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The three-man panel appointed by the US Anti Doping Authority to sit on the Floyd Landis hearing handed down a 2 to 1 decision against Landis on September 20th.
Both the majority decision and the dissent are available from the USADA website. Click on 2007. The majority decision is an 84-page PDF. The dissent is 26 pages.
The dissent by attorney Christopher Cambell, who has a long record of finding against athletes in doping hearings, was scathing of the anti-doping hearing procedures and severely critical of the Parisian drug-testing lab at the centre of the Landis case. The other two panel members were also critical of the French lab, throwing out the original screening tests, but deeming other results to be above board.
Landis did not immediately say he would appeal the decision. Today he has revealed he will go the next stage. Supposedly this is the final appeal but Landis may wish to get his case heard by a federal court, in which the standards to which labs are held are far greater than in anti-doping cases.
“Knowing that the accusations against me are simply wrong, and having risked all my energy and resources – including those of my family, friends and supporters – to show clearly that I won the 2006 Tour de France fair and square, I will continue to fight for what I know is right," said Landis.
"Doping in sport seems to continue to get worse under the current anti-doping system, and this is only a part of the huge amount of proof that the WADA/USADA system needs a total overhaul.
"I will continue to work to clear my name and fight for change in the name of fairness and justice. No matter the final outcome of my case, there must be change in the current system if athletes can ever hope to compete on a level playing field and return to the joy and inspiration that sport can bring all of us.
“My hope is that the CAS panel will review my case on the basis of the facts and the science, and to approach my appeal from the principle that the anti-doping authorities must uphold the highest levels of appropriate process, technical skill, science and professional standards to pronounce judgment on matters that hold an athlete’s career, accomplishments and livelihood in the balance.”
"Doping is a cultural problem, and it is obviously a wrong that needs to be addressed and corrected, but perpetrating a cynical and corrupt anti-doping system will not solve the problem. Two wrongs never make a right.”
