Two-time Danish mountain bike champion Peter Riis Andersen was thrown out of the Beijing Olympics on Monday, after testing positive for the banned blood-boosting agent EPO (Erythropoietin).
A tearful Riis Andersen admitted at a news conference in the Danish Copenhagen that he had taken the banned blood booster, apologized and said that he would retire from professional cycling.
Peter Riis Andersen, Danish mountain bike champion said "It made me do better. But I don't know if maybe I'm not cut out for being a cheater in sports. What I hadn't thought about before, starting this, was how hard it would be mentally, knowing that the others probably prepared themselves and worked hard to be able to do what they did using legal and pure methods. And for me to compete with them, my legs were still hurting, and I wasn't getting remarkable results at the time. So it was as if, inside my head, I was faced with the idea of how wrong it was because the others didn't get slower. It was as if it was hard for me to handle the fact that inside my head, it was very difficult to be a cheater. I hadn't given that any thought before joining the 'sinners' club."
(CCTV July 30, 2008)
