Author's Note: This article was written in the winter of 2002. We became aware of allegations that Remi Korchemny was involved in the BALCO doping scandal when the story first broke in February 2004. In February 2006, Korchemny was sentenced to one year of probation for his actions in the scandal, which allegedly involved providing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to his athletes. In light of these events, the author has revisited the Remi Korchemny story in the March/April 2006 edition of the Beijing 2008 column on our main website. Read the complete article here.

We're taking a slight detour from reporting on Beijing 2008 preparations to revisit a story that concluded after the publication of my most recent column: the sentencing of the last of the BALCO defendants, track coach Remi Korchemny.

Long before the BALCO doping scandal came to light, I wrote a profile about Korchemny for American Track & Field magazine, highlighting his life story and coaching methods for our magazine readership - mostly high school and college track coaches and their athletes. The piece was published in the Winter 2002 issue of the magazine.

At that time, Korchemny was one of the winningest coaches in the sport, the coach that other coaches went to for advice. I spent hours with him, watched him with his elite athletes and with his high schoolers, talked to him, laughed with him, and really liked him as a person. The article I wrote won an award for the best magazine story by a first-year graduate student at the University of California-Berkeley School of Journalism.

Then, nine months after the article was published, Kelli White tested positive for modafinil at the 2003 world track and field championships and cried narcolepsy. Weeks later, the FBI raided BALCO's offices in Burlingame, California and set into motion the series of events that included a full confession of drug use from White and multiple suspensions for many of Korchemny's top athletes, including Dwain Chambers and Chryste Gaines. The whole mess ended on February 24 of this year when Korchemny was sentenced to a year of probation for his role in the scandal.

BALCO was the biggest drug scandal in American sports history. For me, it was an awful experience because I had trusted Korchemny and believed in him.

It's an occupational hazard for sports journalists - lionizing athletes in print or on television, only to find out later that they were doping. This week Buster Olney, a former New York Times sports journalist, wrote on the Times Op/Ed page of his experience covering baseball when the steroid whispers were just beginning. His article rings poignantly true for me because of his honesty in assessing his role in allowing the steroid culture of baseball to develop, because he and his colleagues didn't delve deeply enough into the whispers and the rumors to uncover what was happening from the mid-1990's onward until the evidence was overwhelming.

Everyone loved Remi Korchemny. The Guardian UK wrote a story about his "unblemished reputation" prior to the BALCO allegations. Even now, he's considered to be one of the most technically proficient coaches the world has ever seen. Watching the BALCO scandal unfold was extraordinarily difficult for all of us at ATF.

At the same time, it should be clear that we had no knowledge that Remi Korchemny was later going to be accused of providing his athletes with performance-enhancing drugs when his profile was published in the Winter 2002 issue of the magazine.

But at least one person at a major U.S. sports media outlet believed I had written the piece to shore up Korchemny's reputation after the BALCO indictments were handed up. Anyone looking at the publication date of the article would have been able to figure out otherwise, but I guess competition in the media is sometimes as dirty as competition between drugged-up athletes on the field.

Let me make it abundantly clear: We had no knowledge of any involvement Remi Korchemny may have had with BALCO until the story hit the papers. And we absolutely, categorically oppose the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport.

It is now widely believed that Korchemny introduced his elite athletes to Victor Conte at BALCO, and that his training program included the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Having spoken with Kelli White, the single person ensnared in BALCO who has publicly confessed the extent of her doping program, and having read as much as I can get my hands on about BALCO, I believe the allegations against Korchemny have merit.

There's just no other way to say it. Performance-enhancing drugs turn athletes and coaches into cheaters. End of story. When are greedy coaches and pharmaceutical quacks going to get it? The sad news is, probably never. Attempts to enhance performance through illicit means will always be with us.

I've heard White's side of the story about what happened between her and Korchemny - how he tried to disown her after she came forward and told federal investigators what she knew about BALCO.

I have not heard Korchemny's side of the story, and I am certainly open to hearing it. But I have to admit that what I've learned in the last two and a half years gives me pause, and makes me wonder whether I'll ever take another track coach's words at face value - or whether I'll ever write another glowing profile of a respected coach in our sport.

In the meantime, we will continue to provide coverage of our sport and all of its best aspects. And we will support all efforts by everyone involved in the sport to keep it clean.

The future of our sport depends on it. The credibility of our sport isn't just at risk; it's already been destroyed. It will take a generation of drug-free stars, and coaches determined to keep the sport clean, to rebuild it.