Olympic doping scandal

Published on Wednesday 22 September 2004 00:54

OLYMPIC time-trial champion Tyler Hamilton declared his innocence yesterday after his Phonak cycling team confirmed he was being investigated for possible blood doping and could be stripped of his gold medal.

Hamilton insisted he would "fight this until I don’t have a euro left in my pocket". He added: "I worked hard for that gold medal and it isn’t going anywhere."

Tests at the Athens Olympics on 19 August and at the Spanish Vuelta on 18 September showed evidence of blood from another person, cycling’s governing body said, according to a Phonak spokesman.

Follow-up tests were started yesterday and will be finished today, although it isn’t clear when the results will be announced, Hamilton said.

If found guilty of a violation at the Olympics, Hamilton could lose his gold. Three athletes had gold medals revoked for doping during the Athens Games.

Hamilton said there were some puzzling aspects to the case, especially because he found out about the September test last Thursday and only learned about the Olympic test "on Saturday afternoon".

Andy Rihs, chairman of the board of Phonak, said he didn’t trust the new blood doping test. "I don’t believe in the test," Rihs said. "I think this test was done sloppily and I am pretty clear whatever the test comes out [today] I stand behind Tyler."

Hamilton said he understood that the test had been used for the first time during the Giro d’Italia in May and that if his B test also turns out positive it would be the first time it had shown blood doping.

Former world champion Oscar Camenzind was sacked by Phonak and immediately retired from the sport after testing positive for performance-enhancing EPO, which boosts the production of red blood cells, shortly before the Olympics.

Hamilton denied ever receiving a transfusion - which can boost performance by increasing the amount of oxygen-transporting red blood cells.

"I have been accused of taking blood from another person, which anybody who knows me knows is completely impossible," he said, adding that he was afraid of the risk of acquiring Aids from a blood transfusion.

A record 24 athletes were caught with doping violations at the Athens Olympics.

Hamilton’s gold was one of four medals won by American cyclists at the Athens Games - the team’s best showing since winning nine at the boycotted 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Hamilton was the only US cyclist to win a gold in Athens.

If Hamilton is disqualified, the gold medal would go to Russia’s Viatcheslav Ekimov, with American Bobby Julich moving up to silver and Australia’s Michael Rogers to the bronze.