Table of Contents
What Doping in Sports
It was continued from Article Drug in Sports Testing. I did not write the following material below just found it from another source; a lot of it may now be outdated. Also, read up on the Drug in Athletics archive.
Provides a background to all the pointing fingers and the whole ‘speculated’ coverup since the 1988 Ben Johnson performance-enhancing drugs in sprinting bust. This article will cover various drugs in speeding cases.
Drugs in Sprinting – Ben Johnson
We will start in 1988 when Ben Johnson was caught with performance-enhancing drugs in his system, and the whole world felt vindicated that the Mike Tyson of Track was busted.
- Hooray .. something had been achieved.
- And the man showed no remorse, saying that everyone else was doing it.
- Rumours abounded regarding the big coverup that was taking place amongst the officials
of the sport. - The rumour is that they were too afraid to uncover the truth regarding the extent
- of drugs in sprinting because it would affect them through the loss of sponsorship.
They would lose their many perks.
Since he wasn’t adept at sports, Johnson was expendable. He was pushy and didn’t suit the officials’ “good” image.
Home truths…
Linford Christie was acquitted because he was excellent for the sport and its sponsors.
His arrest is apparent. Like Jeffrey Archer, he won a drug abuse case against a journalist.
See Christie’s early appearance.
Please comment before we continue. Christie was arrested again for drug use, but he retired and did not appeal the 2-year ban.
He was banned from Australian athletic facilities at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Brits make him an athletic team manager.
Agency
Carl Lewis drugs
After Ben Johnson said, they were all on illegal drugs in 1988. Johnson was blacklisted and marginalised. Absent, forgotten.
In 2003, it was revealed that Carl Lewis’s 1988 drug test was positive, but it wasn’t serious enough to prosecute. They say. Lewis’ only advantage is that he’s not muscled like the gorillas.
In the 1988 document, 8 US team members tested positive, but their organisation hid it.
WADA
Such was the lack of trust that the World Anti-Doping Agency was established .. an independent organization that aimed to do the World’s drug testing – World Anti-Doping Agency.
Dennis Mitchell, another athlete in the 1988 Olympic Final, was subsequently caught for ped drugs and banned from the sport.
We now move towards the build-up to the 2000 Olympics, the first year of Linford Christie’s retirement, and the year he was caught while being tested for an indoor meeting.
He was supposedly in retirement, and it seemed to be just rewarded even if, at the time, he was ‘maybe’ innocent.
The 2000 Olympic Buildup
Maurice Greene exploded in stadiums worldwide in 2000.
Ato Boldon was his training partner. Greene was the 100m favourite after setting the World Record.
The HSI Training Group, including the world’s best sprinters, was exposed.
Greene replied weakly that he wouldn’t talk about his supplements because he wasn’t getting paid to promote them during the expose. Greene’s lawyer/manager ended the interview.
We proceed. Remember this expose.
As the 2003 World Championships in Paris approached, rumours spread of major busts.
Drugs in Sprinting 2003 World Championships
At the 2003 World Championships in Paris, medal favourites tripped over hurdles, failed to make the finals, and failed to medal.
Maurice Greene was barely recognisable… Tim Montgomery, the new 100m WR holder, ran the slowest World Championship 100m final ever.
The champion had been nabbed using a banned substance a year earlier when winning the Commonwealth Games, but he was let off because the substance originated from his asthma pump, which he had not revealed. Kim Collins is not a big sprinter, and the bitter flavour is mild.
Kelli White
Kelli White, the American sprint sensation, who has had her own life of setbacks after being slashed across the face while waiting for a train some years before, astounds the world with her brilliance in winning both the 100 and 200m titles at the Paris Games.
Sadly, a stimulant called modafinil is detected in her urine sample, and everyone begins to whisper.
Modafinil is used to combat narcolepsy, and she states her doctor prescribed it because she comes from a family of narcolepsy sufferers. Why was this not disclosed previously?
Well, because modafinil is not on the banned substance list.
- Great.
- Let’s move on …
- NO .. we can’t; we now hear more news regarding the USATFA – USA Track and Field Association, which governs the US sport.
- What’s that
More Drugs in Sprinting Rumors of the Paris World Champs
We’ve reached a fantastic World Championships, where the men’s 100m winner has a drug history, and the women’s 100 and 200m winners have narcolepsy.
For good measure, the Sydney Olympic Champion over 200m is missing and accused of fleeing drug tests when they came to their training location unannounced. He misses the games, and his female compatriot is weak—pure conjecture.
Drugs in Sprinting Moving on, we have a great winner of the Men’s 400m
Then there are rumours that 19 US athletes tested positive before Sydney 2000 and competed. Sprinting’s biggest drug offender was CJ Hunter, Marion Jones’ ex-husband. Jones divorces him and avoids drug talk.
She’s a great athlete, but she can’t beat Flo Jo’s 10.49, who died unexpectedly from heart failure, which many believed was caused by performance-enhancing drug use. Did we mention 1988 was her best year?
