SYDNEY, 20 June 2004 — The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) yesterday pressed Cycling Australia (CA) for an urgent inquiry into potentially-damaging allegations of a performance-enhancing drug culture at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Federal parliament was told on Friday that a group of unnamed Australian cyclists, including two potential Athens Olympic gold medalists, injected banned substances at the government-funded AIS cycling center in Adelaide.
Speaking under parliamentary privilege, opposition Labor Party senator John Faulkner said a group of up to six unnamed cyclists regularly locked themselves in disgraced former junior track champion Mark French’s room in the Adelaide centre to inject drugs. He did not name names.
The claims emerged after disgraced AIS cyclist French implicated five other riders with injecting prohibited substances.
French, suspended for two years for a drugs offense, made the comments during sworn evidence at his closed drugs hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport this month.
The claims came to light in federal parliament on Friday and the AOC yesterday sought assurances from CA that it would be sending a clean cycling team to Athens and for the claims to be resolved by July 9 — the date for final Olympic nominations.
“We have 470 athletes approximately in the team — we can’t allow their reputation to be sullied by five possible drug cheats,” AOC lawyer Simon Rofe said yesterday.
CA chief executive Graham Fredericks said the five cyclists, all in contention for Olympic selection including two gold medal contenders, could not be named for legal reasons.
CA said any investigation would be independent and Fredericks admitted “it would be a hell of a challenge” to be finished in such a short period.
Fredericks said he could not be confident the accused cyclists would be cleared.
Fredericks said national team cyclists were fuming about the allegations and aspersions being cast upon them. Federal Sports Minister Rod Kemp said on Friday he would look closely at Faulkner’s allegations and make a statement to parliament early next week. The government-funded Australian Sports Commission (ASC) yesterday strongly defended the reputation of the AIS and reiterated its zero tolerance policy on the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
