Michael Rogers has been supported by some from within the Australian cycling community but five time Olympic medallist Anna Meares believes that the onus is on each rider to ensure that they don’t fail doping tests, and that each positive result damages the sport for others.
It was announced this week that Rogers had tested positive for Clenbuterol after winning the Japan Cup on October 20th. He released a statement today saying that he had never knowingly consumed the substance and that he believed it was due to food contamination at the earlier Tour of Beijing.
That is likely to form the basis of his defence, particularly as WADA’s director general David Howman said two years that organisers and governements had a responsibility to ensure that athletes competing in high-risk countries were protected from accidental contamination.
However Meares said that Cycling Australia’s riders had been warned at the World Cup track event in Mexico earlier this year about eating pork, beef and lamb. She believes that it is reasonable to expect that riders are careful in countries with known Clenbuterol problems in food.
“As professional athletes we need to take responsibility for what we're putting in our mouths and into our body on a food basis, on a supplements basis and on a medical basis,” she told ABC’s Grandstand programme in Australia.
“That needs to be really hit home to everyone, watching at home and all athletes participating and representing Australia.”
She said that if riders test positive, it not only harms their career but also makes things difficult for other riders.
“It can be frustrating to constantly have to be a representative for Cycling Australia [and] to have to answer questions,” she said, referring to the inevitable doping questions which follow high profile cases.
“I am a very positive person. I work very hard for the things I achieve and I don't like to have to answer for the poor decisions that other athletes may have made in their careers. It has a big flow-on effect.”
Rogers said today that he will meet the UCI early next year and put his case to the governing body. He said he wanted to resolve the situation as soon as possible.