Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
Sports => What about Track & Field => Topic started by: D.H.W on July 14, 2013, 08:59:13 AM
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American sprinter Tyson Gay has tested positive for a banned substance and has pulled out of next month's World Championships.
Gay, the 2007 100m world champion, said he was notified by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on Friday that his A sample from an out-of-competition test in May had returned a positive.
The 30-year-old's B sample is yet to be tested.
Last month Gay ran the fastest 200m of 2013.
He clocked a time of 19.74 seconds at the United States World Championships trials in Iowa.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/23307913
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the one american male track athlete i like test positive...ah waiting to hear the story...sounding like his coach or somebody in his camp give him ah 6 for ah 9 assuming he telling truth.
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Well, well, well!!!
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Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell: Olympic sprinters fail drug tests (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/23307913)
US sprinter Tyson Gay and Jamaica's former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell have failed drug tests.
Gay, 30, the joint-second fastest man over 100m, was notified by the US Anti-Doping Agency on Friday that his A sample from an out-of-competition test in May had returned a positive.
Powell confirmed in a statement he had tested positive for the banned stimulant oxilofrine.
Another Jamaican sprinter, Sherone Simpson, has also failed a drug test.
The Olympic 4x100m relay silver medallist said on Sunday she had tested positive for oxilofrine at last month's national championships.
Powell and Simpson's doping positives come a month after Jamaican Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown tested positive for a banned diuretic.
The 30-year-old Powell was the last man to hold the individual 100m record before compatriot Usain Bolt broke it in 2008. He is still the fourth fastest man of all time.
Powell later helped Jamaica to win 400m relay gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
"I want to be clear in saying to my family, friends and, most of all, my fans worldwide that I have never knowingly or wilfully taken any supplements or substances that break any rules," Powell added in his statement.
"I am not now - nor have I ever been - a cheat."
Gay, who is the fastest man in 2013, is waiting for the results of his 'B' sample.
He has already withdrawn from next month's World Championships in Moscow.
"I don't have a sabotage story... I basically put my trust in someone and was let down," he said.
"I know exactly what went on, but I can't discuss it right now.
"I hope I am able to run again, but I will take whatever punishment I get like a man."
More to follow.
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Based upon what Gay is saying above highlighted in red, it sounds to me like he believes he has been set up by his coaching team and trusted them to take whatever they gave him.
This only means that Kelly-Ann who is the same camp has to be extra careful regards trusting whatever that same coaching team gives her in her training or may have to consider changing camps if she believes she can't trust them and might also get set up just like Tyson has.
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Based upon what Gay is saying above highlighted in red, it sounds to me like he believes he has been set up by his coaching team and trusted them to take whatever they gave him.
This only means that Kelly-Ann who is the same camp has to be extra careful regards trusting whatever that same coaching team gives her in her training or may have to consider changing camps if she believes she can't trust them and might also get set up just like Tyson has.
gay implying his camp set him up but at the end of the day he is responsible for whatever goes in his body like any other athlete...i still waiting to hear his story though.
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sad........ KAB be careful
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Quite skeptical about all these athletes testing positive all of sudden. Weird...
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Gay contract with adidas suspended
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In this day and age, dem athletes still using that tired excuse about "being slipped something, by people they thought dey could trust" Haven't they learned from Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, and the others? That don't fly! Your body is your business and you don't know what you putting in it? Yeah right! These teams, companies, the public need tuh stop giving all these athletes, (all sports), who cheat the benefit of the doubt, and second chances. They tryin ting and hoping dey get away with it.
If the next shoes that drop has the name Bolt on it, then the shite will really hit the fan.
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If the next shoes that drop has the name Bolt on it, then the shite will really hit the fan.
Hope this never happens cause if it does..dat goe be ah real sad day in sports..I think worst and bigger than the Lance Armstrong debacle Hope he is aware of what he is taking on an everyday basis and has confidence in his medical advisers...
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If the next shoes that drop has the name Bolt on it, then the shite will really hit the fan.
Hope this never happens cause if it does..dat goe be ah real sad day in sports..I think worst and bigger than the Lance Armstrong debacle Hope he is aware of what he is taking on an everyday basis and has confidence in his medical advisers...
You right about that. But I sure Bolt get tested more than anybody else because he wins so frequently.
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If the next shoes that drop has the name Bolt on it, then the shite will really hit the fan.
Hope this never happens cause if it does..dat goe be ah real sad day in sports..I think worst and bigger than the Lance Armstrong debacle Hope he is aware of what he is taking on an everyday basis and has confidence in his medical advisers...
You right about that. But I sure Bolt get tested more than anybody else because he wins so frequently.
for sure...
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This is a positive from an out of competition test. Translation. - not a stimulant or something minor. Out of competition most things are ok -except the hard stuff.
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A.B, I confused with these terminologies. Cafenol, Phensic, same difference. By the way, the show is real good, man.
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Thanks
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This video gives details about the drug that both Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell were tested positive for.
Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell Doping Scandal
http://www.youtube.com/v/Z8y0Sb3EUag
United States running champion Tyson Gay has tested positive for oxilofrine, a banned performance enhancer. It is a huge blow for Gay who was part of "Project Believe" which promoted him as a clean athlete. Another famous runner, Asafa Powell of Jamaica, tested positive for the same drug.
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Cheat Sheet: The TYSON GAY file (http://www.propublica.org/article/cheat-sheet-the-tyson-gay-file)
by David Epstein
ProPublica, Feb. 10, 2014, 10 a.m.
This story was co-published with Sports Illustrated.
Last July, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay held the fastest 100-meter time in the world. He appeared primed to give world record holder Usain Bolt a run for the crown at the 2013 world championships in Moscow the following month. But instead of discussing his acceleration phase, Gay struggled through sobs as he told reporters that he’d failed a drug test.
“I don’t have a sabotage story,” Gay said, after he’d been alerted to his positive test by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). “I don't have any lies. I don't have anything to say to make this seem like it was a mistake or it was on USADA's hands, someone playing games...I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down.”
Since then, the name of that someone, and the substance that triggered Gay’s positive test, have remained the subject of speculation among fans and other sprinters, who refer obliquely to “the Tyson situation.”
People with knowledge of USADA’s ongoing investigation have told ProPublica that the sprinter tested positive for a steroid or steroid precursor believed to have come from a cream given to him by Atlanta chiropractor and anti-aging specialist Clayton Gibson III.
The saga of the nation’s top sprinter likely done in by an obscure cream delivered by an anti-aging practitioner provides a view of the slipshod medical underworld of top-level sport, in which athletes risk their reputations in the enduring hunt for any competitive edge.
Time and again, premier athletes have turned to practitioners who employ novel or unproven methods. This can range from remedy peddlers with no credentials whatsoever — like the former male stripper who was plying NFL and professional golf stars with pseudo-mystical deer antler spray — to those who have invented and certified their own medical specialty, like the founder of “chiropractic neurology,” who was tasked with helping former National Hockey League MVP Sidney Crosby recover from concussions.
