Oswald, the 1968 Olympic bronze medallist in the coxed fours who is President of the International Rowing Federation as well as chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for London 2012, believes there will always be athletes looking to gain an illegal advantage but that those caught must be worked with to help stamp it out.

"I think the principles that are applied in Criminal Law should apply as well [in sport]," said Oswald at a round table session on doping in sport at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

"You have to take into account the personal circumstances of the athlete, and we should find ways to improve the cooperation with public bodies in order to become more efficient in the fight against doping."

Last year Andy Parkinson, the chief executive of UK Anti-Doping, claimed that the British Olympic Association's (BOA) lifetime ban on any competitor suspended for drugs was stopping athletes who tested positive cooperating with his organisation.

Oswald also backed the athlete biological passport as crucial.

The passport is an individual, electronic record for professional athletes in which profiles of biological markers of doping and results of doping tests are collated over a period of time.

Doping violations can be detected by noting variances from an athlete's established levels outside permissible limits, rather than testing for and identifying illegal substances.

"If you follow the results of an athlete over a long period of time then you should be able to determine if there is something abnormal without having all the dispute linked with the analysis and the procedure in the lab, so it's certainly a good step forward," said Oswald.

"Now I'm not aware of ways, so far, to go around this passport but we have to be cautious because there are always people trying to find ways around the rules."

Oswald added that doping in sport will always be a contentious issue as there are natural physical hormonal differences between every athlete, but he added drugs must be kept out of sport to make the playing field as fair and level as possible.

"There is a fundamental right for people to practise sport with a good chance of success without taking drugs," he said.

"Total equality between human beings doesn't exist.

"It is very difficult to act on these differences but we feel that where we can bring more equality we should do it so that every athlete starts on the same starting line.

"We also have to deal a lot with very young people when they start sport and they should not have a bad example."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
December 2010: Exclusive - BOA lifetime doping ban is impeding our work says UKAD chief