JOHANNESBURG: IOC President Thomas Bach opposes any lessening of Lance Armstrong’s lifetime doping ban, saying any appeals for leniency by the disgraced American rider are “too little, too late”.
After urging the World Anti-Doping Agency to introduce tougher punishments for drug cheats, Bach said that Armstrong has not made a “real admission” and his ban should not be reviewed.
Armstrong has suggested he might co-operate with a cycling commission investigating doping in return for a reduction in his life ban from all organised sport.
Speculation has increased on Tuesday after WADA said an independent cycling investigation was imminent.
“I would not feel comfortable with this (reducing Armstrong’s ban) because it is too little, too late. It was not even a real admission,” Bach said on Wednesday after addressing delegates at the World Conference on Doping in Sport.
“Now trying to bargain a deal there after everything has been proven, and now that he realises he doesn’t just get off the hook – this is not the best way, to lessen a sanction or to be lenient there in any way,” he added.
Bach supported cycling’s move toward an open process with regard to its drug-stained past.
Cycling and its dark doping history has become a key behind-the-scenes issue at the conference.
Bach will meet with Brian Cookson, the new head of cycling governing body UCI, on Wednesday or Thursday in Johannesburg.
Bach, who was elected to succeed Jacques Rogge in September, voiced his support for doubling the standard suspension for serious doping violations from two years to four.
WADA is expected to approve the move to four-year bans later this week along with other revisions to the international anti-doping code.
The new code will come into effect on January 1, 2015 and in time for the next Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.