Wow, wild story here on thestar.com, about life-banned Canadian coach Cecil Russell who apparently has continued to coach ever since being banned for life in first 1997 and then 2007. Right, his own kids are of Olympic quality, his daughter a finalist in this year’s world championship, and the Dolphin Swim Club parents are supporting him, claiming it is a violation of human rights to punish their club for having this guy on deck. But, we are not talking ‘just’ doping, but also narcotics and disposal of a murder victim. I will second this: “It’s a black cloud that hangs over Canadian swimming“. Via SwimNews.com
- He was banned for life from coaching in Canada in 1997 for his involvement in an international steroid trafficking ring.
- At the 1997 murder trial of one of his steroid trafficking associates, Russell admitted helping burn and dispose of the victim’s butchered body in a corn silo beside his Oshawa home.
- Russell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possession with intent to distribute ecstasy in 2003 and spent four years in prison in Spain and the U.S.
- He managed to get his lifetime coaching ban lifted in 2005 by claiming he’d been exonerated in the ecstasy case, but was banned for life a second time in June 2007 after American authorities unsealed documents after a front-page Saturday Star story showed Russell had likely misrepresented the case.
