April 4, 2000 3:26 AM Reuters

SYDNEY, April 4 (Reuters) - Australia's most experienced Olympic wrestler has been banned for life while trying to make a comeback after serving a two-year jail term for drug dealing, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) announced on Tuesday.

Greco-Roman wrestler Cris Brown, who has represented Australia at every Olympics since the 1980 Moscow Games, had been hoping to make a comeback after being freed from prison last October.

But his hopes of making the Australian team for this year's Sydney Olympics were dashed when an AOC panel banned him for life for twice breaching their rules on doping.

Brown won his weight division at the recent Victorian state championships to qualify for next week's Australian national championships before the AOC intervened and imposed a life ban for the second offence.

"This weekend's competition is the first step in selecting wrestlers which will represent Australia at the Olympics and we see no point in Cris Brown taking part," AOC director of sport Craig Phillips said in a statement.

Brown, 37, was suspended for two years in 1993 after being convicted by a court for trafficking in amphetamines.

He returned to make the Australian team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics but was sentenced in 1997 to four years in jail after being convicted of conspiring to traffic amphetamines.

When he was released after two years in October 1999, Brown, whose best performance was fourth place at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, announced he was planning a comeback.

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