Daley Thompson: Cycling should be banned from the Olympics in the light of Armstrong doping scandal

The problem is the governing bodies, USADA, IOC, UCI, WADA. they each have a political agenda and love of the media limelight.

I wonder how many main stream sports would disappear from the Olympics if we followed Daley Thompsons suggestions.

Right here goes - chuck out Cycling and Athletics as they have a history and oh include swimming in that as well as they have had some highly publicised doping stories over the years. Judo has had its drug problems. What else of yes Rowing, they have had no drug issues as bad as the above but there must be something going on for them to seem this clean. Gymnastics is another that has had a checkered past, trundle them out the doors as well. There have been simmering rumours regarding football so thats another one for the waste bin.

What are we left with rythmic gymnanstic, I am tempted to tie them in with gymnastics. Basketball, I read a couple of stories about doping in the NBA over the years lob them out. There are other associated sports that should go by mere association with some of the sports above such as syncronised swimming, netball etc

Now where was I whats left, oh, well, ahh um not much really. Then we can include the IOC's liking to employing convicted fraudsters like the hospitality guy caught in the multi million pound salt lake city scandal who was let of for shopping his mates and remarkably was still head of hospitality in London this year. Nice how things don't change.

This shows nicely that people are getting a little to specific in singling out Cycling and bashing it over the head with some serious large sticks. There is problems in many sports - some even manage to hide it quite well football being one, where the money is so great they couldn't afford to have anyone have a look at them. Others like cricket are downright absurd in there pursuit of doping. Banning Shane Warne for a direutic I though was quite humourous. I never realised that reducing you bodies water content actually help the performance of a spinner. What a strange world we live in.

At a guess Daley may feel like having a 'shit - spoty reference' after spouting that load of crap.
Using that logic sprinting, shot put, the hammer, basketball and of course weightlifting (which i personal exerience of) would be banned. Great athelete mind of goldfish.

Just imagine if athletics had a figure like Armstrong- someone who transcended the sport, and so popular that, if he were caught cheating, it would seriously damage the image of the sport and its ability to generate revenue. And imagine if he were on a successful team like US Postal, with other doped athletes who were also massively popular. I wonder if the IAAF would be keen to expose them?

I think Thompson's words are ill-advised. Whatever is occurring in cycling is probably being mirrored elsewhere. I for one don't believe that Ben Johnson's record 100m has been beaten clean. I think the evidence is that the opposite is happening and cheating is prevalent in professional sports. I would be surprised if American Footballers achieve their size through diet and exercise, and there are few sports which would not improve with either the application of steroids or blood enhancement (even skill based sports are significantly easier if your oxygen intake is improved - imagine receiving a pass in football breathing heavily, and one where you are relaxed and breathing calmly. It makes a difference). And the Balco affair just went to show that the athletes know how to best the system because it was not the testing that caught them out.

I would be surprised if there is any agency out there that is particularly effective at catching cheats. At least with cycling cleaning house it brings with it the chance for change and hope for the future. Sponsors need to remember this.

I hope that as a result of this the baby is not thrown out with the bath water and it would suck.

The cynic in me wonders if this is just publicity for the newly re-released Daley Thompson's Decathlon on iOS and Android.

On your marks, set, z-x-z-x-z-x-z-x-z-x-z-x-...

A has-been athlete with no discernible career, writing an article calling for a controversial move, in a newspaper that is known for being anti-cycling and reactionary.

Am I supposed to bite?

OK... Daley Thompson: fuck off back into obscurity, you dumb cunt.

"I don't think people who take part in cycling, the competitors and the people at the grass roots who go out at the weekend on their bikes just for the sheer love of it, feel any sort of connection or even confidence in the people who run their sport, and that's terrible."

Slightly ironic that some of the comments here suggest that Daley's is some sort of knee-jerk anti-cycling reaction, when in fact it's the commenter(s) who are knee-jerking a little...

Think about it: We have all complained on here about the UCI, and lamented the fact that Paddy McQuid basically can't be ousted because a sport's governing body isn't really accountable to a higher authority with the ability to kick him out (or even force an enquiry for all the Lance bollocks). All Daley is suggesting, really, is that the IOC is a sufficiently big fish to do this for us, in terms of cleaning up the UCI: "Oi, Pat, f*** off now, or your sport will start to suffer, financially and otherwise, in a way that puts a BIG spotlight on you personally."

That's a far bigger stick than has been wielded so far, and just _might_ make him move over.

I wouldn't put the house on it, though.

That said, he needs to separate his disagreements with the UCI from those with WADA - his comment that dopers should never return isn't in the UCIs hands.

Headline doesn't really match what he said, does it? It leaves out the bit where he said it should only happen if the UCI don't sort things out which which I think is quite a key part of it!

I suppose it makes for a better headline for you though.

Personally, I think cycling should ban the distracting sideshow of the Olympics and concentrate on races that matter.

There's no place for proper sport in a four-yearly festival of physical jerks and jingoism.

DT performances were consistent and not erratic. There is no big drug culture in London amongst athletes, it is down to good coaches and a lot of hard work. When I was 7 at Sharks swimming club it was a 100 lengths of the swimming pool every night and you could not finish until you beat your time. Sharon Davies was there and what a swimmer. The girl was like teflon and put in twice the amount of work. Only reason I gave up was I had no goggles and blinded by the clorine. I could not even walk home I was blind(Thank you mummy for picking me up). Boxing is also not big into drugs. Another sport a lot of hard work. Cycling should be no different. It is a fantastic sport. First few kilometres chill the legs and wind up gradually. No big rush. By the end of the run you are chasing coaches and cursing the Council for not repairing roads as you hit 80 kmph.I may not win the lottery but I feel like a million dollars. Cars are impressed because you keeping up. It is a fun sport and I love it as a grass roots member. I want to see the pro tour and see cycling in the Olympics. To see Sparticus fall 4 km out at the Olympics was epic. We need our heroes and to cheer them on. I just do not want to see them all taking drugs. Is that really so hard to ask?

