It had to be a cyclist!

It had to be a cyclist! The first Olympic athlete to fail a drug test at the Beijing Olympics is cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno of Spain. Fortunately, she did not compete in the women’s road race having withdrawn before her event. She was tested on July 31 and left the games that same day sighting an anxiety attack as the reason for her departure. "A Spanish cycling federation official who accompanied Moreno to the drug test in the Olympic village told AP that she emerged from the test crying and asked to return to Spain immediately, even before the results were announced. (LA Times)" Moreno was officially kicked out of the games on Monday (8-11-08) after her “B” test came back positive for EPO.

She has not only disgraced herself, but she has embarrassed the entire cycling community and sullied the already tarnished image of a great sport. The International Olympic Committee warned cycling officials before the Beijing games to clean up their sport or run the risk of having it dropped from future Olympics along with other drug-tainted sports like weightlifting. This latest doping scandal will only add fuel to the fire for critics of cycling and possibly discourage team sponsorship in the future since companies will not want to risk having their corporate names smeared. The UCI and WADA simply must do more to clean up the sport along with the various national governing bodies. If banning a cheat for two years isn't deterrent enough, then perhaps, it's time to get law enforcement involved. At the end of the day, no one can do more to repair the image of cycling than cyclists themselves.