| Irish Olympian Named in Betting Scandal |
An Irish Olympian involved in a dramatic betting scandal has been officially named as sailor Peter O’Leary.Over the weekend, rumours began circulating that evidence had come to light confirming that O’Leary had made a series of bets in the lead up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing that he placed on the sailing events, including a bet on the class he would be competing in.
However, four years ago, O’Leary was only a rookie and never stood a realistic chance of gaining a medal and had no real influence over who would win his class and other sailing events.
Sources close to O’Leary stated "There was a fleet of 15 or 16 boats in Beijing. Peter was a rookie four years ago. He was not competing in the medal race, so he was not in a position to influence the result.”
A letter from O’Leary’s lawyers has condemned the materialisation of these claims stating that it is a clear act of one part trying to destabilise Ireland’s Olympic medal hopes in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The Olympic Council of Ireland has officially refused to make any comment for the time being on the issue leaving O’Leary and his Team Ireland team mates wondering whether any action will be taken against them.
O’Leary, along with his team mates David Burrows, is a genuine gold medal challenger at the 2012 London Olympics and sources in the Irish team have said "that the issue has been raised vindictively, in an attempt to sabotage Ireland's Olympic campaign."
Sources close to O’Leary have insisted that even though what O’Leary did in 2008 was a “naïve mistake”, he was not guilty of any wrong doing and even though what he did in 2008 was not in line with today’s current rules and guidelines, these rules and guidelines were only introduced a year ago and in 2008 O’Leary did not break any rules by placing those bets.
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