Australian Olympic Athletes Sign Pledge Against Doping
SYDNEY, April 29---Over 1,000 potential Olympic athletes have signed a pledge to repay all benefits paid to them by the AOC and the Fosters Sports Foundation if they are found positive for doping tests prior or during the Sydney Games. This initiative was started by the Australian NOC and any athlete who had not signed the pledge would be forbidden from participating at the Games. Leaving no bases uncovered they also requested sponsors to include an anti-doping clause in their agreements with Olympic athletes terminating their support upon positive testing.
AOC Secretary General Craig McLatchy commented, 'It's a significant financial disincentive. Using a performance-enhancing substance is cheating and anyone caught cheating will be penalised.'
'It was put to us that athletes could be tempted to use banned sports drugs because of the financial incentive,' he said. 'We wanted to create a financial disincentive to balance it out. We want to win. But only fairly.'
Not just athletes are being involved, coaches and extra staff will face life bans from working with the Games if found to be linked with doping procedures and must pay back any financial funding they have received.
AOC Secretary General Craig McLatchy commented, 'It's a significant financial disincentive. Using a performance-enhancing substance is cheating and anyone caught cheating will be penalised.'
'It was put to us that athletes could be tempted to use banned sports drugs because of the financial incentive,' he said. 'We wanted to create a financial disincentive to balance it out. We want to win. But only fairly.'
Not just athletes are being involved, coaches and extra staff will face life bans from working with the Games if found to be linked with doping procedures and must pay back any financial funding they have received.