E
Ellis Redding
Guest
It's about goddamned time.
WADA chairman rebuked for anti-Armstrong comments
ESPN.com news services
Score this development in the years-long feud between Lance Armstrong and World Anti-Doping Agency chairman **** Pound a "major victory" for the seven-time Tour de France champion.
In a rebuke considered rare because it involves one of its own members, the International Olympic Committee officially reprimanded Pound for comments that might have damaged the legendary cyclist's reputation. The Los Angeles Times first reported the story on Saturday.
According to the IOC's decision, dated Feb. 2, the organization's ethics commission recommended that Pound had "the obligation to exercise greater prudence consistent with the Olympic spirit when making public pronouncements that may affect the reputation of others."
Armstrong lauded the IOC's stance against Pound.
"It's not common that the IOC comes out and issues a reprimand or a warning about one of their members at all," Armstrong told The New York Times by phone Sunday. "This is as close to a censure as it could get."
Armstrong, who has consistently denied using performance-enhancing drugs, and Pound have been sparring verbally for several years without the benefit of a referee. On this occasion, the IOC jumped in after Armstrong two years ago called on the ethics commission to take disciplinary action against Pound.
It was at that time in 2005 that Pound suggested Armstrong had taken the banned blood-boosting drug EPO during the 1999 Tour de France. Pound was reacting to a report in the French sports daily L'Équipe, which claimed that six urine samples from Armstrong taken during the 1999 race had retroactively tested positive for the drug.
There was no reliable test for EPO in 1999, but urine samples were preserved and analyzed later when improved testing technology was developed. Armstrong was cleared last May. Lawyer Emile Vrijman, who led the investigation, said WADA and the French national doping laboratory had effectively pronounced Armstrong guilty of a doping violation without sufficient basis.
Reached by The Times at his Montreal home on Sunday, Pound said the IOC's decision was its way of "doing something that will make Lance go away and stop bothering them." Pound also did not back off his comments concerning positive tests for EPO linked to Armstrong in the L'Équipe report.
"Lance Armstrong has probably killed a Brazilian rain forest with all the paper he has used to file his complaints against me," Pound told The Times.
"He keeps alive this whole thing that he should be trying to fade away, that a French accredited laboratory found that he had six positive samples for EPO in 1999. Maybe he thinks if he huffs and he puffs, all of this will go away, but it won't."
While Armstrong initially had called for Pound's ouster, he seemed pleased that Pound had at least been warned publicly to watch what he says.
The cyclist told The Times on Sunday that Pound's comments cast doubt as to whether an athlete is clean before that athlete's doping case can be made. Pound is "a clown" who is an "absolute disaster when it comes to giving interviews," Armstrong said.
"This is for the sake of the other people that have to come behind me because they deserve better," he told the newspaper. "I hope this establishes a certain precedent that the head of WADA has to act a certain way in public. And I think that's a good thing."
WADA chairman rebuked for anti-Armstrong comments
ESPN.com news services
Score this development in the years-long feud between Lance Armstrong and World Anti-Doping Agency chairman **** Pound a "major victory" for the seven-time Tour de France champion.
In a rebuke considered rare because it involves one of its own members, the International Olympic Committee officially reprimanded Pound for comments that might have damaged the legendary cyclist's reputation. The Los Angeles Times first reported the story on Saturday.
According to the IOC's decision, dated Feb. 2, the organization's ethics commission recommended that Pound had "the obligation to exercise greater prudence consistent with the Olympic spirit when making public pronouncements that may affect the reputation of others."
Armstrong lauded the IOC's stance against Pound.
"It's not common that the IOC comes out and issues a reprimand or a warning about one of their members at all," Armstrong told The New York Times by phone Sunday. "This is as close to a censure as it could get."
Armstrong, who has consistently denied using performance-enhancing drugs, and Pound have been sparring verbally for several years without the benefit of a referee. On this occasion, the IOC jumped in after Armstrong two years ago called on the ethics commission to take disciplinary action against Pound.
It was at that time in 2005 that Pound suggested Armstrong had taken the banned blood-boosting drug EPO during the 1999 Tour de France. Pound was reacting to a report in the French sports daily L'Équipe, which claimed that six urine samples from Armstrong taken during the 1999 race had retroactively tested positive for the drug.
There was no reliable test for EPO in 1999, but urine samples were preserved and analyzed later when improved testing technology was developed. Armstrong was cleared last May. Lawyer Emile Vrijman, who led the investigation, said WADA and the French national doping laboratory had effectively pronounced Armstrong guilty of a doping violation without sufficient basis.
Reached by The Times at his Montreal home on Sunday, Pound said the IOC's decision was its way of "doing something that will make Lance go away and stop bothering them." Pound also did not back off his comments concerning positive tests for EPO linked to Armstrong in the L'Équipe report.
"Lance Armstrong has probably killed a Brazilian rain forest with all the paper he has used to file his complaints against me," Pound told The Times.
"He keeps alive this whole thing that he should be trying to fade away, that a French accredited laboratory found that he had six positive samples for EPO in 1999. Maybe he thinks if he huffs and he puffs, all of this will go away, but it won't."
While Armstrong initially had called for Pound's ouster, he seemed pleased that Pound had at least been warned publicly to watch what he says.
The cyclist told The Times on Sunday that Pound's comments cast doubt as to whether an athlete is clean before that athlete's doping case can be made. Pound is "a clown" who is an "absolute disaster when it comes to giving interviews," Armstrong said.
"This is for the sake of the other people that have to come behind me because they deserve better," he told the newspaper. "I hope this establishes a certain precedent that the head of WADA has to act a certain way in public. And I think that's a good thing."
