USA TODAY - British athletes will compete in Beijing without masks

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LONDON
By Stuart Condie, The Associated Press

British athletes will compete without pollution-protection masks at the Beijing Olympics.

The British Olympic Association said Wednesday that the International Olympic Committee had endorsed the view that air quality in Beijing will meet required standards.

"There is no intention to wear masks," BOA president Colin Moynihan said. "The IOC monitors air quality and is protecting the world's athletes."

The BOA had said last month that it was considering supplying its athletes with masks to counter pollution.

Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia said this week he may skip the event in Beijing because of the city's poor air quality. Chinese officials responded by saying measures to cut the city's notorious smog were on course.

Gebrselassie, who has asthma, said he fears damage to his health by running through the streets of the Chinese capital.

Speaking after the BOA's annual general meeting, Moynihan and BOA chief executive Simon Clegg said that masks, which could particularly be useful to distance runners like Paula Radcliffe, would be unnecessary.

Clegg said the decision was based on IOC advice rather than a politically motivated desire by the BOA, which is involved in the planning for the 2012 London Games, to spare the host city any embarrassment.

Moynihan also said that the BOA would fight any court challenge by Dwain Chambers to overturn his Olympic ban.

The British sprinter, who served a doping ban from 2003 to 2005 after testing positive for the steroid THG, won a silver medal in the 60 meters at last week's World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain, and is reportedly considering a challenge to Britain's lifetime Olympic ban on dope cheats.

The move could allow him to compete at the Beijing Games, but Moynihan said the BOA would use the best lawyers it could if Chambers appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport or Britain's High Court.

"If he wishes to challenge our bylaw, he is entitled to challenge it and we will robustly defend it," Moynihan said. "There is no room for compromise. There is a bylaw and we will stand behind it in the interest of free and fair competition."

The BOA also still intends to field a British soccer team at the 2012 London Games despite the latest comments from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who said he opposes the plan for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to compete as one nation.

Blatter previously said he supported the idea, reassuring the countries' federations that combining for the games would not affect their future as separate teams, but seemed to change his mind after last weekend's meeting of soccer's International Board in Scotland.

"Clearly there is a change in position but that does not alter our prime objective that we send men's and women's Great Britain teams to the Olympics," Moynihan said. "There'll be no bar to any footballer in this country who wants to compete."

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