This hunt for any performance boost only intensifies as athletes reach their 30s, old age in explosive sports.
Says a former All-Pro NFL lineman who claims he was approached by Gibson, but declined to become his patient: “The culture now is: If you don’t have all this extra stuff, you’re not winning.”
Their claims notwithstanding, these unconventional practitioners often are unfamiliar with the intricacies of the drug tests athletes face, and the variations in standards from sport to sport. Some may not truly understand what is in the creams, potions and sprays they dole out to their clients.
Yet in elite athlete circles, their credentials can be less important than testimonials from fellow athletes, who look to what their competitors and peers are doing. Increasingly, this means turning to practitioners like Gibson who classify themselves as anti-aging specialists. Gibson’s client list has included football players such as Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Michael Johnson, New York Jets safety Ed Reed, Cleveland Browns running back Willis McGahee, and the late boxing champion Vernon Forrest.
The label on the cream Gay is believed to have used starkly says “Testosterone/DHEA Crème,” and lists testosterone and DHEA among its ingredients. DHEA is a hormone converted in the body to testosterone, and both DHEA and testosterone are banned for Olympic athletes. Two other listed ingredients, IGF-1 and somatropin — another name for human growth hormone — are also forbidden.
According to athletes and coaches who spoke with Gay about the cream, Gay insisted that Gibson told him that the product was “all natural” and that NFL clients had used it and passed drug tests. The label on the jar reads: “100% All Natural.”
David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said it is “staggering” that an athlete today would use a supplement that so clearly advertised its banned ingredients.
“That’s where it falls into the level of negligence," he said.
Howman said his agency expected athletes to be hyper-cautious about supplements given the history of high-profile positive drug tests associated with them. Instead, he said, even world-class athletes “are relying more on people around them to be responsible and then, when they get let down, blaming those other people.”
Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Trinidad's Kelly-Ann Baptiste, and Allyson Felix of the United States compete in a 100-meter semifinal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Baptiste failed a drug test in 2013 when, according to people with knowledge of her situation, she was consulting with chiropractor and anti-aging specialist Clayton Gibson III. (Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
Another world-class sprinter, Trinidadian Kelly-Ann Baptiste, who was in Gay’s training group, also failed a drug test last year. People with knowledge of her situation said she, too, was consulting Gibson and using the cream. In an interview, Baptiste, the bronze medalist in the 100 meters at the 2011 world championships, confirmed she had consulted with Gibson, but declined to comment further until her disciplinary process is concluded.
Anti-aging medicine is a controversial field that often advocates supplementing hormones that diminish naturally with age, including testosterone and DHEA.
Gay declined to comment pending the announcement of his discipline. Gibson, after a brief interview last year, declined to answer further questions.
Because of the secrecy of this world, and the ramifications for those who speak publicly about it, many of those interviewed for this story did so on the condition they not be named.
Gay’s path to Gibson began several years ago when the chiropractor gained the trust of several Ravens players. One of them was running back McGahee, now with the Browns. When McGahee began dating U.S. sprinter Marshevet Hooker, a 2011 world champion, Gibson had his entrée into the upper echelon of track.
McGahee declined to comment through his business manager. Hooker did not respond to phone messages or messages sent through her website and Facebook page.
Hooker’s coach, Jon Drummond, is one of the most prominent figures in U.S track. Drummond, a former Olympic gold medalist and world champion, was the Team USA relay coach at the London Olympics, where Gay and teammates won the silver medal. In 2012, Drummond was Gay’s coach.
In text messages and an interview, Drummond said he learned of Gibson from Hooker and discussed him with Gay, but “did not recommend that Tyson enter a relationship with him.” Drummond vehemently denied being aware of any creams that Gay was using that might contain banned substances.
Willis McGahee, #26, of the Cleveland Browns runs through Cincinnati Bengals defenders in a 2013 game. Gibson's client list has included former Pro Bowlers like McGahee. (John Grieshop/Getty Images)
People with knowledge of USADA’s investigation said the agency has been told that Drummond had carried the cream for Gay during a training camp in Monaco prior to the 2012 Olympics.
Drummond’s involvement is especially noteworthy because he chairs USA Track and Field’s Athletes Advisory Committee, which helps disseminate information — including about anti-doping procedures — from the sport’s governing body to athletes. Drummond did not respond to follow up texts and voice messages.
In a previous interview, Gibson said Drummond had referred Gay to him prior to the 2012 Olympic Trials. "We had [Gay's] blood tested and everything before the trials just as an evaluation and taking a history to learn about the patient," he said.
Gibson’s specialty, anti-aging, is not recognized by the American Medical Association, but does have its own educational requirements and certification program administered by the American Board of Anti-Aging Health Practitioners. The ABAAHP is not a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties, considered the gold standard organization for medical specialty boards and certification groups.
Gibson is a licensed chiropractor and completed a certification program in anti-aging medicine.
Other individuals who proclaim themselves anti-aging specialists lack any pertinent credentials. Anthony Bosch, the founder of the Miami clinic Biogenesis who recently told 60 Minutes that he injected Alex Rodriguez with testosterone and human growth hormone, billed himself as an anti-aging specialist with no license of any kind. (Bosch has said that he studied medicine in Belize).
One NFL agent, as well as the former All-Pro lineman, described Gibson as confident, smart and persuasive. “The fact that he is an African American with credentials who can offer to be a mentor is huge for recruiting players” to his practice, the player said.
Gibson’s foray into the world of elite athletes was bolstered by Georgia Tech football players, like the Bengals’ Johnson. Tennessee Titans defensive end Derrick Morgan, who went to Georgia Tech, said that Gibson’s office in Atlanta was close to campus and that his name spread through the team when he started working with Johnson.
Johnson’s mother said her son declined to comment. She would not discuss her son’s relationship with Gibson because he still sees the chiropractor.
By at least 2005, Gibson was courting the pros. According to NFL players who met Gibson that year, he was offering strength coaching, injury prevention services, training for the NFL’s pre-draft physical testing, known as the combine, as well as recommending supplements.
“He works with a lot of NFL guys,” said the former NFL All-Pro. “He convinces guys to use all this herbal stuff.” The former All-Pro and another professional athlete who worked with Gibson said he cited his Christian faith to reassure them, asserting that it would reflect poorly in the eyes of God if he gave someone a product that caused them to fail a drug test.
In 2008, after Forrest reclaimed the WBC light middleweight title, he thanked Gibson on television for helping with his nutrition program. In a testimonial for a 2010 book on acupuncture, Gibson is identified as, “personal physician to numerous elite, Olympic and Professional Athletes (NFL, NBA, MLB, USATF and NCAA).”
