David Millar won't fight British Olympic Association Ban Decision

David Millar says he will not fight against a decision by the British Olympic Association, which excludes athletes who have served doping bans to compete in the Olympics.

Millar was banned from cycling for two years in 2004 to admit doping. According to the current BOA rules, this qualifies him for a lifetime ban from Olympic competition. Since then, he rebuilt his career and reputation after returning from suspension. Millar is one of three British athletes affected by the ban, along with sprinter Dwain Chambers and discus thrower and shot putter Carl Myerscough.

BOA's position was declared "non-conforming" by the World Anti-Doping Agency, because the prohibition of games is seen as a "sanction", something agrees with Millar.

The Scot told the BBC: "In all honesty, I had written out of the Olympics for a long time.

"I just felt that the ban was in place and life was not something I wanted to challenge," he added.

"There are some fights I do not want to fight and that was one of them.

"I just do not like to be vilified more. It's been a tough couple of years."

Millar also believes that the ban life leaves no room for rehabilitation of the athlete and that each case must be considered on its own merits.

"Imagine you have a 16-year-old who has been given something by your coach and will receive a positive and permanent ban, which does not seem fair," he suggested.

"But maybe if you have a 34-year-old multi-millionaire who lives in Monte Carlo, with a team of medical staff, who goes positive, maybe they should have a lifetime ban for a first offense.

"But these two cases are so different that can not be judged the same."

In October this year, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that an International Olympic Committee rule that prohibits athletes previously suspended was "invalid and unenforceable."

In June 2008, the IOC executive board adopted the so-called 'Osaka Rule', a regulation "that prohibits athletes who were suspended for more than six months for a violation of the anti-doping rule to participate in the Olympic Games after the expiration the suspension. "

The CAS panel "concluded that the 'Osaka Rule' was more properly characterized as a disciplinary sanction, rather than a pure condition of eligibility to compete in the Olympics." This sanction is not in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code, the panel ruled, "because it adds following the ineligibility sanction anti-doping sanctions after the WADC has been met."

Alberto Contador blasted anti-doping regulations

Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, who is facing a one-year ban for taking performance enhancing drugs, blasted anti-doping regulations on Friday which he said "remain stuck in the '60s."

"Today, advances in science are able to detect minute amounts of some banned substances which neither further athletic performance nor can possibly be taken voluntarily, except if they enter our bodies through ingested food. This is my case with clenbuterol," the Spanish rider said in a statement on his website. "But whereas scientific advances have arrived in the year 2011, the rule remains stuck in the 60s, hence my 'crime' and possible sanction.

"Only by combining scientific advances with modifications to the anti-doping rules will it be possible to talk about honest and fair sport, as I have always practiced it."

The Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) informed Contador last week of its recommendation of a one-year suspension for his positive drugs test from the 2010 Tour de France.

The 28-year-old has said he plans to appeal, but faces becoming only the second Tour de France champion to be stripped of his title, after American Floyd Landis in 2006.

The rider denies any wrongdoing and says he unknowingly ingested trace elements of the banned substance clenbuterol from beef brought from Spain to France during the second rest day of the Tour.

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