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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Cycling: Schumacher drops Olympic doping appeal


Associated Press

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — German cyclist Stefan Schumacher has given up his fight against disqualification from the Beijing Olympics for doping with the blood-booster CERA.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Tuesday that Schumacher withdrew his appeal against the sanction imposed last year by the International Olympic Committee.

Schumacher had traces of the banned drug in a blood sample analyzed using a new test several months after the games in August 2008. His Olympic results will be wiped from the records. He was 13th in the time trial and did not finish the road race.

The 28-year-old Schumacher was already barred from the 2012 London Olympics because he is currently serving a two-year ban after testing positive for CERA at the 2008 Tour de France.

Under IOC anti-doping rules, athletes are ruled ineligible for the games if they receive a doping ban of more than six months.

Schumacher first tested positive for CERA, the latest version of performance-enhancing hormone EPO, in samples taken before and during the 2008 Tour in which he won both individual time trials.

Two months after the race — and several weeks after Schumacher competed at Beijing — he was caught when the French anti-doping agency developed a new test.

He was first banned from competing in France for two years, then the International Cycling Union extended the sanction worldwide.

Schumacher challenged the governing body at CAS and lost in January. However, sport's highest court moved the ban's start date, clearing him to return on Aug. 28.

A second doping case from the Beijing Olympics cycling races has not been resolved.

Italy's Davide Rebellin, who took silver in the road race, also tested positive for CERA after the IOC ordered a second round of tests and is challenging his disqualification. CAA has not yet set a date for Rebellin's appeal hearing.