United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) chief executive Travis Tygart has said that American sprinter Justin Gatlin has a right to earn redemption and believes that athletes banned for doping offences deserve another chance.
Gatlin, who has served two drug bans, is the world's fastest man in 2014. Tygart said that if somebody commits a violation, serves a ban and comes back to the sport, part of the rule is this idea of redemption.
Gatlin has been a controversial figure since returning from his second ban in 2011, but his stunning times this year have provoked fury from many fans and rivals. He ran the fastest 100-metre and 200-metre by a man in his thirties this summer, The BBC reported.
This anger has only increased since research from Oslo University suggested athletes could benefit from steroids for years after they stopped taking them.
Tygart said that there is some recent science on the effect of steroids on mice, but there is no proof yet it translates to humans.
Tygart, who in 2012 declared the conclusive and undeniable proof that American cyclist Armstrong was a drug cheat who was at the heart of a team-run doping conspiracy, said that they have looked at the recent science and one has to be cautious about changing the goalposts in the middle of the game based on a few sound-bites in the press from one paper on mice.
Tygart said that that is not fair, adding that what is fair and what athletes and the public rely on, is a set of rules that are enforced evenly.
For an athlete who commits a doping offence, Tygart acknowledges that there is always a cloud that follows that person, but that's not a question for the rules, that's people's opinions.