Safety Ed Reed playing for the Baltimore Ravens. Reed, now with the Jets, talked about working with Gibson in the off-season to ESPN. (Bob Rosato/Sports Illustrated)
Gibson was soon working with NFL luminaries. In an ESPN article, then-Ravens safety and eight-time All-Pro Ed Reed, said: “In the off-season, a few other guys and I work with Dr. Clayton Gibson and his anti-aging program in Miami every day for four hours. We do acupuncture, chiropractic work, foot detoxes.” (Foot detoxes have been widely criticized as pseudoscience by medical doctors.) Gibson’s Facebook page includes a picture of him leaving the Ravens’ hotel in New Orleans prior to last year’s Super Bowl.
In a locker room interview, Reed said that his work with Gibson “is a longer conversation.” He declined to respond to follow up questions and subsequent messages.
The cream that Gibson dispensed — and that Baptiste and Gay apparently used — is sold to chiropractors by West Coast Anti Aging, a company based in California and owned by Swiss chiropractor Erich Breitenmoser. West Coast Anti Aging’s Web site advertises a number of creams — which Breitenmoser said do everything from increase energy to burn fat, all while moisturizing.
In a series of online videos, Breitenmoser — clad in a black Adidas tank top, and lecturing in a professorial manner — touts the benefits of his creams. “Science has proven,” Breitenmoser says, that “the sooner you start using the cream and replenishing your hormones, the better health you’re going to have.”
Athletes aren’t alone in seeking hormone replacement. The number of men in their 40s who got prescriptions for testosterone more than quadrupled between 2001 and 2011, according to data published last year in a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In his pitches, Breitenmoser employs catchphrases such as “add life to years and years to life.” “I had one gentleman,” he says, “80 years old, hip problems” who started using the creams. “By only using them for 10 days he was able to go back, hike a mountain of almost 10,000 feet.”
Breitenmoser often adds that his elderly mother uses the creams and has never felt better, and that customers should make sure to slather on plenty. “People take three full [containers] twice a day,” he said in a phone interview. Hundreds of healthcare providers dispense the West Coast Anti Aging creams, he said.
Despite his enthusiasm, Breitenmoser was less certain about the ingredients in his products. The labels of the creams are unclear as to what precisely they contain, though substances banned in sports are advertised boldly.
The cream apparently used by Gay, for example, lists DHEA, along with “5% Testosterone in 10x, 30x and 100x potencies, Somatropin in 10x, 30x and 100x potencies,” but does not indicate the form or amount of testosterone or somatropin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration would not comment on West Coast Anti Aging creams specifically, but a 2012 warning letter that the FDA sent to a group of homeopathic remedy manufacturers pointed specifically to “Testosterone 30x” as an example of illegal labeling.
Additionally, like many supplements, the cream — which lists “frequent erections” and “masculinity” as potential side effects — contains a medley of unproven ingredients. One is Tribulus terrestris, a very common ingredient in sports supplements because of claims that it boosts testosterone. It has, however, failed when tested in controlled studies, showing strength gains equal to or worse than a placebo.
When contacted, Breitenmoser said that the cream does contain DHEA, but does not actually include testosterone or somatropin, both of which are illegal without a prescription. “[The label listing of testosterone] is based on the homeopathic ingredients,” he said, “because during the manufacturing they refine it multiple times, and they use the percentage to explain that.”
Asked to explain further what that means, since testosterone is not a homeopathic ingredient, and what units or form of testosterone the label refers to, Breitenmoser said, “I don’t understand it either.” He said that he would have to ask his business partner, who formulates the product. “I have to find out why he put that on there,” Breitenmoser said. He didn’t return a subsequent message.
Even if, as Breitenmoser said, there is no testosterone in the cream, DHEA — which is metabolized to small amounts of the testosterone in the body — would have caused Gay to test positive. Moreover, DHEA is also metabolized into estrogen, which endocrinologists say could cause breast tissue growth in men and — testing aside — would not be advised as a good performance enhancer by sports doctors with an understanding of hormones.
DHEA is not banned in the NFL or Major League Baseball, so any of Gibson’s football and baseball patients who used the cream would not be sanctioned for DHEA. But anti-doping scientists said it can be used to mask other forms of doping in those sports. When mixed with testosterone, DHEA can confound drug testing, because it makes it difficult to tell whether an athlete took DHEA alone, or DHEA and testosterone together, the scientists said. Testosterone is banned in all professional sports.
Christiane Ayotte, director of the World Anti-Doping Agency accredited lab in Montreal, which analyzes MLB drug tests, said if an athlete was taking DHEA, “I could have a problem detecting whether the testosterone is coming from DHEA, or from a separate source.”
Lauryn Williams gets out of her sled after a training run for the U.S. bobsled team last week at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In a blog post, Williams wrote about meeting Gibson, although she did not name him. (Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)
Olympic athletes who want to play it safe often shy away altogether from healthcare practitioners who deal in DHEA or testosterone, as did former 100-meter world champion Lauryn Williams.
In December, Williams — who retired from track and is currently on the U.S. bobsled team for the Olympics in Sochi — wrote a blog post in which she recounted meeting Gibson. Williams did not identify him, but people familiar with the matter confirmed that Williams met with Gibson and the blog post was about the meeting.
In the post, Williams wrote that a friend steered her to the chiropractor for help with a persistent hamstring injury. (According to these people, Reed was the friend.) “The picture he painted was that this guy was the ‘sports doctor of all sports doctors’,” Williams wrote.
Williams described how she met with the practitioner and questioned him about how his supplements are made, and that he couldn’t answer. “Wait you’re the maker and you can’t tell me how it is made??” she wrote. “He began to get uneasy, likely because he has serviced many elites, his reputation precedes him and I think I was the first to ever ask him any detailed questions.”
Williams wrote that she gave blood and saliva at the meeting, but grew nervous and consulted a doctor friend. The friend told her that because the practitioner classified himself as an anti-aging specialist, he would likely tell her that her hormone levels were off and should be corrected. In her post, Williams wrote that she was subsequently told that her testosterone levels were low, to which she said she responded: “I am a girl, I don’t need high testosterone.”
“He then told me that there is this ratio that I am well below and need to maximize,” Williams wrote. “This is when the alarms started sounding.” The most common anti-doping screen tests for the “T/E ratio,” or the ratio of testosterone to another hormone called epitestosterone. Most people have a ratio of about 1-to-1, and a test is only flagged as abnormal if the ratio exceeds 4-to-1. Thus, there is room for athletes to dope with testosterone and remain under the threshold.
Gay’s punishment has not yet been announced. A standard first-time ban for an Olympian who fails a drug test for a steroid or steroid precursor is two years, with possible reductions based on cooperation.
Howman, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said athletes should understand by now that hunting for an edge in a cream or potion will often end badly.
“Athletes say, ‘Well, Joe who I’m competing against is taking supplements so I’m going to too,’” he said. “That’s to me a Lance Armstrong approach, and it just doesn’t work.”
