1:17pm Thursday 22nd February 2007
By Peter Law
DRUG doping has the potential to turn the London Olympics into an "embarrassment and national disgrace", 2012 organisers have been warned.
The warning came from MPs who called for hard-line measures to be introduced to help make the Games drug-free.
Cheating athletes should be automatically banned for four years to stop them competing at the Games, the science and technology committee believes.
They should also be forced to repay their often lucrative earnings, dating back to their last clean test, and be made to reveal their drug dealer.
British athletes caught cheating would have to compete internationally 12 months prior to the Games to be eligible to take part.
However, the committee stopped short of calling for doping in sport to be criminalised, but did urge the government to review the experience of countries which have made it a crime.
At present the different sports' governing bodies in Britain can impose a range of punishments including a warning, a three-month ban, the standard two-year ban, four years or even a life ban.
Breakthroughs in science mean the cheats are becoming harder to detect. Blood doping and gene doping, pose a serious threat to 2012, medical experts told the committee.
Blood doping refers to boosting the number of blood cells through an intravenous infusion, which increases the oxygen-carrying capacity of endurance athletes. Gene doping is the modulation of an athlete's genetic material.
In a world first, the UK could pilot a "doping passport" that would track any changes in the physiological characteristics of an athlete.
This would make it easier to spot suspicious improvements in performance and deter athletes contemplating doping.
About 4,500 athletes are expected to be tested at the Beijing Games next year, a 25 per cent increase on Athens 2004.
Dr Richard Budgett, the British Olympic Authority's chief medical officer, suggested that 5,000 would be test at 2012, which would be half of the athletes at the Games.
The report concluded: "Sport matters to people, and both successes and scandals resonate within the community beyond the immediate sporting world.
"That is why the issue of doping in sport is so important and why it has the potential to turn an occasion for national pride - the 2012 Olympics in London - into an embarrassment and national disgrace.
"Doping in sport is a worldwide problem but winning the right to hold the Olympics in the UK makes it a pressing issue within this country and one which should command particular Government attention at this time."
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