By Charlotte Tonkin
Disgraced Olympian Liza Hunter-Galvan is unlikely to ever compete for New Zealand again after receiving a two year suspension.
The 40-year-old Olympic and Commonwealth Games athlete phoned one of her biggest backers, Peter Snell, just a day before the Sports Tribunal made its decision.
Snell says she was worried he would feel betrayed.
“She said ‘you know I did it, it was stupid, I wish I hadn't....I’m not going to deny anything,’” he says.
Graeme Steel, the head of Drug Free Sport New Zealand, says Hunter-Galvan’s remorse is not enough to combat any potential damage to the country’s clean sporting reputation.
“Do I feel sorry for her, yes because this will largely destroy the reputation she had as an athlete but it was her choice,” he says.
A choice Snell says she made at a particularly low point in her life.
“I don't think she deliberately cheated, she was feeling bad, and performing badly and people had pretty high expectations of her,” he says.
“I think she was just caught in a down moment.”
Two years ago the family of the US-based athlete were involved in a car crash which left her daughter brain damaged.
Mr Steel says despite her personal pressures she still had a choice not to cheat.
“Athletes are under pressure all the time - no doubt she had particular personal pressures at the time - but she made a conscious choice to do this,” he says.
“It was the wrong choice and I don't think anything excuses that.”
Hunter-Galvan also spoke to Snell about disappointing the grandfather of New Zealand athletics Arthur Lydiard, who died in 2004.
“She hoped that Arthur Lydiard looking down would be forgiving to her,” he says.
3 News