The inclusion of David Millar on the long list for the men's Olympic cycling road race was a sad day for Olympic sport in Britain.
If, as expected, he is confirmed in the team when it is trimmed down to five on July 6, he will be the most high-profile athlete (as well as sprinter Dwain Chambers) to benefit from the Court of Arbitration's decision to overthrow the British Olympic Committee's lifetime ban for athletes who have served drugs bans.
When the suspicion arose that it was likely that the BOA by-law would be overturned, Millar voiced concerns over his possible inclusion in Team GB, stating that he had no wish to become the "black sheep" of the London Olympics having served a two-year Olympic ban for doping. This was despite Mark Cavendish strongly backing Millar, saying he would "love" to have him in the team. Millar was an integral part of the British team which helped Cavendish win gold at last year's World Championships.
Millar has backtracked, asserting that it would be "stupid and selfish" to rule himself out of contention amid fears of a backlash because of his past. If he is selected, it would be his second Olympic Games, 12 years after competing in his first, and it would be despite the fact that 90% of British athletes supported the BOA's stance of lifetime Olympic bans for doping cheats.
Millar may have a point when he voiced his concern about his past being brought up. There has already been a disproportionately large amount of media coverage about his, and Chambers', possible selection, and I fear that they would continue to dominate and potentially overshadow other athletes during the Games.
Despite the fact that I am a strong advocate of lifetime bans, I have nothing against either Millar or Chambers. I was a team-mate of Millar's at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and I found him to be an intelligent, engaging guy.
I do, though, have a huge issue with the bigger picture their selection would point to. The lifetime ban acted as a deterrent to potential dopers and I feel the fact that this has been revoked could, potentially, encourage more athletes to take the risk.
As with the majority of high-achieving people, athletes are driven, with the predominant motivation being about what will improve their performance, often with little regard for how that may sit in the bigger picture. This is why there is such importance in having a strong anti-doping stance.
While there will always be some athletes for whom there will be no punishment great enough to stop them taking drugs, I am sure that there are others who would be more willing to take the risk if they know that the heaviest punishment they will face is a two-year ban, which is now the case.
For me, and many other British athletes who will be part of Team GB next month, it has been my life-long dream to compete in the Olympic, and I feel it is a fair punishment for those who cheat to be excluded from this single, sacred event. They can compete in every other competition but the Olympics represent something different.
Pulling on a GB Olympic tracksuit should be reserved for those who have got there the hard way: through blood, sweat and tears, and not through doping.
n Susan Egelstaff is Britain's No.1 women's singles badminton player and will compete at the London Olympics
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article