For more on this subject, see David Epstein’s roundup of great #MuckReads on performance enhancing drugs in sports or listen to him on WBUR’s Here & Now discussing why athletes risk doping.
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Interesting.
I remember hearing you (A.B) say the same thing on CBC radio last summer. i.e. All of these athletes who got caught had one thing in common.. all over 30. Seems like Gibson and Xuereb were passing banned supplements as some type of "anti-aging" supplements?
So where does this leave KAB? Maybe she is guilty by association? I heard something about one of her tests being inconclusive.
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Problems will always arise when healthcare practitioners (or coaches) promote themselves as specialists outside their area of expertise. Athletes and the public need to be more aware because it can be tricky when someone presents themselves as "Hi I'm Dr. X" when they are nothing more that snake oil salesmen
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Hard to believe this could have happen to such an experienced athlete.
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My suspicion is that Tyson Gay and our Kelly-Ann got personally involved with each other while training at the same camp and so Kelly-Ann blindly followed whatever Tyson was doing and this included using the same anti-ageing “Testosterone/DHEA Crème” that Gay was using.
I am only speculating here but I can't think of any other logical reason why Kelly-Ann would have continued to use the same anti-ageing cream that Tyson was using especially after Tyson was suspended for a positive drug test result at least a month or so before Kelly-Ann also got flagged up.
The label on the cream Gay is believed to have used starkly says “Testosterone/DHEA Crème,” and lists testosterone and DHEA among its ingredients. DHEA is a hormone converted in the body to testosterone, and both DHEA and testosterone are banned for Olympic athletes. Two other listed ingredients, IGF-1 and somatropin — another name for human growth hormone — are also forbidden.
According to athletes and coaches who spoke with Gay about the cream, Gay insisted that Gibson told him that the product was “all natural” and that NFL clients had used it and passed drug tests. The label on the jar reads: “100% All Natural.”
David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said it is “staggering” that an athlete today would use a supplement that so clearly advertised its banned ingredients.
“That’s where it falls into the level of negligence," he said.
Howman said his agency expected athletes to be hyper-cautious about supplements given the history of high-profile positive drug tests associated with them. Instead, he said, even world-class athletes “are relying more on people around them to be responsible and then, when they get let down, blaming those other people.”
Williams described how she met with the practitioner and questioned him about how his supplements are made, and that he couldn’t answer. “Wait you’re the maker and you can’t tell me how it is made??” she wrote. “He began to get uneasy, likely because he has serviced many elites, his reputation precedes him and I think I was the first to ever ask him any detailed questions.”
Lauryn Williams who is of Trini descent seems to have her head on and didn't entertain Gibson with his “Testosterone/DHEA Crème” after she was recommended by a friend to see him.
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Tyson Gay positive test was for a banned steroid (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/23806237)
David Bond BBC SPORTS EDITOR
23 August 2013
Former world 100m champion Tyson Gay tested positive for a banned steroid, the BBC has learned.
News of the American's failed test emerged last month, but the details of the substance he tested positive for have - until now - not been made public.
The BBC has obtained extracts of a letter sent to Gay by the United States Anti Doping Agency (Usada) which outlines the nature of the substance traced in a sample he gave to drug testers during the US World Championship trials in June.
The letter, dated 23 July, states: "Using the Carbon Isotope Ratio Analysis it reported that the sample had an adverse analytical finding reflecting values that are consistent with the administration of a steroid of exogenous [external] nature."
The letter goes on to say that a positive test for an "anabolic agent" of this kind would - if proven - be a violation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code.
Under the Wada code, the standard ban for an athlete found guilty of taking a prohibited steroid is two years - the maximum punishment currently available.
A carbon isotope test, also known as an IRMS test, is normally used by anti-doping authorities to detect the banned steroid testosterone or closely related substances such as DHEA or androstenedione. These are known as precursors of testosterone.
Usada refused to comment on whether Gay had tested positive for a steroid.
But the agency confirmed on 27 July that the 2007 world 100m champion failed at least two tests. It is understood that in addition to the positive sample he gave at the US trials, he failed an out-of-competition test in May.
After being informed of his first failed test, the 30-year-old athlete pulled out of the American team selected for the World Athletics Championships, which were held in Moscow earlier this month.
Gay has since been given a provisional suspension by Usada while the investigation into his case continues. He will face a disciplinary hearing in the coming weeks but has already earned credit from Usada for going public with his failed tests.
The fastest man over 100m in 2013, he had been expected to challenge Usain Bolt for gold in Moscow. After withdrawing from the US squad, Gay blamed a member of his back-up team for the failed tests.
"I don't have a sabotage story," he said last month. "I basically put my trust in someone and was let down. I know exactly what went on, but I can't discuss it right now."
There have been reports in the United States linking Gay to an Atlanta-based anti-ageing doctor called Clayton Gibson. Some anti-ageing specialists are known to use hormones such as testosterone and DHEA. Gibson has confirmed working with Gay, but has been quoted saying his clinic does not give its clients "synthetic" substances.
It is thought Gay, who worked closely with Usada on anti-doping campaigns in the past and volunteered for extra testing, is co-operating with the agency to try to reduce his sentence in return for evidence and information on others who may be involved in a wider doping ring.
Although Usada would not talk about the specifics of Gay's case, chief executive Travis Tygart told the BBC: "We appreciate Mr Gay taking responsibility for his decisions and for voluntarily removing himself from the World Championships."
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You can click hyperlinks (http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=60054.msg892981#msg892981) within article while reading to check reference sources of information.
Cheat Sheet: The Tyson Gay file (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20140210/tyson-gay-failed-drug-test/)
By David Epstein, ProPublica
Last July, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay held the fastest 100-meter time in the world. He appeared primed to give world record holder Usain Bolt a run for the crown at the 2013 world championships in Moscow the following month. But instead of discussing his acceleration phase, Gay struggled through sobs as he told reporters that he'd failed a drug test.
"I don't have a sabotage story," Gay said, after he'd been alerted to his positive test by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). "I don't have any lies. I don't have anything to say to make this seem like it was a mistake or it was on USADA's hands, someone playing games ... I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down."
Since then, the name of that someone, and the substance that triggered Gay's positive test, have remained the subject of speculation among fans and other sprinters, who refer obliquely to "the Tyson situation."
People with knowledge of USADA's ongoing investigation have told ProPublica that the sprinter tested positive for a steroid or steroid precursor believed to have come from a cream given to him by Atlanta chiropractor and anti-aging specialist Clayton Gibson III.
The saga of the nation's top sprinter likely done in by an obscure cream delivered by an anti-aging practitioner provides a view of the slipshod medical underworld of top-level sport, in which athletes risk their reputations in the enduring hunt for any competitive edge.
