Gatlin admits failing drugs test


Gatlin shares the world record with Asafa Powell at 9.77 seconds

World and Olympic 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin has admitted failing a drugs test in April.


The American, 24, was told the news by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
He said: "I have been informed that after a relay race I ran in Kansas City on 22 April, I tested positive for 'testosterone or its precursors'.


"I cannot account for these results, because I have never knowingly used any banned substance or authorised anyone to administer such a substance to me."
He added: "Since learning of the positive test, I have been doing everything in my power to find out what caused this to happen.


It is simply not consistent with either my character or my confidence in my God-given athletic ability to cheat in any way

Justin Gatlin
"I have been and will continue to cooperate fully with Usada 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."


Gatlin tested positive for an amphetamine at the 2001 US junior championships at the University of Tennessee. A subsequent ban was overturned after it was discovered the illegal substances were part of the medication he had been taking for a decade to combat attention deficit disorder.


But the International Association of Athletics Federerations made it clear at the time that a further doping violation would signal a life ban for Gatlin.
In his statement on Saturday, Gatlin added: "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.

USA Track & Field is gravely concerned that Justin Gatlin has tested positive for banned substances


Craig Masback, USATF chief executive
"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." Athletics had been waiting all year to see a showdown between world record holders Gatlin and Powell, but Gatlin has not raced since June because of injuries and missed Friday's London Grand Prix. Gatlin came into the sport from an American Football background and only turned professional in 2003.
He won the Olympic 100m title in Athens in 2004 and followed that up by taking the sprint double of 100m and 200m at last year's World Championships in Helsinki. Gatlin then matched Asafa Powell's world record time of 9.77 seconds in Qatar in May of this year.


In a statement, USATF chief executive Craig Masback said: "USA Track & Field is gravely concerned that Justin Gatlin has tested positive for banned substances."
He added: "We hope Justin has not committed a doping offence, and we await the completion of the adjudication process."




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Well we had the shock of Landis..Tour de France winner, testing positive...previously, fingers were pointed at American Athletes like Marion Jones, her former husband and Current partner.. and also we know that Dwain Chambers hooked up with an Alchamist in the West Coast of America when he too was on drugs...

Thereare stories of Mcgwire and Bonds, (Baseball) being on Drugs, Equally the NFL is supposed to be rife with Steriod usage

Back in the day, it was the old Eastern Block who were known to be cheating, runners from the East germany, Chinaandthe USSR were the guilty parties involved in state wide drug use in sport... Now it appears that Americais the open and unchallenged CHEATS of sports..or am I being unfair, Isn't it right to now question the integrity of the entire American Sports establishment which appears to be currupt from head to toes... America appears to beguilty of systemic use of drug enhanced perfermances throughout its sports culture....

what a shame

Kunjufu,



I don't know why these track and field stars go that route.Baseball and football I can understand if it was done before the ban.But Gatlin,Jones,,Kelli White and the dozens of others I have zero sympathy for.They want an edge and are too dumb to see that they're being watched.confused2

How come when they all come on the TV crying and protesting their innocence I immediately feel sorry for them and believe them.... I'm supposed to be cynical LOL

marion jones never tested positive for anything....


as for the others......there is great culture here that stresses winning...and the "winners" get all types of corporate sponsors for the sport...

with that kind of money...things are covered up and hidden....


in the name of selling itmes and making more money.....

I used to run track....I don't think gatling has leg to stand on.....

rampant cheating in sports for decades......the great edwin moses has been saying that for years....

tour de france ruling today..about floyyd landis will set back american sports decades if the second test is positive......


I think lance armstrong cheated also...but they are selling this cancer survivor story over here..so many don't want to beleive

DtotheJ wrote: DtotheJYou're right to point out that Marion Jones has not been found guilty of anything... HOWEVER..come on now CJ hunter former husband BANNED for drug infrigment...Tim Montgomery Banned for the same thing...BOTH married to you know who... Isn't it a bit of stretch to have us believe she knew nothing, or did not collude?

Further isn't it strange that since Tim Montgomery was outed, that her performance have completely tailed off...Before this revelation..she dominated 100, 200, relay and the long Jump..now she can't win JACK!!!.. How without being cynical could one account for such a dip in performance?

Further it will be really interesting to see if the American Board have the balls to give Gatlin a Life Ban....I can also smell the compromise from here being hatched as we type..

