the former chief doctor for british
cycling and team sky
has been found guilty of ordering a
banned performance enhancing drug
knowing or believing it would be used to
dope a rider
the charges against richard freeman date
back to 2011
a year before the london olympics the
british cycling team enjoyed huge
success during his time as the sport's
top medic
he admitted 18 out of 22 charges at a
medical tribunal
our sports editor dan rowan has more for
the past decade british cyclings enjoyed
unprecedented success
dominating on both the road and track
for much of that time richard freeman
was the sport's top doctor
but two years after his medical tribunal
began today came the verdict
cycling had dreaded the panel said he
had ordered testosterone the sport's
doping drug of choice
his conduct incapable of innocent
explanation
and it was clear that when dr freeman
placed the order he knew or believed it
was to be administered to an athlete to
improve their athletic performance
the big question is who was a
testosterone which rider was it ordered
for
it's uh seriously damaging i'm not sure
how pretty cycling in the sport can
recover
and the reputation of the sport in terms
of management and governance in tatters
the saga began in 2011 when freeman
ordered testagel from a local supplier
to the sports hq
six years later having already left team
sky the medic resigned from british
cycling
in 2019 he admitted to 18 gmc charges
including initially lying to uk
anti-doping and last month he was
charged by the agency with two
anti-doping rule violations
freeman told the tribunal he ordered the
drug to treat the erectile dysfunction
of this man
former british cycling technical
director shane sutton who denied the
claim
i just think it casts a shadow over you
know great athletes and
and you know there's not many i'd stick
my hand in the fire for but you know
all these guys i worked with you know i
maintained that you know
well that under brailles but we we run
the cleanest program in the world and it
just saddens me to think that this is
now going to be an ongoing investigation
back in 2018 freeman told me he'd clear
his name
i can clear everything up but at the
moment i am
under investigation about my medicines
management policy by the general medical
council
and therefore i am not at liberty at the
present time
due to respect for them not to talk
about it but no wrongdoing
no wrongdoing but today a man who for
years worked closely with some of the
biggest names in british sport tour de
france winner sir bradley wiggins and
team boss sir dave brailsford among them
was told his explanation was implausible
british cycling
said today's seismic verdict was
extremely disturbing but insisted that
they'd reformed
since the days when freeman worked here
but this
is the gravest blow to date to the
reputation of one of the country's most
successful
and best funded olympic sport and it
leaves a series of unanswered questions
which rider was involved and who else
knew
today brailsford's team ineos which
replaced team sky two years ago said it
didn't believe
any athlete ever used or sought to use
the testosterone
but the sports attempt to move on from
this scandal just got harder
dan rowan bbc news