Time and again, premier athletes have turned to practitioners who employ novel or unproven methods. This can range from remedy peddlers with no credentials whatsoever -- like the former male stripper who was plying NFL and professional golf stars with pseudo-mystical deer antler spray (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130129/the-strange-lab-that-lured-numerous-athletes/) -- to those who have invented and certified their own medical specialty, like the founder of "chiropractic neurology (http://si.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1190863/2/index.htm?eref=sisf)," who was tasked with helping former National Hockey League MVP Sidney Crosby recover from concussions.
This hunt for any performance boost only intensifies as athletes reach their 30s, old age in explosive sports.
Says a former All-Pro NFL lineman who claims he was approached by Gibson, but declined to become his patient: "The culture now is: if you don't have all this extra stuff, you're not winning."
Their claims notwithstanding, these unconventional practitioners often are unfamiliar with the intricacies of the drug tests athletes face, and the variations in standards from sport to sport. Some may not truly understand what is in the creams, potions, and sprays they dole out to their clients.
Yet in elite athlete circles, their credentials can be less important than testimonials from fellow athletes, who look to what their competitors and peers are doing. Increasingly, this means turning to practitioners like Gibson who classify themselves as anti-aging specialists. Gibson's client list has included football players such as Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Michael Johnson, New York Jets safety Ed Reed, Cleveland Browns running back Willis McGahee, and the late boxing champion Vernon Forrest.
The label on the cream Gay is believed to have used starkly says "Testosterone/DHEA Crème," and lists testosterone and DHEA among its ingredients. DHEA is a hormone converted in the body to testosterone, and both DHEA and testosterone are banned for Olympic athletes. Two other listed ingredients, IGF-1 and somatropin -- another name for human growth hormone -- are also forbidden.
According to athletes and coaches who spoke with Gay about the cream, Gay insisted that Gibson told him that the product was "all natural" and that NFL clients had used it and passed drug tests. The label on the jar reads: "100% All Natural."
David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said it is "staggering" that an athlete today would use a supplement that so clearly advertised its banned ingredients.
"That's where it falls into the level of negligence," he said.
Howman said his agency expected athletes to be hyper-cautious about supplements given the history of high-profile positive drug tests associated with them. Instead, he said, even world-class athletes "are relying more on people around them to be responsible and then, when they get let down, blaming those other people."
Another world-class sprinter, Trinidadian Kelly-Ann Baptiste, who was in Gay's training group, also failed a drug test last year. People with knowledge of her situation said she, too, was consulting Gibson and using the cream. In an interview, Baptiste, the bronze medalist in the 100 meters at the 2011 world championships, confirmed she had consulted with Gibson, but declined to comment further until her disciplinary process is concluded.
Anti-aging medicine is a controversial field that often advocates supplementing hormones that diminish naturally with age, including testosterone and DHEA.
Gay declined to comment pending the announcement of his discipline. Gibson, after a brief interview last year, declined to answer further questions.
Because of the secrecy of this world, and the ramifications for those who speak publicly about it, many of those interviewed for this story did so on the condition they not be named.
Gay's path to Gibson began several years ago when the chiropractor gained the trust of several Ravens players. One of them was running back McGahee, now with the Browns. When McGahee began dating U.S. sprinter Marshevet Hooker, a 2011 world champion, Gibson had his entrée into the upper echelon of track.
McGahee declined to comment through his business manager. Hooker did not respond to phone messages or messages sent through her Web site and Facebook page.
Hooker's coach, Jon Drummond, is one of the most prominent figures in U.S track. Drummond, a former Olympic gold medalist and world champion, was the Team USA relay coach at the London Olympics, where Gay and teammates won the silver medal. In 2012, Drummond was Gay's coach.
In text messages and an interview, Drummond said he learned of Gibson from Hooker and discussed him with Gay, but "did not recommend that Tyson enter a relationship with him." Drummond vehemently denied being aware of any creams that Gay was using that might contain banned substances.
People with knowledge of USADA's investigation said the agency has been told that Drummond had carried the cream for Gay during a training camp in Monaco prior to the 2012 Olympics.
Drummond's involvement is especially noteworthy because he chairs USA Track and Field's Athletes Advisory Committee, which helps disseminate information-- including about anti-doping procedures -- from the sport's governing body to athletes. Drummond did not respond to follow up texts and voice messages.
In a previous interview (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20130716/tyson-gay-positive-test-news/), Gibson said Drummond had referred Gay to him prior to the 2012 Olympic Trials. "We had [Gay's] blood tested and everything before the trials just as an evaluation and taking a history to learn about the patient," he said.
Gibson's specialty, anti-aging, is not recognized by the American Medical Association, but does have its own educational requirements and certification program administered by the American Board of Anti-Aging Health Practitioners. The ABAAHP is not a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties, considered the gold standard organization for medical specialty boards and certification groups.
Gibson is a licensed chiropractor and completed a certification program in anti-aging medicine.
Other individuals who proclaim themselves anti-aging specialists lack any pertinent credentials. Anthony Bosch, the founder of the Miami clinic Biogenesis who recently told 60 Minutes that he injected Alex Rodriguez with testosterone and human growth hormone, billed himself as an anti-aging specialist with no license of any kind. (Bosch has said that he studied medicine in Belize).
One NFL agent, as well as the former All-Pro lineman, described Gibson as confident, smart and persuasive. "The fact that he is an African-American with credentials who can offer to be a mentor is huge for recruiting players" to his practice, the player said.
Gibson's foray into the world of elite athletes was bolstered by Georgia Tech football players, like the Bengals' Johnson. Tennessee Titans defensive end Derrick Morgan, who went to Georgia Tech, said that Gibson's office in Atlanta was close to campus and that his name spread through the team when he started working with Johnson.
Johnson's mother said her son declined to comment. She would not discuss her son's relationship with Gibson because he still sees the chiropractor.
By at least 2005, Gibson was courting the pros. According to NFL players who met Gibson that year, he was offering strength coaching, injury prevention services, training for the NFL's pre-draft physical testing, known as the combine, as well as recommending supplements.
"He works with a lot of NFL guys," said the former NFL All-Pro. "He convinces guys to use all this herbal stuff." The former All-Pro and another professional athlete who worked with Gibson said he cited his Christian faith to reassure them, asserting that it would reflect poorly in the eyes of God if he gave someone a product that caused them to fail a drug test.
In 2008, after Forrest reclaimed the WBC light middleweight title, he thanked Gibson on television (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_2yFZk3c0U) for helping with his nutrition program. In a testimonial for a 2010 book on acupuncture, Gibson is identified as, "personal physician to numerous elite, Olympic and Professional Athletes (NFL, NBA, MLB, USATF and NCAA)."
Gibson was soon working with NFL luminaries. In an ESPN article (http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7299321/nfl-baltimore-raven-ed-reed-being-elite-safety), then-Ravens safety and eight-time All-Pro Ed Reed, said: "In the off-season, a few other guys and I work with Dr. Clayton Gibson and his anti-aging program in Miami every day for four hours. We do acupuncture, chiropractic work, foot detoxes." (Foot detoxes have been widely criticized as pseudoscience (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/sep/02/badscience.science) by medical doctors.) Gibson's Facebook page includes a picture of him leaving the Ravens' hotel in New Orleans prior to last year's Super Bowl.
