'I'll sue!': Top British athlete confronted over Sunday Times doping crisis claims
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Updated 02/08/2015 at 09:04 GMT
A 'top British athlete' has threatened to sue the Sunday Times after being caught up in the huge doping scandal erupting in the sport.
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The paper, along with German broadcaster ARD/WDR, has published some astonishing revelations about the widespread extent of doping in athletics after being given access to a database detailing the results of more than 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 athletes.
Around 4 per cent of British athletes are alleged to have recorded abnormal scores in blood doping analysis leading up to the eve of London 2012, with the Sunday Times putting the total figure at "a dozen".
While the data of Olympic champions such as Mo Farah and Jess Ennis-Hill is normal, one athlete in particular has aroused suspicion with some blood results which, according to the paper, have only a one in a thousand chance of occurring naturally.
The Sunday Times says it will not name the athlete in question as the whistleblower who leaked the data did not want athletes' identities to be revealed, but the paper details the moment when the top athlete was confronted with the information.
[FULL STORY FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES: A dozen top British athletes have recorded abnormal scores]
The person in question "looked shaken" as they told the Sunday Times they "never cheated".
Referring to Lance Armstrong's libel action against the Sunday Times following suggestions he doped during his Tour de France victories, which he later admitted and then had to repay the paper, the athlete added: “You print it and I sue you [and] you won’t be getting any money back in future like Lance Armstrong — I promise you that.”
The Sunday Times lays out the case against the athlete:
"In order to assess whether an athlete is blood-doping, the official testers take the readings of an athlete’s haemoglobin and reticulocyte levels and then use a mathematical formula to produce a marker called an off-score.
"Studies have shown that the higher the off-score, above a certain threshold, the greater the likelihood that an athlete is doping.
"The blood-doping files contain the results of nearly 500 tests on British team members over 11 years. Of all of them, the athlete has the highest score above the abnormal threshold."
The athlete says their results were elevated due to dehydration after winning a race in hot temperatures.
The paper adds: "A second high test several years later did spark an investigation by the IAAF. The British athlete said that 12 experts from the IAAF had viewed the data on these tests and 11 had concluded that the results were consistent with an athlete training at altitude."
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