As Dwain Chambers opened his latest can of worms this week with some damning allegations with the serialisation of his autobiography Race Against Me many people will have missed the fact that Chambers stormed to gold in the final of the European Indoor Championship in Turin. Perhaps even better than his victory in the final was his sensational performance in the semi final, which was the third fastest run over that distance of all time.
However despite his performances Chambers continues to polarise opinions. This was no more evident than in the BBC’s coverage of the event. Steve Cram, Jonathan Edwards, and Colin Jackson could barely hide their contempt for the British runner. Considering the BBC’s commitment to impartiality their behaviour was nothing short of a disgrace.
The plain facts are is that Chambers, sadly, is a victim of his own honesty. Had he feigned innocence, like most convicted drug cheats with the normal party line of ‘I have never knowingly taken a banned substance’ he would have been welcomed back into the sport with open arms. Which in 2006 he was. Take for example this quote from Kelly Holmes just after Chambers made his first comeback into the sport before the European Championships in 2006. Talking to Five Live’s sportsweek our double Olympic champion said, “ It was right that he was out of the sport for the time he was, but he’s come back. He’s a great athlete, and we probably need him back in the sport.”
Fast forward two years, however, and Holmes has seemingly had a vast change of heart. “We believed him when he said it was a mistake. That was before it came out that he had taken this drug knowingly. I believed there was a big mistake but then he admitted he had taken drugs. That changes your views about a person.”
But the righteous one didn’t stop there.
“He is being treated in the way he deserves to be treated. He needs to start looking at himself and realise why people don’t believe he should be in the sport.”
It is impossible to understand where Holmes is coming from on this. What she is basically saying is that if Chambers had denied all knowledge of how the drugs had got into his system he would have been welcomed back with open arms. However, because he was honest and brave enough to own up to the mistakes that he made he has been ostracised.
He has been spurned from all the top European meetings and his competitive running opportunities are now extremely limited. Some have said he should have been banned from the sport full stop. This is wrong. Chambers committed the crime and served his time. Everybody deserves a second chance.
Dwain Chambers is no different.
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