SYDNEY, 13 July 2005 — Australian cyclist Mark French won an appeal against a doping conviction and had his lifetime Olympic ban lifted yesterday.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had found French guilty last year of seven doping violations, including trafficking, in the biggest drugs scandal ever to hit Australian sport.
He was suspended by the CAS from all competitions worldwide for two years while the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) banned him from competing at the Olympics for the rest of his life. But French, a former junior world champion, always maintained his innocence and won an appeal in Melbourne yesterday that cleared him of any wrongdoing and allowed him to resume his career. The CAS immediately overturned their two-year ban after ruling that there was not enough evidence to convict him and the AOC followed suit by lifting his lifetime Olympic ban.
“The AOC ... recognizes and respects the CAS appeal decision in which it was found that the ASC (Australian Sports Commission) and CA (Cycling Australia) had failed to prove Mark French had committed any doping offense,” said AOC President John Coates.
