Olympics: Coe wants life bans for cheaters

LONDON: London 2012 chairman Lord Coe called for a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs cheats a day after US 400-metre Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt’s ban against competing in next year’s Games was overturned. Merritt won a case in the Court of Arbitration for Sport after challenging the International Olympic Committee’s controversial rule which states that anyone banned for doping for sixth months or more should miss the next Olympics. “I am unreconstructed on this, I’d prefer a life ban,” said Coe.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2011.