• London Olympics 2012

Ex-sprinter urges Team GB boycott over Chambers

Frankie Fredericks had the honour of laying the last piece of turf on the Olympic Stadium's field of play last year © Getty Images

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Former Olympic sprinter and International Olympic Committee member Frankie Fredericks has urged British athletes to threaten to boycott London 2012 if Dwain Chambers is cleared to compete for Team GB.

Chambers, who tested positive for banned steroid THG in 2003, is currently ineligible to compete at the Olympics due to a British Olympic Association bylaw which hands a lifetime ban to convicted drugs cheats.

However, reports on Friday claimed Chambers is set to be cleared to compete for Team GB when the Court of Arbitration for Sport announces its verdict next week.

Should it find the BOA bylaw to be 'non-compliant' with the World Anti-Doping Code, Chambers will be eligible to compete in this summer's Games.

But Fredericks, who won 100m and 200m silver medals at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, believes athletes should take a stance against such a decision.

"I really respect the bylaws of the BOA," Fredericks said in the Daily Mail. "They have taken a stand to say we don't want a cheat. For the athletes to vote for that bylaw is something incredible.

"It would be nice if the athletes can come out and say, 'OK even if CAS decides, Dwain Chambers and David Millar go to the Olympic Games, then we're not going to go. This is our bylaw. These are the values that we believe in'.

"Then the country can decide: either we have these two cheats or we have athletes who are clean. This is where the British athletes will be challenged - because they will have to make principled decisions.

"This is going to be an Olympic Games watched by many youths and we don't want these cheats to have an opportunity to tarnish them."

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