More from Crikey on drugs in cycling

Unkey Munkey

This was in this afternoons newsletter from crikey.com.au

13. Arbitration in sport – dead in the water?

What faith can athletes and major sports now have in the procedures of
the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a body established by the IOC back
in the eighties, and whose delegate in Australia is king machiavelli and
AOC Tsar, John Coates.

The CAS system which heard the case against banned cycylist Mark French,
appears to have sprung several leaks, with information from confidential
hearings in the hands of Senator John Faulkner and the media.

There appears to be more to this cycling drugs story than meets the eye.
It has more elements of a NSW ALP Sussex street campaign than a genuine
attempt to rid sport of drugs.

Of course, there are culture problems in cycling which were being
investigated by the cumbersome processes of the Australian Sports
Commission.

And a lot of that is to do with the fact that the line between amateur
and professional cycling is either very thin or often crossed, as
Crikey's sports editor, Patrick Fitzgerald pointed out yesterday:

As Fitzgerald wrote: "I wonder just when ASC chairman Peter Bartels got
to hear about the extraordinary and still to be substantiated
allegations made by French against his team mates and what if any action
he proposed before Latham sprang his bombshell and left the ASC and
Cycling Australia with egg on their face."

It would be interesting to know when some of the other big players in
the sports pond – like John Coates – found out, and how they may have
reacted and used that information as it came to hand.

Coates flew back to Sydney from Switzerland today and immediately called
for the federal government to introduce a doping ombudsman - presumably
at the expense of the exisiting CAS system:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story...55E1702,00.html

We would be interested in any thoughts on the unfolding story behind the
story. Send your ideas to boss@crikey.com.au

- Munk3y