OLYMPIC and world 100m champion Justin Gatlin is facing a lifetime ban from
athletics if he cannot prove his innocence after failing a drugs test for
the second time in his career.
The news that the joint record holder had tested positive for "testosterone
or its precursors" after a relay race in Kansas City on April 22 was
revealed to the world in a statement from the sprinter himself, in which he
added: "I cannot account for these results, because I have never knowingly
used any banned substance or authorised anyone else to administer such a
substance to me.
"Since learning of the positive test, I have been doing everything in my
power to find out what caused this to happen. I have been and will continue
to cooperate fully with USADA [United States Anti-Doping Agency] as it moves
forward with the process it has initiated and hope that when all the facts
are revealed it will be determined that I have done nothing wrong."
Less than three weeks after providing the illegal sample, the American
equalled Jamaican Asafa Powell's world record of 9.77secs. Now the
legitimacy of that run will be questioned.
Gatlin previously tested positive for an amphetamine at the 2001 US junior
championships but after it was revealed that it was contained in
prescription medication he had taken for 10 years to treat a form of
attention deficit disorder, the International Association of Athletics
Federations (IAAF) gave him early reinstatement from his two-year ban but
warned that a second violation would lead to a lifetime ban.
"That experience made me even more vigilant to make certain that I [do] not
come into contact with any banned substance for any reason whatsoever,
because any additional anti-doping rule offence could mean a lifetime ban
from the sport that I love," Gatlin added in his statement. "Since the
positive test at the University of Tennessee, I have been involved with
efforts to educate people about the dangers of using drugs and would never
do anything to disappoint my fans and supporters.
"It is simply not consistent with either my character or my confidence in my
God-given athletic ability to cheat in any way."
But despite the protestations of innocence and the fact he has made slow but
steady progress as a world-class sprinter, having Trevor Graham, who has a
long history of training athletes who have turned out to be drug cheats, as
his coach has long fuelled the fear that a positive test was almost
inevitable.
"I'm not stupid," said Gatlin at the USA Track and Field Championships last
month. "I know why I get [tested] more. It's because of the people I train
with and the people who train me. I'm very vulnerable because of the people
I have within my circle, and I'm always walking on eggshells. I've become
pretty paranoid about what I take, what I eat, who handles my food. I'm
always watching my back."
But the engaging 24-year-old, who also collected Olympic silver medals in
the 200m and 4x100m relay in Athens, had thus far managed to allay those
suspicions. He has maintained that the scepticism and depression which
clouded the sport when he first broke onto the international scene was
enough to warn him away from temptation and has consistently voiced his
opinion that athletes post-BALCO are a cleaner generation.
"When we came on the scene in 2003, when we were babies, that was a dark
age," Gatlin said when discussing the situation, last month. "The first
question we were asked was, 'So, what do you think about this latest drug
scandal?' But now we talk about how we can make things better for the sport
and how we can make it better for the people who come in behind us. We want
to make a name for ourselves in a positive way."
He had managed that at the Athens Olympics and at the World Championships,
he also achieved it in Doha in May but unless he can prove his innocence it
will all have been in vain. The only positive he will be remembered for is
the drugs test result that has further tainted the sport he claims to love.