GMC ruling might not be the end but rather a midpoint in the scandal that is undermining elite British cycling
To quote Monty Python’s Flying Circus, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. And until recently, few would have envisaged that the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service of the General Medical Council might play a defining role in a scandal that has embroiled the UK’s most prolific Olympic sport and its spin-off professional team backed by Sky and now Ineos. But then the past 23 years of doping scandals have taken cycling to some strange places.
By the end of Dr Richard Freeman’s marathon fitness to practice hearing, however, any element of surprise was missing. Given the inadequacy of Freeman’s explanations, his destruction of evidence and the persistent chopping and changing of his story, there was perfect logic in the verdict that he had, on the balance of probability, acquired the banned drug testosterone “knowing or believing it was for” an unnamed athlete. He now faces further hearings and a UK Anti-Doping inquiry, which between them will keep this narrative lurching along for quite a while yet.
Written by William Fotheringham
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/mar/13/brailsford-and-ineos-must-be-fretful-that-freeman-now-has-nothing-to-lose under the title “Freeman now has nothing to lose in a lurching, revealing narrative | William Fotheringham”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
