Dwain Chambers

"It was either be regular or not. There were a lot of things flying through my mind. A lot of people have said that if they'd been in my shoes they would have done the same thing. I wasn't intending to cheat the system. I just wanted to get even. I was fed up with losing. As far as I was concerned everyone else was doing it. I thought other people were doing wrong. I was losing and I thought, 'I'm not busting my arse to lose.'"

Dwain Chambers divides opinion. Frustration at consecutive defeat and a suspicion that others were cheating to win led him to a position where he willingly submitted his body to guinea pig experimentation to see if he could shave crucial milliseconds off of his 100 metre sprint time. He got caught, did the time and is now back, penitent and desirous of a clean slate to apply his running spikes to.

Whilst some are happy to see Chambers return to the track, many high-profile names such as Sebastian Coe and Kelly Holmes have spoken out against Chambers' return and the British Olympic Association agree - whilst he is allowed to run in other athletics events, the Olympics are a closed door to Dwain.

Life bans for drug cheats make for good headlines, but I feel uneasy about the unforgiving attitude of the athletics hierarchy. Part of Chambers' unpopularity is rooted in the forthright honesty with which he, perhaps unwisely, answered BBC questions in 2006, when he claimed that drugs were needed to compete. This sticky smearing of the athletics world was what caused many to abandon their mercy towards Dwain. An honest assessment is surely better than insincerity though. And surely if he has fulfilled the punishment for the crime he should be allowed to return: where is the justice in denying him? A common argument is that we need to give a clear and harsh message about drugs to youngsters, but surely a message about life being redeemable despite mistakes is an important message too, even if it isn't as headline-friendly.