Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > August > 15 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USOlympics track running from drug controversy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beijing — It was so much more fun when we could just wag our finger at everybody else.
Ben Johnson shows up at a track meet looking like Lou Ferrigno. Chinese swimmers shatter swim records — and land speed records. East German women suddenly answer to the name, “Wolfgang.”
Us? Not us, we thought. We don’t cheat.
Until syringes started and coded notes started falling out of pockets. Until HGH and THG and EPO became part of the sports lexicon. Until BALCO. Until Marion Jones, C.J. Hunter, Tim Montgomery, Chryste Gaines, Justin Gatlin, Kelli White and even a set of twins, Alvin and Calvin Harrison, who presumably bought in bulk.
Now look at the U.S. Olympic track team. If the field seems devoid of stars, it’s probably because everybody is either retired, jailed, suspended, excommunicated or holding tearful statements on courtroom steps to admit that they were lying all of those times they said they weren’t lying and they will never lie again because they’re really a good person, so help them [fill in name of image consultant].
The Olympics started Friday for U.S. track and field team members. They have two objectives: 1) Win medals; 2) Make sure their blood and urine samples don’t melt the bottom of the test tubes.
“I don’t think you’re going to see anybody on our team having problems with that,” shot-putter Christian Cantwell said. “In the US, with as much as we get tested, you would have to be a [freakin’] idiot to take drugs. I hope the dumb ones are out. I hope the [losers] are out. They’re the ones who are screwing it up for everybody else. I hope every cheater is caught.”
It will take at least one Olympic cycle and several months without a warehouse bust to convince people. But at least some U.S. athletes are trying. Several are members of “Test Me I’m Clean,” a non-profit organization started by 400-meter champion Dee Dee Trotter of Grovetown, Ga. The program educates youths and athletes on the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) recently started “Project Believe,” in which athletes voluntarily submit to extra testing.
“Any time someone tests positive in track and field, it’s a major blow,” said decathlete Brian Clay, who is in the program. “It can be during trials, during the Olympics, during Christmas, whenever. It’s even more of a blow to the athletes who are trying to do it the right way. It takes away endorsement opportunities from us. It takes away our ability to move forward. Quite frankly, it sucks.”
Reese Hoffa, the shot-putter from Georgia, said Friday he was tested three times in a span of 10 days after arriving in China. But he’s not complaining. “Any time something happens, the sport gets tarnished,” he said. “When I hear about somebody testing positive, I’m a little saddened by it. When I heard about Marion Jones, I was just happy that she was a sprinter and not a shot-putter.”
Jones can’t possibly comprehend how much damage she did when she lied to two grand juries and the public about steroid use. She was high profile, successful, cute. Kids weren’t the only ones who looked up to her.
“I looked up to her,” said Allyson Felix, the 200-meter sprinter. “It was personally devastating for me to see that it was true. I guess I felt even more responsible to be a role model to younger kids because that was important to me. It would be great if my role model could have been clean and still be my role model.
“I think we all know that our sport has taken another step backward. I think we’re all in agreement that it’s our responsibility to shed some light back on our sport and we can do that with some amazing performances.”
What happened to the image of U.S. track and field team wasn’t the same as everybody else. Track is our centerpiece. Track is Jesse Owens, Bob Mathias and Wilma Rudolph. Jones, Montgomery and Gatlin — they wrecked more than their own lives. They wrecked a sport. They wrecked a legacy. They wrecked the joke.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Beijing Olympics
Comments
By Shot Put Fannatic
August 15, 2008 12:10 PM | Link to this
As a lifelong shot put fan, I still can’t get over the Randy Barnes bust. What a letdown.
By proud dawg
August 15, 2008 12:14 PM | Link to this
You don’t have to win gold to be a hero! Just competing in the Olympics is a HUGE acomplishment! I’m so sick and tired of hearing about high-profile athletes having used performance-enhancing substances that it makes me want to vomit!
By Yuri Perr
August 15, 2008 11:48 PM | Link to this
Cheating the system will get you now where and fast.
By JSS
August 16, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this
Performance enhancing drugs, blood doping, and the still underreported subject of genetic enhancement are the side story of what happened to Athletics (Track & Field to you racist xenophobes who follow Schultz)… Reporters who show up every once every ten years can’t speak on the subject… Dude, Ben Johnson was 20 years ago (hard to believe)… People had been telling people for 17 years (1985-2002) that the North Americans were juiced and the main manufacturers of the new forms of enhancers, but thanks to hacks like Schultz the stories were never investigated! Oh, by the way, take a look at the newest development: post adolescent “genetic enhancement” … Now there’s a story…
By Sonya
August 18, 2008 4:17 AM | Link to this
People who compwted in track during Randy Barnes’ day knew he was juicing, and encouraging others to do so “if they wanted to win post college”. I just wish Flo-Jo was caught. She rose to the top like a flash in the pan, just like Marion Jones, and then abruptly retired when the rumors got too loud. Good for George Bush jr, to make it a priority to clean up the sport. The results in the 100 meter dash in track so far proves the point that the Americans were up to no good.
By Richie
August 19, 2008 8:11 AM | Link to this
I first want to blame the system. Not only athletes are liable for their actions. The media sets high expectations that are not always really attainable. Do we even see the 1st and 2nd rounds in track and field (Olympics) on the US networks? No, they just care about the final and records being shattered. The involvement of agents also add fire to the wood as they are there for the $$$! This past year, I trained with Olympian Otis Harris in preparation of the 2008 Olympics, and I simply learned from him that “Pain is Power”. Athletes must train clean and get tough and run through the pain. Although, I did not make it as I faced injuries, I learned valuable lessons and it was an honor to measure myself everyday at practice with Olympians. Many have accomplished a lot and remained clean, but we don’t even talk about them because they did not win: the media needs to stop this! It is an accomplishment to make the Olympics, not just winning nor breaking world records! An eye needs to be kept on the top guys (including some members of the Olympic Committee) which have involvement in what is going on today! The Olympics is nowadays submerged by fraud from left to right!