The U.S. Olympic track and field trials are usually considered a preview of coming attractions, an opportunity for the nation's elite athletes to become household names as they attempt to qualify for the Summer Games. But by the time the trials end next Sunday, an unfolding drug scandal may make some of the U.S. stars famous for another reason.
On the same day three-time Olympian Regina Jacobs could run in the final of the 1,500 meters for a chance to go to the Athens Games, she is also scheduled to appear at an arbitration hearing because of a positive test for a designer steroid. Calvin Harrison, a relay gold medalist four years ago in Sydney, was prepared stop off in Denver on his way to the trials for a similar arbitration hearing before a last-minute postponement.
In all, six of the sport's biggest names are facing possible bans for drug violations as the trials get under way here Friday. Powerless to bar athletes who haven't yet had hearings, U.S. track and Olympic officials are concerned their presence will at best detract from one of the sport's rare opportunities for national attention, and at worst throw the makeup of the U.S. roster into chaos as their cases drag through the legal system.
"Nothing is more challenging or dispiriting than the situation in which we find ourselves," USA Track and Field CEO Craig Masback said during a conference call with reporters this week, reading in part from a letter to the organization's board of directors. "No one wants any attention diverted from the athletes competing, but that's the circumstance we're in."
As many as 10 potential Olympic medals for the United States -- which led all countries with 97 medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney -- have been jeopardized by the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, an independent organization that oversees drug testing for Olympic sports. Even if the six accused athletes are banned, the U.S. roster likely will be greeted with suspicion overseas, where the perception has long been that the sport is riddled with drugs. USADA's investigation of a seventh athlete, world-class sprinter Marion Jones, has added to that perception, although Jones has not failed a drug test and has not been charged.
"We probably are taking a hit internationally with the credibility of our athletes, but at the same time, we know, with the amount of testing we are doing, we have a very limited problem in one sport," U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr said. "I wish we could clear the problem up now."
The six athletes have been ensnared in the drug controversy that has grown out of the federal investigation into Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), a San Francisco area nutritional supplements company. All six would have to finish in the top three in their events, which could qualify them for the Olympic team. Already, four top U.S. athletes have been suspended for drug violations, suggesting the summer will be irreparably tainted by the scandal.
"At times, it seems as if our sport is only about doping, but that is partly because we are honest about the fact we do have some cheats and that when we find the cheats, we expose them," Lamine Diack, president of the world track and field federation (IAAF) said in an e-mail. "We do not pretend that doping does not exist in our sport. We don't cover up the positives. . . . The BALCO scandal will help us take out a few rotten apples from the barrel, and the sport will be better for that."
USADA is seeking lifetime bans against Tim Montgomery, the 100-meter world record holder and the father of the infant son of Jones; Chryste Gaines, a two-time Olympic relay medal winner; Michelle Collins, the 2003 world indoor champion in the 200; and Alvin Harrison, the 2000 Olympic silver medal winner in the 400.
Jacobs, the 15-time national champion and five-time world medalist, and Harrison, the twin of Alvin Harrison who won a gold medal in the 2000 Olympic 4x400 relay, face two-year bans. Jacobs tested positive last year for the designer steroid tetrahydragestrinone (THG), which federal prosecutors say was created to avoid detection, and Harrison for the stimulant modafinil. Both drugs allegedly were distributed by BALCO founder Victor Conte Jr., who also has been indicted along with three others on federal steroid distribution charges.
Jacobs has qualified for the trials but has not officially declared that she will compete.
Charles E. Yesalis, a Penn State University professor and longtime critic of anti-doping efforts by the Olympic movement, maintains that the BALCO scandal has begun revealing the truth about drugs in sports, not exaggerating it.
"People have finally started to realize there are not a few bad apples in the barrel, there are only a few good apples," Yesalis said. "The only way I will believe things are really clean is to see a huge drop in performance, a change in weights lifted and a huge change in how athletes appear."
USADA, for the most part run by about a half-dozen lawyers and doping experts, hoped to have its work done before the Olympic trials, but the agency found itself overwhelmed by the quantity of information it was handling.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) subpoenaed the Justice Department's files from its investigation of BALCO this spring, saying he wanted to understand the extent of drug use among potential Olympians. The Commerce Committee then handed over the information -- tens of thousands of documents -- to USADA, urging it to purge the U.S. Olympic team of cheaters before the start of the Games.
That task could be complicated if athletes found guilty by USADA eventually appeal to U.S. courts.
"We would have preferred all of the athletes who were doping found so prior to the trials and all of the athletes innocent declared so prior to the trials," Masback said. "Ultimately, USADA has to make it decisions about how it proceeds based on its rules and evidence."
The IOC and IAAF have allowed uncharacteristic leeway to the U.S. testing agency to complete its work. Though the IAAF reserves the right to suspend athletes under suspicion for drug violations immediately, it has not done so in this case. Diack said this week the IAAF will wait until USADA has completed its hearing process before declaring any athletes ineligible -- even if it means they compete at the Olympic Games with pending charges.
The IOC also has agreed to relax its usually stringent rules governing Olympic substitutions so the United States can freely make substitutions for any athletes banned after the July 21 Olympic entry deadline.
"This will be an unhappy period," IOC President Jacques Rogge said. USADA "has to work to the bottom. We would love for most of the cases to be finished before the Games, but if that is not the case . . . we can live with unfinished cases. Athletes have a right to their defense. . . .
"If that means an athlete under suspicion competes in the Games, we're not going to be very happy about that, but we're not going to interfere with them competing at the Games."
