American cyclist Tyler Hamilton is pleading his case this week.
The cyclist considered most likely to take the mantle from Lance Armstrong's shoulders is appealing his two-year suspension from professional cycling for allegedly blood doping to enhance performance.
Hamilton and his lawyers and officials from the US Anti-Doping Agency are presenting each sides' evidence to the Swiss-based Court for Arbitration in Sport meeting in a Denver hotel. The American Arbitration Association had heard the case earlier, but ruled against Hamilton in April.
If the suspension stands, Hamilton would be 36 years old before he gets back to professional cycling.
The doping charges were levelled during last year's Vuelta a Espana. His gold medal for the individual time trial in the 2004 Summer Games was also in jeopardy, but officials ruled the samples there were mishandled.
An article in the Aspen Times lays out Hamilton's defense that he didn't receive transfusions to increase his red blood cell count. Hamilton claims that the other “blood markers” could have come from a twin in his mother womb that never developed. Also, he points out that different labs have reached different results.
Hamilton writes in his online journal about how the charges and appeals have changed his life.
The appeal is expected to last the week; there is no deadline for a ruling.
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