I think the Daily Mail should be banned.

Up until recently the basis of the case against Lance was that he beat the dopers so he must be a doper If Daley Thompson beat the East Germans who were legendary for their doping

Cheeky bugger. Thompson was a nobody; a jack of all trades and a master of none.

' UCI does need to examine itself'
Biggest joke yet!!

Daley Thompson's point is valid. He's not suggesting that cycling should be banned from the Olympics, rather that the IOC be used as threat to the UCI to get their house in order. The worry being that the UCI isn't answerable to any higher authority, and could get away with destroying a sport that it is their sole responsibility to protect.

"To almost every problem there is a simple solution, which is usually wrong". Read the Thompson report (remember it's in the Daily Mail, well known for accuracy and truth....).
Yes we had a problem, yes it is getting cleaned up, yes other sports choose not to have a problem (money talks?).
Change the UCI management - to what, and who with? Before you start firing people there have to be credible replacements! Perhaps the BC President might be a good UCI president, but then would he want it, or indeed anyone else?
One old theory is that anyone who wants to be prime minister should immediately be removed from any chance of achieving their ambition, something which could apply to a lot of positions!

Do you think that Daley does not realise that only cycling has a state of the art drug testing regime? Many sports including Tennis and Football do not even do blood testing let alone blood passport. In the Olympics only 6 sports had blood passport testing, the rest...who knows what they are doing?

My thoughts are that the more unashamed the investigation of this sport the more it indicates an intention to cure it of its ills. From an outsider looking in, it does look like the sport is in turmoil. This is not the case. Much is being done to change things and I do believe there is a new generation of clean riders coming through. I wonder how honest and truthful other sports are- there are drugs being abused in all sports and I believe there are a great many sporting authorities turning a blind eye, just as the UCI have done. Operation Puerto uncovered other dopers in other sports, when will they be sanctioned?
I agree whole heartedly with Daley Thompson. Professional cycling should be able to show a clean bill of health to the IOC before the next Olympics but it shouldn't be the only sport.
Furthermore, the UCI has no credibility and needs to go. end of.

Daley is (apart from being a top geezer who took on the East Germans and won with virtually no support from anyone) bang on right. We're all cycling fans so cannot look at this in the same way as the general public. The governing body is a laughing stock and should be replaced, while this is ongoing yes road cycling should withdraw from the olympics.

I think the point is being missed here.

He's not saying kick out cycling because cyclists dope. IN fact he's not saying kick it out at all, he's saying there should be some sanction on their participation i.e. it should be conditional on them cleaning up their act.

And his target is not the cyclists it is the authorities who many people think are complicit in the culture and practice of doping, and do not have the will or the skill to eradicate it.

He's not the only one to think that - look at Rabobank's reasons for pulling their sponsorship.

That's why the argument that Track and Field athletes doped is not relevant. Yes they've done it and yes some countries are better than others at prevention but there isn't the same suggestion that the IAAF has at best ignored and at worst nurtured a widespread culture of doping. As a governing body they are not tainted in the way that the UCI is.

Frankly I think this is a good thing. McQuaid is up for re-election soon and the structure of the UCI is such that it is very difficult to get rid of the leadership. It depends on a small group of officials who frankly have a vested interest in not rocking the boat - not unlike FIFA (or the IOC itself).
Only the thought that chucking McQuaid overboard will stop them from being swamped will lead to any change at the top, so if Daley wants to talk up a storm then good for him.

As others have said 'atheletics clean', football, tennis. I heared that a certain female British Olympic hurdler tested positive for doping.

You can't attack a "sport" because of people that use drugs within that sport. The fact that the UCI and many national so-called anti-doping agencies have failed to do much to curb illicit drug use within the UCI-sanctioned races over the past 20 years actually shouldn't have ANY bearing on the Olympics whatsoever. The IOC is perfectly capable of imposing their own system to combat drug usage, and they should be able to weed out users if that is really their goal.

It seems to me that as of late, Olympic competition is just a periodic selection of the top professional athletes, nothing more. There was a time when professional sport wasn't so lucrative, and professionals weren't even allowed in the Olympics. Now the floodgates have been opened and half of the events seem to have a "Dream Team" of millionaire athletes from one of the big Western countries. Well, at that point you are pretty much stuck with accepting whatever level of doping or other unsportsmanlike conduct is allowed in that professional sport, UNLESS you step up to the plate and put stricter controls in place on your own. But, much like the UCI, the IOC is primarily interested in viewership (money). And they have decided the best way to get the most money is to have the big names there, regardless of whether they are competing on a level playing field. It's a short sighted goal but one that ensures the folks running the show right now get the most out of it, at the expense of generations to come.

To single out cycling simply because they have actually cracked down on a rampant problem is ridiculous. Even if the cycle continues and clandestine doping programs start to develop again, the fallout from the USADA/Armstrong case and the Ferrari case will wipe out enough doping teams and individuals that it would take a hell of a lot longer than 4 years for anything on this scale to be in place again. So the 2016 Olympics could very well be the cleanest group of cyclists to compete since the 1980s. What a stupid time to pull it from the table.