The moment that Linford Christie, eyes bulging and muscled arms held aloft, powered over the finish line to win the 100 metres gold medal in Barcelona is for many a defining moment in British sporting history.

But not for Olympic chiefs, who were accused yesterday of trying to scrub the controversial sprinter's achievement from the nation's memory after he failed a drugs test in the twilight of his career.

The British Olympic Association (BOA) influenced a public opinion poll to ensure that Christie did not make the cut as one of Britain's six favourite Olympians, it emerged yesterday.

As the six winners, to be included on a 2012 National Lottery scratchcard, were unveiled, the BOA admitted that it deliberately omitted Christie from a “prompt list” supplied for the Ipsos-MORI poll commissioned by Camelot, the lottery operator.

This was despite the poll finding that the Jamaican-born sprinter's gold medal-winning performance ranked in the top three, behind Kelly Holmes's double 800m and 1500m feat in Athens and Steve Redgrave's unprecedented fifth consecutive gold medal for rowing at the 2000 Sydney Games. In the minds of the public, Christie's victory over a strong field in 1992 was greater than the moment Sebastian Coe beat Steve Cram, who was the world record holder, in the 1500m final in Los Angeles in 1984.

Yet in a glitzy presentation at Bafta in London, Christie did not even warrant a mention alongside other past gold medal winners who failed to be voted Britain's favourite Olympians.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Olympics organising committee whose long-running feud with Christie was famously aired live on radio, will grace the new scratchcard to help to raise funds for the 2012 Games.

The other five are Redgrave, Holmes, Jonathan Edwards, the 2000 Olympic triple jump champion, Duncan Goodhew, the 1980 100m breaststroke Olympic champion, and Sally Gunnell, the 400m hurdle champion in Barcelona. Gunnell's inclusion is notable because she was the captain of the British women's team in Barcelona while Christie led the men's team.

Camelot insisted that the top six were a spontaneous choice by the 2,000 people interviewed but admitted that a suggestive shortlist for those with no firm opinion did not include Christie.

Under BOA rules, no athlete with a doping ban, even expired, will ever represent Britain at an Olympics.

Christie, a former BBC Sports Personality of the Year, was persuaded to come out of retirement for an indoor meet in Germany in 1999 where a routine drugs test found traces of nandrolone, the banned steroid, in his urine.

He was suspended from competition for two years although he has always maintained his innocence. His gold medal at Barcelona still stands, as does his British record of 9.87 seconds.

He remains the only British man to win Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European 100m gold medals.