Rio 2016 Olympics: Ban all drugs cheats for good not just the Russians, says Team GB swimmer Adam Peaty
ADAM PEATY has called for ALL drug cheats to be chucked out of swimming at the Rio Olympics - not just the Russians.
Seven Russian swimmers have been barred from the Rio Games by the sport's governing body FINA who have refused to follow in the footsteps of athletics and suspend the entire team.
They include three linked to recent allegations of Cold War style state-sponsored doping with positive tests covered up at a Moscow lab.
Those three are Beijing 2008 silver and London 2012 bronze medallist Nikita Lobintsev, London 2012 bronze medallist Vladimir Morozov and world junior record holder Daria Ustinova.
And reigning world 100m breaststroke champion Yulia Efimova is among four Russians barred by Olympic chiefs under a ruling last week because they having previously served doping bans.
Morozov and Lobintsev launched an appeal on Saturday against the ban claiming they have never failed a drug test. The two were suspended after being named in the McLaren report in relation to the "disappearing positives" programme at the Moscow lab but insist they are clean.
The same lab had been implicated in Russia hosting the World Swimming Championships in Kazan last summer.
But Peaty, who won three world titles in Kazan and is favourite for the Olympic 100m breaststoke title in Rio, believes there should be a lifetime ban for ALL drug cheats.
Peaty, 21, speaking at the Team GB training camp in Belo Horizonte, said: "If you cheat you should be out for life.
"It doesn't matter if you've done it once, twice or three times you should be out and hopefully that is how everyone feels. It should be a life ban.
"Hopefully it won't affect me as I'm going out there to win, but it's for those people who come fourth and miss out on a medal because someone doped - that's bad for those who believe in the sport.
"Swimming and all other sports have got to get to that place where you have the trust of the people watching it.
"You don't want people thinking you're a cheat just because you're really fast and have broken the world record by a second. Olympic champions should be 100 per cent athletes who have made the sacrifices.
"When you hear of Russia and state doping and the World Championships (in Kazan) being involved that just makes it 100 times worse but I'm not FINA and I'm not paid to make those decisions to throw out the entire team.
";I just want to focus on my swimming and hopefully producing the best performance of my life for Britain and the team."
The Russian Swimming Federation has had 27 athletes serve bans between 2010 and 2015.