In a locker room interview, Reed said that his work with Gibson "is a longer conversation." He declined to respond to follow up questions and subsequent messages.
The cream that Gibson dispensed -- and that Baptiste and Gay apparently used -- is sold to chiropractors by West Coast Anti Aging, a company based in California and owned by Swiss chiropractor Erich Breitenmoser. West Coast Anti Aging's Web site advertises a number of creams -- which Breitenmoser said do everything from increase energy to burn fat, all while moisturizing.
In a series of online videos (http://www.westcoastantiaging.com/modules/postinfo/1mod.htm), Breitenmoser -- clad in a black Adidas tank top, and lecturing in a professorial manner -- touts the benefits of his creams. "Science has proven," Breitenmoser says, that "the sooner you start using the cream and replenishing your hormones, the better health you're going to have."
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Report Links Sprinter Tyson Gay's Doping To Anti-Aging Cream (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/10/274950767/report-links-sprinter-tyson-gay-s-doping-to-anti-aging-cream)
by BILL CHAPPELL (NPR.org)
February 10, 2014 9:45 PM ET
Tyson Gay, the U.S. sprinter whose comeback was derailed by failed drug tests in 2013, is believed to have used a cream containing banned substances he obtained from an Atlanta chiropractor and anti-aging specialist, according to a report by ProPublica and Sports Illustrated.
Citing people with knowledge of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's inquiry into Gay's case, reporter David Epstein writes that the sprinter, who had recorded the year's fastest time in the 100-meter sprint before the doping charges came to light, is believed to have consulted an Atlanta doctor who treats other runners and NFL players.
That doctor is Clayton Gibson III, Epstein writes, whose "client list has included football players such as Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Michael Johnson, New York Jets safety Ed Reed, Cleveland Browns running back Willis McGahee, and the late boxing champion Vernon Forrest."
Epstein says other athletes and coaches told him that Gay believed Gibson's assurances that the supplement cream was "all natural" and had been used by NFL players who passed drug tests.
But Gay failed the test – and Epstein says he should have known better:
"The label on the cream Gay is believed to have used starkly says 'Testosterone/DHEA Crème,' and lists testosterone and DHEA among its ingredients. DHEA is a hormone converted in the body to testosterone, and both DHEA and testosterone are banned for Olympic athletes. Two other listed ingredients, IGF-1 and somatropin — another name for human growth hormone — are also forbidden."
It was Gibson, Epstein's sources tell him, that Gay was likely referring to when he spoke to the AP after his failed test last year:
"I don't have a sabotage story," Gay said at the time. "I don't have any lies. I don't have anything to say to make this seem like it was a mistake or it was on USADA's hands, someone playing games. I don't have any of those stories. I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down."
Director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency David Howman tells Epstein that it's "staggering" for a modern athlete not to realize they were using banned substances.
As the AP reported last year, Gay's flurry of failed tests led some to believe his claims of being misled:
"One person familiar with the case told AP the multiple positives over a short period of time are a sign of an athlete who wasn't trying to hide anything, but simply didn't know he was taking a banned drug."
Not every athlete was taken in. Epstein writes of current Olympian Lauryn Williams, the former track star who's now part of America's top women's bobsled team in Sochi.
Back in December, Williams caused a stir with a blog post she wrote, in which she recounted being urged to consult a man a fellow elite athlete had called the "sports doctor of all sports doctors."
"Williams did not identify him, but people familiar with the matter confirmed that Williams met with Gibson and the blog post was about the meeting," Epstein writes.
In her blog post, Williams says she went as far as giving the doctor blood and saliva samples. But she got worried after the doctor couldn't tell her what was in his supplements — despite his claim that he made them himself. That led her to have a friend who's a physician listen to her follow-up phone call.
Before that call, Williams says her friend told her, "I guarantee this guy tells you your hormone levels are all messed up. That is how anti-aging doctors make their money."
During the call, the doctor told Williams that she should "maximize" her testosterone levels.
"I am a girl, I don't need high testosterone," she said.
Gibson was mentioned in an earlier report by David Epstein as a potential source of the cream that got Gay in trouble. His new article lays out the connections that he says allowed Gibson to shift from working with players who had ties to Atlanta's Georgia Tech to courting clients in the NFL — and eventually, to working inside the elite levels of track, as well.
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Gay's Case Could Be Resolved Soon (http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140428/sports/sports4.html)
Published: Monday | April 28, 2014
Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer
Word could be coming soon as to the fate of American sprinter Tyson Gay. Gay failed an out-of-competition test in May last year, and again at the American national championships, as he attempted to gain selection to the US team to the 14th IAAF World Athletic Championships in Moscow, Russia.
News of Gay's positive test surfaced on July 14, 2013, the same day news broke that five Jamaican athletes, including Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson, had returned adverse findings following drug tests conducted at the Jamaican national championships in June that year. All but one of the Jamaican athletes have had their matters resolved, with Powell and Simpson receiving 18-month suspensions. They had tested positive for the stimulant Oxilofrine.
LONG PROCESS
In that 10-month span, Gay's situation is yet to be resolved, but that could change sometime soon.
"It has been a long process, so I think it is nearing a conclusion," Gay's agent, Mark Wetmore, said on Nationwide radio recently. "Let's hope that in the coming days or weeks, we will all know where this one stands."
Media reports had linked Gay with Dr Clayton Gibson III from an anti-aging clinic in Atlanta, Georgia. Those reports said Gay had been receiving treatments from the doctor, and that the American 100-metre record holder and the second-fastest man in history was using a cream containing testosterone, DHEA and growth hormones, all banned substances.
After news of the failed tests emerged, Gay said: "I don't have a sabotage story. I don't have any lies. I don't have anything to say to make this seem like it was a mistake or it was on USADA's hands, someone playing games. I don't have any of those stories. I basically put my trust in someone, and I was let down."
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US Track & Field Athlete, Gay, Accepts Sanction For Anti-Doping Rule Violation (http://www.usada.org/default.asp?uid=4589)
View PDF (http://www.usada.org/files/active/resources/press_releases/Press%20Release-Gay-April%202014.pdf)
Colorado Springs, Colo. (May 2, 2014) – USADA announced today that Tyson Gay of Winter Garden, Fla., an athlete in the sport of track & field, has tested positive for a prohibited substance and accepted a loss of results dating back to July 15, 2012 and a one-year suspension for his anti-doping rule violation.
Gay, 31, tested positive for the presence of an exogenous androgenic anabolic steroid and/or its metabolites which was confirmed by CIR (GC/C/IRMS) analysis, as the result of two out-of-competition and one in-competition urine samples collected by both USADA and the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF). Anabolic Androgenic Steroids are prohibited under the USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing and the IAAF Anti-Doping Rules, both of which have adopted the World Anti-Doping Code (“Code”) and the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List. Since all three samples were tested in short succession prior to notification of the first positive result, the three adverse analytical findings, under the rules, are treated as one offense.
