Hope over IOC involvement
ByReuters
Updated 01/12/2010 at 01:20 GMT
US Olympic Committee chief Scott Blackmun has said he hoped the International Olympic Committee would participate in an arbitration involving the banning of Olympic 400 metres champion LaShawn Merritt from the 2012 London Games.
LaShawn Merritt of the U.S. celebrates after winning the men's 4x400 meters relay final during the world athletics championships at the Olympic stadium in Berlin,
Image credit: Reuters
Merritt was suspended for 21 months by an American Arbitration Association panel last month for testing positive for banned substances he said were in a male enhancement product.
The ban, backdated to October 28, 2009, elapses July 2011, but an IOC rule prevents any athlete sanctioned for six months or more from competing in the next Olympics.
The arbitrators said the IOC's rule went against the World Anti-Doping Agency code and, as a signatory to the code, the IOC could not ban Merritt from the London Games.
American swimmer Jessica Hardy is in a similar situation. She was forced out of the 2008 Olympics after testing positive for a banned substance and would be barred from the London Games despite her two-year suspension being reduced to one.
"The athletes are in a very unfortunate position because they have to make a decision, 'Am I going to devote my life the next two years to training for the Olympic Games and not be able to compete?" Blackmun said
"We have an arbitration decision that says we have to let Mr Merritt compete in the Olympic trials, but if he competes in the Olympic trials and secures a spot, the IOC has said he is not eligible to compete in the Olympic Games.
"My hope is that we can get the IOC together with WADA and the other involved parties and get some decision sooner rather than later, so that our athletes don't have all that uncertainty the next two years."
The US Anti-Doping Agency initially asked the IOC to participate in the Merritt case but the IOC refused, saying the arbitrators did not have jurisdiction over an IOC rule.
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