Dr Richard Freeman: Guilty verdict and the questions it raises - why this saga is far from over

 

Just over four months before the start of the Olympics, British sport has suffered arguably its most serious doping scandal.

Is it really that bad? After all, Richard Freeman is not a household name. He left cycling four years ago. He is a medic, not an athlete. The delivery of testosterone this saga revolves around was made almost a decade ago. Team Sky is gone, taken over by Team Ineos. British Cycling has made reforms, and claims to be a very different organisation since the days when its former doctor had the keys to the national velodrome's medicine storeroom.

But the gravity of the devastating guilty verdict handed down on Friday morning by the panel after a remarkable, two-year long medical tribunal that has done lasting damage to the sport's reputation should not be underestimated.

Consider just how much glory British Cycling enjoyed, on both the road and the track, in the years when Freeman helped some of the country's top riders achieve unprecedented success - 24 medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and six Tour de France victories between 2012 and 2018.

Consider the cloud of suspicion that sadly now taints that golden era, however unfair that may be on the riders who are entirely innocent.

Think about the hundreds of millions of pounds in public money given to a national governing body credited by funding agency UK Sport as a model set-up. And the half a million pounds spent on the much-delayed tribunal, without even taking into account the General Medical Council's (GMC) legal costs.

And then there's the timing. The fact the Testogel was delivered to the velodrome just a year before London 2012.

After a hearing that at times descended into farce, with admissions of an elaborate cover-up, shambolic medical record-keeping, ignorance of basic rules, a destroyed laptop, drugs poured down a sink, claims of erectile dysfunction, stocks of viagra, staff feuds and a furious key witness storming out mid-evidence while Freeman gave evidence behind a screen because of his stress and mental health issues, remember the grim finale - that the former top medic in the sport has been found guilty of a doping offence.

Recall the professionalism and excellence that we were told lay behind cycling's emergence as Team GB's so-called 'medal factory', the driving force behind the country's status as an Olympic and Paralympic super-power at successive Games.

And do not forget the praise and honours heaped on those Freeman worked under at British Cycling and Team Sky: Sir Dave Brailsford, once hailed as a British sporting guru and the architect of the country's cycling revolution, Dr Steve Peters, one of the foremost names in sports medicine, and Brian Cookson OBE, who went on to become the most powerful figure in the sport as president of international cycling federation, the UCI.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any of them in connection with this, or any other case. But there are still questions to answer.

Not least, which rider was Freeman helping to cheat? Was it just one?

And given the attention to detail and thoroughness that British Cycling and Team Sky were once renowned for, how realistic is it to believe that no-one else knew what Freeman was doing? How credible is it that he was the rogue operator that some in the sport now perhaps conveniently portray him as? - from source bbc.com