ATF Newswire, Vol. 9, No. 36
Birmingham, UK
Saturday, August 19, 2006

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Editor's note: atf newswire will be sending three editions in the next two days, this first one is responding to the drug news that broke over the weekend. The next two will follow the amazing two-day competition between USA, Russia, China and Great Britain, a fixture that will become more and more important in the next six years as we build to Beijing 2008 and London 2012. A feature on this meeting will be published in the Fall issue of American Track & Field in September 2006. But in order to give full attention to the Norwich Union International Meeting, I felt that the alleged drug positives needed to be discussed and critiqued. Thanks for your reading! Send comments, please, to larry.eder@gmail.com (note that Monday, August 21 is my travel day, Birmingham to Amsterdam to Detroit, and then to Boston. I will respond on Tuesday!

Flash: Why did Marion Jones leave Zurich?

Citing "personal reasons," Marion Jones, 2000 Olympic triple champion, left the Zurich airport on Friday morning, bound for the United States. Her agent, Charlie Wells, was unavailable for comment. Ms. Jones had been in Zurich to run the fabled Golden League meeting held in the aforementioned city.

And that is when the proverbial news hit the fan. Rumors flew most of Friday around Birmingham and by mid evening, calls were coming in from the United States as well as most of Europe-had Marion Jones tested positive?

Duncan MacKay, sports columnist for the Guardian (guardian.co.uk/sport http://guardian.co.uk/sport) reported, in a copyrighted story for the Saturday print versions and the Guardian web site, that, in fact, Marion Jones has tested positive for EPO.

EPO? Most sports fans understand that erthropoietin, a drug used to help mostly cancer victims with revitalizing their red blood cell count, has been used by endurance athletes in supplementing their training. There is some anecdotal and scientific research suggesting the EPO can assist sprinters in their development.

According to the copyrighted story, Jones "A" sample at the US National Championships. Also according to the story and informed sources, the IAAF had asked the US Federation to use its influence to convince Ms. Jones not to run in Zurich.

Ms. Jones has been bedeviled by drug accusations due to her involvement with former husband C.J. Hunter, an elite shot putter, who tested positive in 2000. Then, the father of her child, Timothy Montgomery, who set the World record for the 100 meters in 9.78 in 2002, had that record annulled last year due to his subsequent two year ban by the IAAF . Mr. Montgomery was banned by the IAAF due to the evidence of his involvement with the now infamous Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, BALCO. On top of that, Jones's former coach, Trevor Graham, who, even without counting Justin Gatlin, has had ten of his athletes who have tested positive in recent years, is the focus of several federation investigations.

Ms. Jones, to this writer's mind, is, at best, guilty of a surrounding herself with some challenging characters, and at worst, may be guilty of much more. It is part of an ongoing saga that is as much soap opera as just plain sad. In this day and age, one is judged by the company one keeps, especially as an adult. Marion Jones has been the nation's and the world's sport goddess. The sport gave her a second chance, and so did the fans. Yet, when the word came out, no one, not athletes, not coaches, not the journalists were totally surprised. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. And this is where the dirt in drugs can be seen. Allow me to explain.

In any of the cases over the past three to four years of major athletes who have tested positive, it is this reporters' belief that their use or non-use of whatever drugs that they were taking would not have changed 9 of their 10 race results. The athletes who have tested positive are elite athletes at the top of their game. The difference between first and eighth in the one hundred meters in Athens was not drugs, it was focus, self control, and athleticism, intangibles that, thank God, cannot be injected, ingested or infused. It is a fact that steroids, EPO, and human growth hormone can assist any athlete in recovering from workouts, hence, the theory is more training, better athlete. It is also a fact that these products are illegal and unethical. Even elite athlete's bodies have their limits on what the musculature and circulatory system can take. Elite athletes break down, which is part of nature's cycle. The rationalization that everybody is doing it is ridiculous. To beat the system set by USADA and WADA, six figures is the minimum investment to cheat and not get caught -- for a while. In a very real sense, the worst thing about drugs is not that everybody is doing it, but that everyone is suspected, making the world of elite sports a terribly murky and dirty place.

When information is released under the cloak of anonymity, it is human nature that the story grows, facts be damned. In the BALCO case, someone was leaking information to the press on the findings of the grand jury, even though it was a closed finding and the leakers could have faced jail time, information was leaked. A case in point, when the word leaked out about Ms. Jones, several other athletes names came up, one who was not even at the national event, yet phone calls from around the world swore not only was the athlete at the U.S. nationals but that said athlete had tested positive.

In the case of the recent drug positives, information is leaked due to concerns that the information will not get out. The NY Times claimed that the spoke to three people who had seen the tests. Their story was published hours after U.S television announced that Marion Jones had tested positive. In fact, the first story to be released was in the United States, by a reporter who has close personal ties with the national federation. So, who is leaking to whom?

USADA and WADA are the organizations that are now running international sport drug testing. Track and field does more testing than any other sport, period. That two of the top athletes in US have been reportedly caught in domestic tests is a bad thing in the short term, but an important message in terms of the example the world sees from USA Track & Field and the sport. The message is that no matter who the athlete, big or small, if they cheat, they will be caught. That is the message that the Federation should be promoting, and then, stay out of the fray.

For years, IAAF and USATF have been at odds over announcing drug testing, to the point that both groups have done enough leaking of information to fill a large lake. IAAF wants international sports rules followed and USATF cites athlete's right to privacy until the B sample is tested -- but, again, there is more to our story.

The frustration between the two most important federations in our global sport has weakened the position of USA Track and Field in the world of sport and has colored the IAAF's view of opportunities for the sport in North America to the point that it is quite unlikely in the next decade that North America will host any World Championship events for the IAAF.

Perception and reality
Reality and perception--when this reporter reminded athletes and coaches that, in the United States, each and every state has at least one track meet where 6-40,000 people, fans, actually pay, to watch prep athletics at the state championships, over two to three days, the European coaches were flabbergasted! It is as if most non-Americans think that our athletes jump out of a garden patch, ready to run 45 seconds in the 400 meters, or throw the shot 70 feet. That is much easier to stomach than nearly four million 9-19 year olds running, jumping and throwing in the U.S. each and every year.

When the Justin Gatlin story broke the weekend of July 28-29, it was quite clear that there was much blame to go around for all. The agent and athlete knew of the testing in late May, long enough for Mr. Gatlin to have pulled out of the USA Outdoor meeting. According to our sources, the US federation did not ask Mr. Gatlin not to run in the nationals, which further extended the federation into an area that was no longer its jurisdiction. When an athlete tests positive for the A sample, they should not be disqualified from competition, period. No interpretations, no differentiations for different countries. The B sample, if requested by the athlete and the athlete representative, gives the athlete time for exoneration or time for confirmation.

The Marion Jones story was leaked as a direct result of the poor way that the Justin Gatlin situation was managed by Indianapolis. That both athletes have their rights in a court of law is understood, that both athletes, if exonerated, would be accepted into the sport is questionable, even with Americans' unique ability to give people second, third and 95th chances.

The story is not in the interpretation or the feeding frenzy on who else tested positive at the nationals (at least one other athlete, a javelin thrower, did test positive and this person has declined a B sample test and has accepted a two year ban). The story is that, in domestic testing in the United States, not even the very best, the most elite of our athletes are sacred cows any more. If you cheat, you pay, and that is the ONLY way we show respect to the millions of athletes and parents and hundreds of thousands of coaches and trainers who have given their hearts, souls and time to our sport. Drug testing does work, and we are seeing the proof of that right now.

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