World champion rower Kim Crow has slammed drug cheats for stealing the "innocence of sport", backing a submission for harsher penalties for athletes found guilty of doping.
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In a scathing attack which will be put to a Senate hearing in Canberra on Friday, the two-time Olympian - who is based in Canberra - says "soft sanctions" on dopers punished clean athletes.
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates will be in Canberra on Friday for the hearing which will consider proposed amendments to the ASADA Authority Bill.
Crow is the chairperson of the AOC Athletes' Commission and wants dopers to be penalised for four years instead of the current two.
"Dopers have stolen the innocence of sport. Dopers have cast a shadow over our entire sporting population," Crow said.
"Allowing soft sanctions is punishing every clean athlete. While four-year sanctions for serious offenders may seem a strong penalty, the sporting context suggests otherwise.
"For every doper out there, clean athletes suffer ... to have those dreams stolen by cheats is an irreplaceable theft."
Coates said clean athletes were forgotten in the drama of doping.
"I say to the members of the Senate committee, and politicians in general, make clean athletes a priority and decide how hard you want to carry the fight up to those who choose to cheat," Coates said.
Crow is a Canberra lawyer, a two-time Olympic medallist and was crowned the single scull world champion last year.
She won't be at the hearing, but has voiced her concerns ahead of the proposed changes to the ASADA Act to bring it in line with the WADA code.
Changes to the Act include: doubling the ban for athletes from two to four years, banning athletes from associating with support personnel who have violated anti-doping rules and extending from eight to ten years the period in which investigations can begin.
"Imagine training every day with the knowledge that you were competing against 'dirty' athletes," Crow writes in her submission.
"How do you motivate yourself? Imagine finishing fourth spot only to later find out that you were beaten by cheats?
"...These people [support personnel who violate doping rules] are destroying the foundations of sport - the joy of competition."
