The 32-year-old Scottish cyclist was suspended for two years in 2004 after he confessed that he had used Erythropoietin (EPO), the banned blooding drug, including when he won the time trial at the 2003 World Championships.

Under the bye-laws of the BOA that meant Millar is barred from representing the country again in the Olympics and earlier this year he had threatened to challenge it in the High Court before London 2012.

He has now dropped that plan, he revealed in an interview published today in Scotland on Sunday.

He said: "I would have to really want to do it."

Millar has earned worldwide praise for the way in which he has admitted to his offences and tried to rehabilitate himself.

He is a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) athletes' panel and has invested heavily in Garmin-Slipstream, a team who adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs and impose extra out-of-competition tests on its riders.

Millar said: "I get a lot of satisfaction out of what I do with WADA and with my team, and I have to ask myself, do I want to fight that hard for something that doesn't mean that much to me?

"If I did fight it, it would be to break the bye-law.

"And I'd get backing from some of the highest people in sport – I've already spoken to them about it.

"But I've had enough of those fights.

"I've got plenty of good things going on at the moment."

Among the influential figures who have criticised the BOA's policy is Dick Pound, the former hardline chairman of WADA.

He has claimed that "the BOA would be on pretty shaky ground" if it were challenged legally.

Sprinter Dwain Chambers did try to get it overturned in London's High Court last year on the eve of the Beijing Olympics but failed, partly, some legal experts claimed, because he did not leave him enough time for a proper judgment to be made.


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June 2009: Millar could challenge BOA drugs ban
June 2008: Millar keeping an eye on Chambers