New Zealand's Olympic chief-in-waiting, John Davies, wants Mark Todd to declare his innocence or guilt over allegations that he sniffed cocaine.
Double Olympic champion Todd has been included in a six-strong New Zealand equestrian team for the Olympics in Sydney in September despite the drug allegations in Britain's Sunday Mirror.
Todd has not publicly denied the allegations, and Eventing New Zealand, which picked him for the team, has not asked him about them, although cocaine, as well as being illegal in New Zealand and Britain, is banned by the International Olympic Committee.
Mr Davies, who succeeds Sir David Beattie as NZ Olympic Committee president on October 2, said yesterday: "A clear and frank statement should be made about the situation he is in."
Mr Davies, a former Olympian himself, stressed that this was his personal view only.
"Anybody who finds themselves in this situation should clarify what has happened," he told Radio Sport yesterday. "If it is not clear what happened, their own sporting organisation should seek to get that clarification.
"The Olympic committee should possibly put their selection on hold until the situation has been cleared."
Both the committee and Eventing NZ said on Wednesday that they were not prepared to act on unsubstantiated allegations against Todd.
"One of the things that I'd be concerned about is that [speculation] will continue to go on and more newspaper revelations are made at around the time of the Games," Mr Davies said.
"It should be a straightforward matter of getting a yes or no answer rather than letting the thing bubble away and having the possibility of us all looking embarrassed at some later stage."
NZOC secretary-general Michael Hooper reiterated on Wednesday that the committee had received assurances from Eventing NZ that all its Olympic riders had met NZOC's performance-related selection criteria and its requirement that they "serve as an example to the sporting youth of New Zealand."
Mr Hooper said the NZOC had to accept the assurances until there was evidence to the contrary.
- NZPA
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from New Zealand
Finishing touches being put on disaster pods
Hawke's Bay company EPOD's creations are designed to be operational for 20 years.