Who is on this list?
Oh, terrible, Jerome Young, who just won the 400m title, was let off for sprinting drugs. Oh well…
Dick Pound, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, wants US aid to clean up sprinting, but it’s not coming. The USFA seems self-governing…
The games are abuzz with rumours of a big probe by the
Narcolepsy
White? Well…
Narcolepsy is a significant sleep condition that helps explain others.
Happy YAWN
Another American is modafinil-tested. Two elite athletes representing YAWN must please them. Modafinil is more appealing to top executives since YAWN stands for Young Americans with Narcolepsy (jokingly).
Before the Games, the IAAF reportedly arranged with the French authorities to raid athletes’ hotel rooms. Again, speculation.
The IAAF cannot block the World Anti-Doping Agency because they are outside their jurisdiction, and USATFA cannot stop USADA, the American counterpart.
Rumours
There are rumours that the rumours that had sportsmen tiptoeing around will soon come true.
And then… On September 3, the IRS, FDA, San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force, and Olympic drug-testing officials raided BALCO three days after the Games.
This well-orchestrated bust deserves to go through everything. All money exchanged and clients…
Tax evasion is then suggested—another athlete’s breath.
A year back
Return to a year ago. Due to her Olympic and World Championship failures, an American athlete was suspected. She may avoid drug-testing meetings. She is the most successful American middle-distance runner since Zola Budd trip stars Mary Decker Slaney.
Slaney was banned for two years after testing positive for a drug in an indoor championship aged 40, but several American organisations still include her in their Hall of Fame.
Rumours abound that American tournaments will forgo drug testing to smash world records and advertise themselves for better sponsorship.
This athlete sets a World Indoor Record and is willing to take a drug test, ending the speculation. To ratify the WR, she took the test.
Sorry, the detractors say… our suspicions are wrong… and to top it all, she will be attending the Paris games…
However, her performance drops on finals day. She fades in the final 100m, where her sprint finish would have won a medal.
She set a world record and was tested.
Let it go.
What happens next – BALCO
Who’s BALCO? Bay Area Lab Cooperative
BALCO tests elite athletes’ blood. Trace mineral testing and supplementation. They sell a legal product called ZMA, which helps with zinc and magnesium. Speculators suggest this could be a cover so athletes can say they go to the man for nutritional support. Christie utilised these products.
Victor Conte, the president, represents Barry Bonds, Bill Romanowski, and Marion Jones. This drug’s source, Conte, will be explained later.
Did we mention Maurice Greene’s training group and this company’s suspected relationship? Is this the firm that supplied the nutritional supplements for the World Record season?
Heart of the Case
We now have the company at the centre of the case, but we’re not done. Let’s start putting things together.
Dr Don Catlin’s lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, received a package in June. The parcel contained a syringe with ‘the latest designer medicine’ that could not be detected by tests.
Like the guy who established the WR Indoors before June, athletes could take their tests if this medication is undetectable.
His syringe arrived. Coaches gave it to USADA officials. More on this later. Did he want to confess? They reported a novel strain of designer performance enhancers like anabolic steroids. Which were so potent that athletes just needed two drops under their tongue. It could boost their speed, throw, and jump.
The drug has been identified as THG (tetrahydrogestrinone).
They also have a substance test.
This medicine is not taken like other supplements. See how all those who test positive think they can fool everyone by saying… I didn’t know what I took, but…
The first athlete to test positive is this year’s American Shot Put champion, Kevin Toth, who says he doesn’t know how the chemical got into his system.
Dwain Chambers tested positive second.
Chambers and his coach – Remi Korchemny
Remi Korchemny coaches Chambers. Since working with this American coach, he has bulked up, prompting sports critics. Positive results confirm the suspicion. Chambers claims he was unaware of his ingestion. It’s a mystery.
Try it, pal. No alternative methods have been suggested.
Remi Korchemny coaches Kelli White, too.
Wait, she was tested for Modafinil?
Balco also represents her.
Modafinil was identified in 6–7 American athletes. Let’s proceed.
Regina Jacobs, 40-year-old athlete. Tested positive too… The third athlete announced.
The indoor WR setter has faced reality…
USADA was testing all US team samples from the National Championships before the test was available.
Drugs in Sprinting USATFA
USATFA is now the strictest organisation in the world. And promises to clean up the sport… Yes, yes.
Baldrick, a clever scheme
If this were true in 1988 when Ben Johnson and his coach Charlie Francis said everyone was doing it. We’d have half the global issues…
A distance runner is accused of juicing Kenyans. It’s time to wash the sport clean…
Michelle Ferrari and Lance Armstrong keep appearing in cycling.
World Anti-Doping Agency The saga continues.
As a matter of interest. Did I mention that the name being bandied around as the coach who spilled the beans is being speculated as to the coach of which group …
Oh, you guessed it, HSI.
Source Time-to-Run contributor