Cycling Australia (CA) has been rocked by another doping revelation in the wake of the Lance Armstrong scandal, with vice president Stephen Hodge quitting yesterday after admitting to doping during his time as a professional rider.
“During a stage of my career as a professional cyclist I took performance enhancing drugs — a decision I am not proud of,” Hodge wrote in a letter to CA.
His resignation came in the same week as CA fired road racing coordinator Matt White after it was revealed he was involved in doping while a teammate of Armstrong on the US Postal team in 2003. The admissions follow the US Anti-Doping Agency’s damning report into Armstrong’s career.
Hodge raced as pro in Europe from 1987 to 1996 with several teams including KAS-Mavic, Caja-Rural Orbea and ONCE. He was appointed to the CA board in 1999 and became vice president in 2007.
PRAISE
CA president Klaus Mueller commended Hodge’s decision to confess to his past involvement with performance enhancing substances and praised him for his contribution to the CA board.
“At all times while Stephen was on the board with me he acted with high principle and great integrity and has been a staunch opponent of doping,” Mueller said.
“In light of the current circumstances Stephen has made it clear he doesn’t want a mistake he made two decades ago to affect the work of Cycling Australia to take the sport forward,” Mueller said.
Hodge apologized to the board and other cyclists in the letter.
“I believe other cyclists should never have to face the same pressures I did during my professional career,” he said.
CONTRIBUTION
“I would also like to believe that in my 13 years as a director of CA I have been able to make a valuable contribution in this regard, as well as helping to encourage the growth and strength of cycling as a sport in Australia,” Hodge said.
Hodge represented Australia at 10 world championships, the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games and the Atlanta Olympics, as well as completing the Tour de France six times.
He is a patron of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Ride for a Cure charity and the mentoring organization for adolescent boys, Men’s Link.
Hodge said he shared CA’s strong commitment to the fight against doping while serving as a board member.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB