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May 30th, 2004, 18:25
Doping scandal casts pall over U.S. Olympic team
WebPosted Sat May 29 14:40:15 2004
CBC SPORTS ONLINE - A burgeoning doping scandal now threatens the integrity of the U.S. Olympic team, says the lawyer for a disgraced American sprinter who is now willing to name names.
American sprinter Kelli White will name names in exchange for a shorter doping suspension.
(AP File Photo)
"There's going to be quite a few [athletes] who I anticipate coming in the next couple of weeks, and I think it will drastically change the shape of [the American team] for this Olympics," Jerrold Colton said this week.
Colton represents Kelli White, the reigning world sprint champion who was recently handed a two-year ban from competition. In exchange for a shorter suspension, she agreed to help the United States Anti-Doping Agency clean up the sport of track and field.
RELATED:
Indepth: Drugs & Sport
American sprinter Kelli White accepts drug ban
BALCO built world's fastest man: report
World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound said the snowball effect from White's testimony could be huge.
"I think this is to the United States as Ben Johnson was to Canada," he told CBC's The National on Friday.
Ironically, Johnson's name has been associated with the U.S. scandal in the form of his former coach, Charlie Francis, who was barred from coaching Canadian athletes in nationally funded programs in the wake of Johnson's own steroid controversy.
Francis was one of five men, including Victor Conte -- the owner of BALCO, a California laboratory that produces steroids -- who met in late 2000 to develop a plan to create the world's fastest human.
The plan, dubbed "Project World Record," worked. In less than two years, Tim Montgomery went from being an extra on the U.S. relay team at the Sydney Olympics to posting a world-best time of 9.78 seconds in the 100-metres at the world championships in Paris.
Francis's role in the project was to develop a workout regimen for Montgomery. He told The National that he had nothing to do with the reported doping program.
"I was not told at that time, nor at any time subsequent, that Mr. Montgomery was taking any banned substance, nor do I to this day, have such knowledge that such was the case," he said in a statement.
Johnson also defended his former coach, telling CBC's Tom Harrington on The National: "Charlie is like a link to what's been happening now and in the past and that's not fair."
The controversy erupting now in the United States is threatening to take down some of track and field's biggest stars, including podium favourites for the upcoming Athens Olympic Games.
A cloud now hangs over Tim Montgomery and certain members of the American track and field team, including Montgomery's partner, five-time Olympic medallist Marion Jones.
Both Montgomery and Jones have vehemently denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs or supplements from Conte and his BALCO lab. And Jones has reminded media repeatedly that she's never tested positive for any banned substance in her lengthy and impressive track career.
But Dick Pound said athletes who haven't tested positive for drugs could still be punished and could be barred from competing in Athens, depending on what other evidence is uncovered.
"Possession, or use or trafficking is all a doping offence," he explained. "What happens in a lot of these things is you have lawyers saying 'you never got my client testing positive and that's the only way you can have a positive test.' That's just nonsense."
WebPosted Sat May 29 14:40:15 2004
CBC SPORTS ONLINE - A burgeoning doping scandal now threatens the integrity of the U.S. Olympic team, says the lawyer for a disgraced American sprinter who is now willing to name names.
American sprinter Kelli White will name names in exchange for a shorter doping suspension.
(AP File Photo)
"There's going to be quite a few [athletes] who I anticipate coming in the next couple of weeks, and I think it will drastically change the shape of [the American team] for this Olympics," Jerrold Colton said this week.
Colton represents Kelli White, the reigning world sprint champion who was recently handed a two-year ban from competition. In exchange for a shorter suspension, she agreed to help the United States Anti-Doping Agency clean up the sport of track and field.
RELATED:
Indepth: Drugs & Sport
American sprinter Kelli White accepts drug ban
BALCO built world's fastest man: report
World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound said the snowball effect from White's testimony could be huge.
"I think this is to the United States as Ben Johnson was to Canada," he told CBC's The National on Friday.
Ironically, Johnson's name has been associated with the U.S. scandal in the form of his former coach, Charlie Francis, who was barred from coaching Canadian athletes in nationally funded programs in the wake of Johnson's own steroid controversy.
Francis was one of five men, including Victor Conte -- the owner of BALCO, a California laboratory that produces steroids -- who met in late 2000 to develop a plan to create the world's fastest human.
The plan, dubbed "Project World Record," worked. In less than two years, Tim Montgomery went from being an extra on the U.S. relay team at the Sydney Olympics to posting a world-best time of 9.78 seconds in the 100-metres at the world championships in Paris.
Francis's role in the project was to develop a workout regimen for Montgomery. He told The National that he had nothing to do with the reported doping program.
"I was not told at that time, nor at any time subsequent, that Mr. Montgomery was taking any banned substance, nor do I to this day, have such knowledge that such was the case," he said in a statement.
Johnson also defended his former coach, telling CBC's Tom Harrington on The National: "Charlie is like a link to what's been happening now and in the past and that's not fair."
The controversy erupting now in the United States is threatening to take down some of track and field's biggest stars, including podium favourites for the upcoming Athens Olympic Games.
A cloud now hangs over Tim Montgomery and certain members of the American track and field team, including Montgomery's partner, five-time Olympic medallist Marion Jones.
Both Montgomery and Jones have vehemently denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs or supplements from Conte and his BALCO lab. And Jones has reminded media repeatedly that she's never tested positive for any banned substance in her lengthy and impressive track career.
But Dick Pound said athletes who haven't tested positive for drugs could still be punished and could be barred from competing in Athens, depending on what other evidence is uncovered.
"Possession, or use or trafficking is all a doping offence," he explained. "What happens in a lot of these things is you have lawyers saying 'you never got my client testing positive and that's the only way you can have a positive test.' That's just nonsense."