Travis Tygart, the CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, said he was "thrilled" with the reforms made within the UCI since the arrival of new president Brian Cookson. Speaking at an anti-doping intelligence seminar in Singapore, Tygart also dismissed the repeated claims by Cookson's predecessor Pat McQuaid that the USADA case against Lance Armstrong was a 'witch-hunt' and that Armstrong was a scapegoat.
"It is easy for Pat McQuaid or others to say sound bites like he said," Tygart said, according to AFP. "The evidence is telling. There have been roughly 26 athletes, coaches, team doctors who have been held accountable. Several of them have gotten lifetime bans as well."
Armstrong, his team manager Johan Bruyneel and his infamous coach Michele Ferrari were all handed lifetime bans from sport by USADA in 2012. Armstrong, although he confessed to doping, continues to claim he was not given the same opportunity to cooperate with the authorities in exchange for reduced bans that some of the other athletes who admitted to anti-doping violations were given.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Lance certainly had every opportunity to challenge that sanction," Tygart said. "And certainly Pat McQuaid could have appealed our decision to impose the lifetime ban. If he, in any way, felt that was unfair or was singling out Lance Armstrong, he certainly, as the president of UCI, had the appeal rights to go to CAS."
The UCI under McQuaid briefly challenged the jurisdiction of USADA in prosecuting Armstrong for anti-doping violations, but then changed his tune, saying that the UCI would uphold the sanction, and that Armstrong had "no place in the cycling".
Armstrong has since gone on television for the first time since his admission, telling the BBC that although he regretted the way he'd acted during his career, given the same circumstances he would make the same decision to dope again. McQuaid followed that with a BBC radio interview in which he said he still had a "certain sympathy" for Armstrong. "He was very much made a scapegoat, there was a witch-hunt after Armstrong."
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1vn2Nkm
No comments:
Post a Comment