OPINION - Tough stance on Yates over Games the right move

ANENDRA SINGH
It was late September in 2004 when rumours of Jeremy Yates' alleged drug-taking filtered through the SportToday newsroom.
I immediately contacted his father, Bryan, of Hastings, considering I had a good rapport with the Yates family.
I had written endless centimetres on Yates and his relatives at the Athens Olympics, often arriving at the office late in the night to phone them in Greece.
That conviviality came to an abrupt halt on the morning of September 24 when Bryan instructed me not to publish "that story" on his son.
I explained that it was on radio and TV and would be in newspapers around the world, let alone New Zealand, the next day, but to no avail.
Yates, the then 22-year-old former junior world road champion on the European circuit, had been called to appear before the doping commission of the Belgium Cyclists Union with six other cyclists.
He had refused to provide a B sample and appear for an initial hearing after his A sample contained unusually high levels of testosterone,
An understandably terse Bryan told me it "wasn't the end of the world" for his son.
"Well, at least he's not an axe murderer or something. People have done worse. There's life after that."
He issued a warning to me that if Hawke's Bay Today printed anything on Yates, he would not talk to SportToday again.
"Call me after Christmas," Bryan signed off.
Many Christmases have gone by and I haven't.
Nevertheless, the rumours came to pass and the rest is history after Yates served a two-year ban.
Late last year, after serving his two-year ban, Yates broke his silence and gave a Sunday newspaper a warts-and-all account of his misguided days in Europe.
But late last week his tumultuous teenage years came back to haunt him after the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) crushed his hopes of flying the New Zealand flag in the Beijing Olympics in August.
That prompted Ramblers Cycling Club chairman Ivan Aplin to remark that Yates would have been better off doing time in prison, provided it wasn't a heinous crime such as rape or murder.
I disagree. When you do the crime, you do the time, to use an old aphorism.
It seems BikeNZ has done everything possible to pave the way for Yates to snake his way back into the competitive peleton. While that is commendable, as Aplin would argue in the light of rehabilitating offenders, it begs the question: "Does the punishment fit the crime if Yates is allowed to go to another Olympics simply because it is staged every four years?"
Take your hats off to NZOC secretary-general Barry Maister for taking a tough stand on the issue.
To have allowed Yates or any other drug offenders such as British sprinter Dwain Chambers to compete would make a mockery of the concerted international campaign to counter the scourge of drug-taking that continues to ruin lives.
Maister said: "We have no tolerance for them and we want to keep New Zealand as a drugs-free sports culture.
"If an athlete has a positive [drugs] test at or around one Olympic Games, if they serve a mandatory two-year stand down after that, then they can just rock up to the next Games and nothing has changed," he said.
Enough said. Drug users have not only deprived fellow competitors of a place on the podium but have robbed them of their livelihood. Success on the international stage inevitably creates images that yield mega-bucks for the champions.
That disgraced US sprinter Marion Jones won gold at various Olympics means she defrauded several silver medallists of the opportunity to realise their potential in many facets of their lives.
Those who dabble in drugs are victims, too.
They do irreparable damage to their bodies and bring heartache to their loved ones.
But let's face it. Sport is a microcosm of our daily existence. That people cheat doesn't bother us as much as the fact that it affects others.
Besides, what's there to say Yates is still not benefiting from the effects of those drugs in his system?
* Do you have an opinion? To contribute: email sport@hbtoday.co.nz, fax 06 8730811 or write to Box 180, Hastings.