But seriously Dtothej: as you did Track..tell me seriously hasn't the myth of American credibility claiming to be running a CLEAN sport been well and truely shot to pieces?

pro Sports is getting ridiculous now.

They are messing up the whole idea of the games. You cannot even watch the Olympics anymore. I used to love T&F bt now you have new stars who never made the final and all of a sudden theybreak world records. You have a no-muscle-at-all chinese guy who beats the rest. I would change the rules, if you want to compete in the Olympics, you will have to get tested every day...every day...one positive test and your career is history. No more pro sport and you can work at your local Mc Donalds and soon you will regret your stupidity. There area load of kids in this world, who would love to geta chanceandstick to the rules. I'd rather see someone win the 100m-Olympics in 10,5.



And speaking of Tour de France. There is a saying, you cannot get over the hills with apple juice and noodles. Every single cyclicst is high as hell.

Have you ever heard of any cyclist complaing about another one who has been caught cheating? No, so guess why. if i was innocent, you would see me complaining.

Kunjufu,

Oh yeah.......definitely American track athletes have been tainted by the doping admissions/lawsuits etc..

several athletes(lesser known) were busted past few years in america....and are just under the radar serving smaller bans.....

didn't even know that gatling had been banned before...

it's all a big joke.....
the late flo jo, rip, was accused of doping as she was middle of the road runner..and then mid career started breaking all types of records...and died prematurely...

yeah marion jones seems guilty also....just didn't like when her ex husband made those allegations.....after he had been disgraced at the australian olympics....by pre comp. positive test......

They've ruined track and field.......it was always spoken about that the top ranked runners doped..but the positive tests confirmed it.....

It is almost impossible to be top ranked runner for more than 5 years....the aging process, the new younger runners coming up.......

carl lewis....and edwin moses were the rare exceptions......everyone else is looked at suspiciously....

I can say this, cause I live here, any image people abroad have of this country as being fair, upright, etc in sports and or politics is a farce....

athletes cheat....league commissioners know, sponsors and the sport make millions...and then when athlete is no longer needed....they are "exposed" and kicked to the curb....and the big boys keep all that money they made

I for one don't think this is new.I think its been done for decades.The ways of catching cheats has just goten more ssophisticated .The old Eastern Block nations ....and China were very good at this sort of thing.confused3



Seems the T&F folks in the US are falling prey to coaches who have a financial gain if their charges do well in European races where the bulk of the lucrative races are held.

Michael Johnsen has a different take on this and I for one believe him.

There is a common factor in the people who are testing positive for things. The trainers. Those people who nannylike monitor and administer all supplements, training aids and so on to their charges. Yet they go unpunished. His words below....



SPRINT legend Michael Johnson wants drug-cheat Justin Gatlin’s coach to be kicked out of athletics.

Olympic 100 metres champ Gatlinfaces a lifetime ban after testing positive for excessive testosterone — his second doping offence. But his coach Trevor Graham— who has now worked with NINE athletes linked to drugs — is free to continue working. Five-time Olympic champ Johnson stormed:

“Graham should also be banned for life due to his involvement with an alarming number of athletes who have tested positive while training under him. Unfortunately there is no rule in place to deal with coaches like him. And until there is we might continue to see athletes cheating and damaging the sport.�

Graham even claimed yesterday an aggrieved masseur — who thought he had been sacked — had rubbed testosterone cream into Gatlin’s LEGS, causing the positive test. But America’s ex-200m and 400m superstar Johnson said: “It’s a new twist on an old excuse. Graham has no credibility.�

Dwain Chambers was banned for two years after testing positive for the designer steroid THG.

He faces a lifetime Olympic exile but his old coach Remi Korchemny can work. Fellow British sprinter Darren Campbell said: “There’s a lot we still don’t know about how the stuff got inside him and the people he was working with. And if we don’t know that how do we stop another youngster from ending up in the same place as Dwain?�

Gatlin, 24, joint world-record holder over 100m with 9.77sec, should learn his fate within a week.

Graham was the whistle-blower who launched the Balco steroid investigation — which saw Chambers rapped. He sent the syringe to the authorities that sparked the scandal. Johnson said: “I was always disappointed more people did not ask: Where did he get the syringe from?�

Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, insisted: “Gatlin might as well ‘fess up’ and be a man about it, otherwise he will be dragged kicking and screaming into complete disrepute."

Britain’s marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe said: “The sport’s been dragged through the mud again. But it’s necessary if we are going to weed out the drug cheats.