.  Whether or not it is right will now be discussed. 

Drug cheating has become a massive problem in all sports due mainly to the advancements in drug production.  It is believed that drug testing methods are 3 years behind new drugs that are being used.  A case which highlights this issue is Marian Jones who admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs before the 2000 Olympics.

Two sports in particular, Athletics and Cycling, seem to have the most recurring instances.  Due to this these sports have lost some credibility and the athletes face rigorous testing to the annoyance of some.  The clip of Mark Cavendish (11:30 onwards) shows this:

When Usain Bolt broke the 100m record at the last Olympics I remember a huge discussion in my local watering hole was that he was on performance enhancers and it wouldn't come out until he is retired like the Marion Jones case.  The same discussion then moved on to Lance Armstrong with half the group believing he was on performance enhancers for all his Tour De France victories. 

From these discussions you can see that as soon as someone in these sports performs to a level we have not seen before a lot of peoples first thought is "drug cheat" because it is synonymous with these sports.  This is not fair on those clean athletes who compete fairly through hard work and determination.  It also leads people to look at past great athletes and think they may have been on performance enhancing drugs back then but just weren't caught.  All in all drug cheating has tarnished these sports. 

That said though is it right that a drug cheat should be banned for life?  Well firstly the BOA only imposes a lifetime Olympic ban on any British athlete banned for more than six months for a doping offence - the only national Olympic committee to do so.  Other nations use WADA's regulations of banning them from the next Olympics.  

The BOA do not see their rule as a sanction but instead one of its selection policies.  However this then could be looked at as discriminatory as clean athletes get favour (which when said sounds perfectly OK).  Despite this in today's society this would still be deemed discriminatory as just because someone cheated in the past doesn't mean they are currently or will again which is the main area surrounding the debate of lifetime bans versus second chances. 

Nowadays we as a nation believe in giving second chances so with this is missing the next Olympics not enough of a punishment?  Remember this is their careers and in some instances all they have.  They train hard every day and for maybe one silly mistake on their part or their coaches that's their careers over.  Unlike losing a job these guys can't go out and just get another one in the same field.  In other sports such as Soccer players receive a short ban for which they can then play afterwards.  Adrian Mutu received a 9 month ban and is now still currently playing so it wasn't detrimental to his career.

 

The Olympics is also the pinnacle event of an athletes profession so to take their chance of ever being a part of this away from then is destroying their dreams.  The BOA make valid points when they state that selecting an athlete outside their by law would:

"also damage the credibility and reputation of the team in the eyes of the athletes and the public, and would send the wrong message to aspiring Olympians and new entrants to Olympic sport - particularly young people.

"Further, an athlete who deliberately cheats should not take the place in Team GB of a clean athlete."

I agree with these statements especially as young people are so impressionable.  Despite this however I think a simple solution is that those who have offended be rigorously tested after their ban to ensure that at the next Olympics they are clean and therefore are selected on their natural ability.  Again one could argue that the testing is behind so they could still taking performance enhances but this could be said for all athletes. 

One final point is that those banned for less than 6 months for drug taking are not banned from the next Olympics and are free for selection in the case of the BOA.  This to me is unfair as there should be no separate offences from drug taking, it should all be tarnished with one brush with the same sanctions applying to all offences. 

In conclusion I believe drug cheating is tarnishing sports and I feel bad for those clean athletes who get painted with the same brush when they do a superhuman effort cleanly.  However I believe in second chances and think missing one Olympic Games in your career is punishment enough and that if an athlete can prove during selection for the next Olympics they are clean then they should be allowed selection in the Team GB team and also other teams.  To me in all sports drug cheats should be given a second chance to prove themselves after all isn't life all about second chances?  Maybe you disagree?