Jack Todd

The news was almost lost in the shuffle of another appalling week in the big, bad world of sports.

O.J. Simpson was charged and released on bail. Floyd Landis was found guilty of doping at the Tour de France and faces a two-year suspension. Isiah Thomas tried to deke and juke his way around a $10-million lawsuit for sexual harassment. Reporters traced shipments of human growth hormone, of late the drug of choice for athletes like Rick Ankiel, back to China.

Former Olympic gold medallist Myriam Bedard, still behaving like a Stepford Wife in thrall to Nima Mazhari, was found guilty of breaching a custody order when she took her daughter, then 11, to the U.S. - supposedly to flee "Canadian bureaucratic terrorism."

And in the midst of all the ugliness, one quiet little woman stood up and told the truth.

Meet Geneviève Jeanson, hero.

I know. You'll say a doper can't be a hero. I say you're wrong.

When that athlete starts taking EPO at age 16 under pressure from her coach and mentor, André Aubut, we're willing to cut her a little slack now that she has told the truth. In an interview with Radio-Canada, Jeanson admitted to taking EPO, a performance-enhancing substance.

"I did doping in my career...

I did," Jeanson said.

If you saw Jeanson on television, you know the agony she went through. Unlike Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, Barry Bonds and thousands of others (including her former coach), Jeanson clearly has a conscience :

"I hated everything. I hated myself for doing it. I hated myself for not being able to get out of it.

It was miserable," she said.

"I didn't really want to do it. However, I did not have the courage to say no, so I just didn't say anything."

In the end, Jeanson found the courage to tell the truth. She's running a bicycle business in Phoenix now, but here's hoping she comes home some day to help teach our young athletes about the perils of doping.

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