MONTREAL (AP) — The British Olympic Association was declared “non-compliant” to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s global code.
The decision, which was voted on at WADA’s foundation board meeting Sunday, came at the end of a week in which WADA and the BOA exchanged barbs in a public spat between two major sports organizations.
WADA president John Fahey says he’s “very disappointed that it’s come to this.”
A BOA bylaw from 1992 bars British athletes for life from the Olympics if they are found guilty of doping.
Britain, which will host the 2012 London Olympics, is the only country that has such a rule.
The bylaw is under heavy pressure after the Court of Arbitration for Sport nullified the International Olympic Committee’s rule that would have banned any athletes who received a doping suspension of more than six months from competing in the next Games.
The court ruled that the IOC provision amounted to a second sanction and did not conform with the WADA Code, which sets out rules and sanctions for all sports and countries.
