Now I’m not a spiteful sort of guy, at least that’s what the people who don’t know me believe, but I have to say that I am delighted to see that Chambers’ Olympic career has been unceremoniously tossed down the crapper by the High Court. He always was an unlikely challenger to the BOA’s bylaw, of banning drug cheats from ever representing GB at the Olympics even though they may have served bans imposed by other sports bodies, having run a laughable PR campaign and an equally poor legal campaign. His attempts to redeem himself, in a PR sense have been perfunctory and the timing of the legal moves were a transparent attempt to railroad the court in to considering only an injunction against the BOA’s bylaw and not a full examination of it’s legality. It can’t have escaped the court’s notice that this was primarily about Chambers’ earning potential subsequent to the Beijing Olympics and not about his desire to represent his country at the Beijing Olympics. To the people who suggest he has served his time and should be allowed to compete the simple answer is, ‘no, he hasn’t’, he has served the part of his punishment handed down in his 2 year ban but a concomitant of this ban, by virtue of the BOA bylaw which has been in place ever since Chambers has been competing, is that you cannot compete at the Olympics. This is not some sort of post facto bolt on but an inevitable consequence of, and an integral part of, the punishment, part of the ‘time’ you have to do for the crime.
Chambers’ cheating has robbed clean (we all hope) athletes of funding, resources, opportunity and maybe some glory, dissuaded some from entering the sport and persuaded others to leave it before their time.