22 June 2004	Tuesday	03 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

SYDNEY, June 21: The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has banned former world junior track cycling champion Mark French from the Olympics for life for seven doping violations, including two of drug trafficking.

French, 19, who was recently suspended for two years for doping, is the only Australian ever to receive an Olympic life ban. He told Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) investigators that he was introduced to the drugs by senior Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) riders.

"Today Bob Elphinston, the AOC secretary-general, has written to Mark French advising him that in light of the fact that two of the charges against him that were found proven involved trafficking, Mark is ineligible for life to represent Australia at the Olympic Games," AOC lawyer Simon Rofe told a news conference on Monday.

"If Mark French was to give substantial assistance in giving evidence as to other people involved in these offences there is potential for his sanction to be reduced, but in any event it will be a minimum for eight years under the world anti-doping code."

Cycling Australia was given a three-week deadline two days ago to complete an urgent investigation into allegations that riders at the AIS injected banned drugs at a "shooting gallery".

The AOC ordered the inquiry after the federal parliament was told elite track riders were regularly using performance-enhancing drugs, including a growth hormone used for horses.

According to a CAS report, French provided a statement naming five other riders. The names were passed on to Cycling Australia and the Australian Sports Commission. The two trafficking charges against French involve gluco corticosteroid and equine growth hormone.

French's father David said: "We cannot believe today's news. Mark has obviously become a political football. "Is there any other Australian athlete who has been punished like this without ever having tested positive to a banned substance?" - Reuters