Australian Broadcasting Corporation


LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1137029.htm

Broadcast: 21/06/2004

French banned for life

Reporter: Mike Sexton

KERRY O'BRIEN: Now to the doping scandal that's rocked Australian cycling.

Late this afternoon, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) handed out a life ban to former world junior champion Mark French after he was found guilty of using illegal hormones while on a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport cycling program in Adelaide.

While French may challenge the findings, he has apparently given evidence to a hearing that he was not alone in using illegal performance enhancing drugs, naming five other cyclists.

Federal Sports Minister Rod Kemp has told Parliament that an initial inquiry by the Australian Sports Commission was deficient and has ordered a fresh inquiry.

The AOC has said it won't take athletes to Athens who remain under suspicion of doping, which puts the immediate careers of these cyclists in question.

Mike Sexton reports.

MIKE SEXTON: The Australian Institute of Sport cycling program is based here at Del Monte, a converted pub overlooking one of Adelaide's suburban beaches.

For 15 years, the unit has built an international reputation by producing world champions and Olympic medallists.

But now, just 10 days away from nominating its team for Athens, the cycling program is in crisis.

SENATOR ROD KEMP, SPORTS MINISTER: We are determined, Mr President, to make sure that we have a zero tolerance approach in anti-doping in sport.

MIKE SEXTON: An inquiry will be held into allegations that young Victorian cyclist Mark French and five others used his room at Del Monte to inject illegal hormones.

French has already pleaded guilty to using a drug could Testicom, that contains an illegal hormone, and late this afternoon was banned for life from the Olympics by the Australian Olympic Committee.

SIMON ROFE, LAWYER, AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: At his elite level of sport he must surely have known the rules because it's drummed into all of them.

And, yes, it has the potential to bring to a close what would otherwise have been a brilliant career.

MIKE SEXTON: However, French disputes using a growth hormone extracted from horses, vials of which was taken from his room.

RHONDA ORR, SPORTS PHARMACOLOGIST, SYDNEY UNIVERSITY: Athletes would want to use growth hormone for improvement of muscle mass and strength and a perceived improvement in performance.

There's not a test for growth hormone at the moment.

Growth hormone, because it's naturally occurring, it only lasts in the body for a very short period of time.

MIKE SEXTON: The Tour de France is the jewel in the crown of international cycling, but in recent years it's been tarnished by the use of EPO, a synthetic hormone that increases performance by enhancing the amount of red blood cells.

But according to those who follow the sport, equine growth hormone is almost unknown.

GERARD KNAPP, EDITOR, CYCLINGNEWS.COM: I've not heard of it being used as a doping substance in cycling and I would question its effectiveness.

Because this instance of an athlete injecting themselves with, you know, a by-product of a horse is extraordinary, and it's a huge risk it their health.

So we have no evidence or history of cyclists using this product.

MIKE SEXTON: While giving evidence to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, French alleged he was caught up in a culture of doping at the AIS, where he was not alone in his illegal activities.

Information given in the hearing appears to have found its way into the hands of Labor Senator John Faulkner, who told the Senate the use was discovered by cleaners who found a plastic bucket in French's room with vials containing traces of banned substances.

SENATOR JOHN FAULKNER, OPPOSITION SENATE LEADER: I understand that room 121 was used for the storage and use of banned drugs, for the storage of drug-taking paraphernalia, such as syringes, needles and armbands, and for the disposal of used equipment in homemade Sharps containers, and that these activities involved up to six athletes locked in French's room on several nights a week for a period of months.

GERARD KNAPP: The key issue here is the nature of the administration of penalties and justice in the Australian sporting system.

This, you know, plastic bucket of used syringes and ampoules was found in December last year.

Why it's taken so long for this to be resolved - or it's not even resolved now - but to be properly investigated, is extraordinary.

MIKE SEXTON: The Australian Sports Commission has conducted both an internal and independent inquiry.

Both cleared any other cyclists of doping but did reprimand two athletes for injecting themselves with vitamins - not an illegal act, but breaching the code of conduct.

Gerard Knapp, who edits an online cycling news site, sees problems with this inquiry because, without tests for equine growth hormone, the evidence will be based entirely on hearsay.

GERARD KNAPP: The key point now is, "Who used the growth hormone?"

How you find that?

Well, it's just gonna be a, you know, he said, he said, he said scenario.

So, can they do that in three weeks?

I don't know.

MIKE TURTUR, 1994 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST: So they'll go through the process again, and the same result will happen again, in terms of individuals named, apart from one that has been convicted and dealt with.

So nothing will change there.

MIKE SEXTON: Olympic gold medallist, now cycling commentator Mike Turtur, believes the Australian Olympic Committee's declaration not to take any athlete to Athens under suspicion of doping is unfair because it works against the principle of innocent until proven guilty.

MIKE TURTUR: If I was part of the team and I was low enough to look at what the AOC have just said, and I had a rival on the team threatening my spot, then I'd accuse that person of using drugs.

Then the AOC wouldn't send them to Athens, and I'd be clear to race on my own.

I mean, it's just crazy to even suggest that without hard facts.

SIMON ROFE: If it is done quickly and expeditiously and if Mr French fully cooperates with us, yes.

Clearly time is all important and it may be that it can't be concluded.

MIKE SEXTON: The question of the effectiveness of any inquiry hinges on using the explosive evidence given by Mark French.

Late today he agreed to put his allegations to a new inquiry, one that holds the immediate future of five potential Olympic athletes in its hands.

GERARD KNAPP: Until they clear their name it's the AOC's call, so it looks like they are not going.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Bit of a mess there.

That report from Mike Sexton.