Upon receiving notification of his positive tests from USADA, Gay voluntarily removed himself from all competition prior to the 2013 World Championships and has not competed since that time. On the same day that Gay was notified of his positive test result, he agreed to assist USADA in its investigation of the circumstances of his positive tests. Gay provided substantial assistance as outlined in the WADA Code including being interviewed on several occasions by USADA and providing all of the products he was using at the time of his positive tests.
“We appreciate Tyson doing the right thing by immediately withdrawing from competition once he was notified, accepting responsibility for his decisions, and fully and truthfully cooperating with us in our ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding his case,” said USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart.
Gay accepted a one-year period of ineligibility which began on June 23, 2013, the day his sample was collected at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. For providing substantial assistance to USADA; Gay was eligible for up to a three-quarter reduction of the otherwise applicable two-year sanction under the Code (or a six-month suspension). Gay’s sanction is subject to appeal by the IAAF and by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Gay has also been disqualified from all competitive results obtained on and subsequent to July 15, 2012, the date he first used a product that contained a prohibited substance, including the forfeiture of all medals, points, and prizes. Gay has already returned his Silver Medal in the men’s 4x100m relay from the 2012 London Olympic Games, which is now in the possession of the United States Olympic Committee.
In an effort to aid athletes, as well as all support team members such as parents and coaches, in understanding the rules applicable to them, USADA provides comprehensive instruction on its website on the testing process and prohibited substances, how to obtain permission to use a necessary medication, and the risks and dangers of taking supplements as well as performance-enhancing and recreational drugs. In addition, the agency manages a drug reference hotline, Drug Reference Online (www.GlobalDRO.com), conducts educational sessions with National Governing Bodies and their athletes, and proactively distributes a multitude of educational materials, such as the Prohibited List, easy-reference wallet cards, periodic newsletters, and protocol and policy reference documentation.
USADA is responsible for the testing and results management process for athletes in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement, and is equally dedicated to preserving the integrity of sport through research initiatives and educational programs.
─ # ─
CONTACT:
Annie Skinner, Media Relations Manager
Phone: (719) 785-2046
E-mail: askinner@usada.org
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Interesting. Does that mean that TT will be awarded the silver medal now?
So what does this mean for KAB
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Interesting. Does that mean that TT will be awarded the silver medal now?
So what does this mean for KAB
I guess we should be hearing some news within the week if the NAAATT has their running shoes on.
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I guess this means that Tyson Gay's 2012 Olympics 4x100m Relay Final pardners Trell Kimmons, Justin Gatlin & Ryan Bailey also lose their silver medals and T&T gets our bronze medals in the final upgraded to silver for Keston Bledman, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender & Richard Thompson.
Tyson has got some serious apologizing to do to his 2012 Olympics 4x100m relay pardners. :-[
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Lol Canada gets the bronze medal they deserve
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Lol Canada gets the bronze medal they deserve
Nope don't forget Canada was disqualified in that 2012 Olympics 4x100m Relay Final so France will now get the bronze rather than Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_4_%C3%97_100_metres_relay
2012 London Olympics 4x100m Relay Final
Rank Lane Nation Competitors Time Notes
1 6 Jamaica Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt 36.84 WR, OR
2 7 United States Trell Kimmons, Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay, Ryan Bailey 37.04 NR
3 9 Trinidad and Tobago Keston Bledman, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender, Richard Thompson 38.12
4 3 France Jimmy Vicaut, Christophe Lemaitre, Pierre-Alexis Pessonneaux, Ronald Pognon 38.16
5 4 Japan Ryota Yamagata, Masashi Eriguchi, Shinji Takahira, Shota Iizuka 38.35
6 8 Netherlands Brian Mariano, Churandy Martina, Giovanni Codrington, Patrick van Luijk 38.39
7 2 Australia Anthony Alozie, Isaac Ntiamoah, Andrew McCabe, Joshua Ross 38.43
5 Canada Gavin Smellie, Oluseyi Smith, Jared Connaughton, Justyn Warner DQ (38.07) R 163.3a
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Oh Yeh Stueps. Lol
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Gay suspended for 1 year (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Gay-suspended-for-1-year-257756961.html)
Story Created: May 2, 2014 at 9:52 PM ECT (T&T Express)
l RALEIGH
Former world double sprint champion Tyson Gay has been suspended for one year after testing positive for a banned substance, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said yesterday.
He has also returned the silver medal he won with the US 4x100 metres relay team at the 2012 London Olympics.
Gay’s one-year ban began last June 23, the day his sample was collected at the US championships.
As part of the suspension, Gay, the joint second fastest man in history, was disqualified from all competitive results since July 15, the date he first used a product that contained a prohibited substance.
The American 100-metre record holder had tearfully admitted last July he had failed an out-of-competition doping test, saying “I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down.”
The 31-year-old could have been suspended for two years for his first doping offence but received a reduction because of his substantial assistance into the investigation of his case, USADA said.
“We are thankful he decided to come in and be truthful in his co-operation with us,” USADA chief executive Travis Tygart told Reuters.
Gay will be eligible to return to competition in June of this year and will be eligible for future world championships and Olympics, Tygart said.
An investigation into the circumstances of his case is ongoing and his suspension is subject to appeal by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
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Up to silver
Gay sanction to earn T&T Olympic 4x1 promotion (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Up-to-silver--257819961.html)
By by Kwame Laurence kwame.laurence@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: May 3, 2014 at 8:48 PM ECT (T&T Express)
Keston Bledman, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender and Richard “Torpedo” Thompson are set to become the 2012 Olympic Games men’s 4x100 metres silver medallists.
The T&T quartet will earn promotion, from bronze to silver, following the sanction imposed on Tyson Gay.
The American sprint star was banned for one year by the United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA) after testing positive for an anabolic steroid last year, and all his results, starting from July 15, 2012—the date on which he first used a product that contained a banned substance—have been annulled. Among the voided results is the Olympic sprint relay silver earned by Justin Gatlin, Trell Kimmons, Gay and Ryan Bailey at the London Games on August 11, 2012.
With the Americans disqualified, T&T move from bronze to silver, and France, from fourth to bronze.
Rule 41 of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Competition Rules states: “Where the Athlete who has committed an anti-doping rule violation competed as a member of a relay team, the relay team shall be automatically disqualified from the Event in question, with all resulting consequences for the relay team, including the forfeiture of all titles, awards, medals, points and prize money.”
The Americans’ loss is T&T’s gain.
The promotion is the second for the T&T quartet. Anchorman Thompson had crossed the line fourth in the Olympic final, but his team moved into a podium position after third-placed Canada were disqualified for a lane violation.
