2008 Olympic champion Eric Lamaze banned from equestrian until 2031 for breaking doping rules

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Equestrian rider Eric Lamaze, an Olympic champion in 2008, has been banned from the sport until 2031 after a second four-year doping suspension was imposed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The court’s judges ordered the Canadian star to serve the latest ban for evading a doping control in the Netherlands in 2021, the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) said in a statement Monday.

That ban will not start until the expiry in September 2027 of a previous four-year ban ordered in the case by the FEI.

“While CAS proceedings were ongoing, Mr. Lamaze submitted forged medical documents, which led to a four-year ineligibility period,” the equestrian governing body said.

Lamaze won individual gold and team silver in jumping aboard Hickstead at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and guided the inexperienced mare Fine Lady to bronze at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Lamaze and Hickstead were inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.

The three-time Olympian missed competing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2000 Sydney Olympics in the fallout from positive tests for cocaine.

After stating in May of 2019 that he’d been dealing with a brain tumour for over a year, Lamaze continued to ride and win show jumping events for several months.

He officially retired in 2022. His last time representing Canada was anchoring the host country to victory at a Nations Cup at Calgary’s Spruce Meadows in 2021.

After his retirement, Equestrian Canada named Lamaze technical adviser and head of national jumping teams. He was replaced by Ian Millar in February 2023.

Now 56, the Montreal-born Lamaze will be 63 when his current bans expire.

The FEI said Lamaze also was fined 15,000 Swiss francs ($16,500) and ordered to pay 12,000 Swiss francs ($13,000) toward the governing body’s legal costs plus the costs of the arbitration case.

— With files from The Canadian Press