Dwain Chambers

Dwain Chambers, the British sprinter who tested positive for tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in August 2003, has taken what appears to be the first step in his bid to challenge the lifetime Olympic ban imposed upon him by the British Olympic Association (BOA).

Although Chambers has now returned from the two-year ban imposed by UK Sport for his doping offences, the BOA does not allow previous offenders to represent Great Britain at the Olympics, even after their UK Sport bans have been served. The sprinter has handed over to UK Sport a letter written by Victor Conte, the former head of the San Francisco laboratory at the heart of the BALCO doping scandal, which describes how Chambers took performance-enhancing drugs and disguised the doping from officials in a gesture which is widely considered to be the first step in his efforts to have his Olympic ban overturned (with legal proceedings to secure his eligibility in the Olympic and National trials in July expected to be the next stage). The move comes after former WADA president Dick Pound publicly stated that he believed a legal challenge to Chambers's BOA ban would be successful. "[As] a matter of law, I think the BOA would be on pretty shaky ground," Pound said.

Meanwhile, in the wake of eleven members of the Greek Olympic weightlifting team testing positive for banned substances earlier this year, Michalis Liapis, the Greek minister for culture and sport, has promised tougher penalties against doping and stated that a proposed amendment to the relevant Greek legislation will make the use of banned substances in competitive sport a felony rather than a misdemeanour. The revised law, set to take effect soon after the Beijing Olympics, is also expected to bolster powers at the domestic anti-doping agency, ESKAN.

Finally, former relay team-mates of Marion Jones, the disgraced US sprinter who is currently serving a six-month jail term for lying about steroid use, have filed an appeal with CAS seeking to retain the medals they won at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Following Jones being stripped of her Sydney medals in 2007, the International Olympic Committee have, despite conceding none of the athletes broke any rules, proceeded to disqualify her relay team-mates from the 4x400m and 4x100m teams. The seven athletes in question are basing their appeal on the claim that it was wrong to punish them for Jones's violations and have reportedly refused to return the medals.