Following his impressive victory in the International Twilight Games men’s 100m dash, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain on Friday night, Thompson told the Sunday Express he was pleased to become a triple Olympic silver medallist.
“Someone told me, when I came in the stands after I ran, that we were promoted to the silver medal. It’s unfortunate for the US team.
However, as Trinidadians we are all happy to be elevated a spot up. To be a triple Olympic silver medallist is definitely a blessing, and we pray that we continue to see more medals in the future.
“This is great news for myself, the entire 4x1 team, and great news for Trinidad and Tobago.”
The T&T haul at the London Olympics will improve to one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) president, Ephraim Serrette said the belated silver is much-welcomed.
“It puts us in good standing with respect to what was already our best-ever Olympics. The upgrade to silver makes it even better. We now have to up the gold medals in 2016.”
T&T’s Kelly-Ann Baptiste is part of the same Florida training camp as Gay, and also tested positive last year. Like Gay, Baptiste cooperated with a USADA investigation. A date for her hearing before the NAAA disciplinary panel is expected to be announced soon.
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Weak Sanction for Sprinter Gay Signals Change in Anti-Doping Tactics (http://www.propublica.org/article/weak-sanction-for-sprinter-gay-signals-change-in-anti-doping-tactics)
Anti-doping investigators say they would rather trade leniency for information on coaches and other athletes involved in doping
by David Epstein (ProPublica)
May 8, 2014, 10:59 a.m.
This story was co-published with Sports Illustrated
Last week, when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced that sprinter Tyson Gay would be banned for just one year for failing a series of drug tests, the Olympic sports world responded with a resounding: That's it? You're kidding!
Thanks to his cooperation with investigators, America's top sprinter was given half the standard two-year punishment. Since Gay stopped competing last summer after failing the tests, he will be eligible to compete again next month.
As ProPublica reported in February, Gay tested positive after using creams given to him by an Atlanta chiropractor that listed several banned substances, including testosterone, right on the label.
Stuart McMillan, sprint coach at the World Athletics Center in Arizona, neatly summarized the majority opinion when he told the Guardian Monday: "No sane person can find justification in [Jamaican sprinter Asafa] Powell receiving an 18-month ban for inadvertent stimulant use while Gay receives a 12-month ban for purposeful steroid use."
According to people with knowledge of the USADA investigation, Gay was assured by the chiropractor that the products were legal, and that NFL players and other track athletes had used them without failing tests. Nonetheless, using a product that lists banned steroids as ingredients is, at best, "staggering negligence," according to World Anti-Doping Agency head David Howman.
But anti-doping experts say Gay's short suspension is actually a good sign for the pursuit of doping as a whole. Anti-doping officials have learned that drug testing cannot catch the most sophisticated cheaters. Marion Jones passed over 160 drug tests; Lance Armstrong passed even more. Incentivizing athletes to become informants, as Gay did, has become a critical component of enforcement. According to people familiar with the Gay investigation, the sprinter told investigators that his former coach Jon Drummond, a gold medalist and chair of USA Track and Field's Athletes Advisory Committee, encouraged his use of the banned products and transported them for him. They said that Gay also gave information about the chiropractor, as well as NFL players and other track athletes he believes were using the same or similar products.
Gay's seemingly light punishment, anti-doping officials say, will ultimately serve the greater good, because intelligence gathering accomplishes what drug-testing never will.
Consider just a few of the gaping holes in testing:
- A 2006 study by Swedish scientists found that a variation of one single gene involved in urinary excretion of testosterone allows some lucky dopers to pass the most common test for steroids no matter what they inject. In that study, 9.3 percent of Swedes had the get-out-drug-testing-free gene, and 66.7 percent of Koreans had it. "It's very frustrating," said Christianne Ayotte, whose lab in Montreal conducts testing for pro sports, including Major League Baseball.
The most common test for human growth hormone — thought to be one of the most popular substances for doping — has a detection window of 10 to 20 hours. So a baseball player who is tested following a game — when such tests typically occur — can inject HGH and be clean by post-game the next day, when he could be tested again. Plus, the threshold for deeming a test positive is so conservative that in a study in which volunteers purposely took HGH — which helps build muscle and cut fat — not a single one of them met the bar.
Simply using frequent applications of small amounts of fast-acting steroid creams or gels will often keep a cheating athlete below test detection limits, while providing most of the benefits of traditional doping, in which athletes apply higher dosages less frequently.
Some popular doping substances, such as insulin-like growth factor 1, or IGF-1, occur naturally in the body and current anti-doping tests cannot distinguish natural IGF-1 from synthetic IGF-1. IGF-1, which gained notoriety in sports for its presence in deer antler spray, is a potent muscle-building hormone. The reason athletes take HGH, in fact, is that it boosts levels of IGF-1 in the body.
As Paul Scott, head of Scott Analytics, which provides testing services to pro cycling teams, put it: "Anti-doping testing has a reputation that far exceeds its capabilities...The rate of false negatives is enormous."
Even as anti-doping technology has improved, WADA statistics show that the proportion of worldwide tests that are positive has remained between 1 percent and 2 percent per year for more than a decade. The dopers and anti-dopers, it appears, are in technological lockstep.
Nearly all of the most high-profile, and successful, anti-doping cases — from BALCO to Biogenesis — have come from intelligence gathering, rather than failed tests. As a result, anti-doping officials are continually strengthening policies that motivate athletes to trade information for leniency. The current WADA code allows for up to a 75 percent reduction in a sanction for "substantial assistance," which requires that an athlete give significant information on people other than himself who are involved in doping. (A two-year ban, then, could become as short as six months.)
WADA chief Howman said that such cooperation is really the only way to go after coaches and support staff who enable systematic doping. "Being able to go after the athlete entourage is huge," Howman said, "and they aren't subject to testing. If you look at the Armstrong case, Armstrong could've been picked up in a number of ways, but [former U.S. Postal team director] Johan Bruyneel couldn't have." Bruyneel was banned from any involvement with sanctioned competitions for a decade, but only because U.S. Postal riders informed on him in return for reduced suspensions, some as short as six months, despite acknowledging chronic and systematic doping.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport — an international body in Switzerland that adjudicates doping-suspension appeals — has told anti-doping officials that continuing to penalize athletes while leaving coaches and doping doctors alone is unfair. According to one anti-doping official, simply slapping Gay with the maximum, two-year ban rather than cutting a deal to persuade him to inform on others would be "an isolated, whack-a-mole approach that doesn't solve the problem." Turning him into an informant, the official says, "reflects the newest and best anti-doping policy, which is that you can't just kill the athletes. If you want to solve the problem, you have to get those in the system who are pressuring athletes to cheat."
Even with the potential for reduced bans — which has existed since 2009 — Howman said only "two or three athletes came forward," aside from those involved in the Armstrong case. "So omertà is still flourishing," he said. That prompted WADA to create even bigger potential incentives for athletes facing bans. Beginning in January, a new WADA code will go into effect that allows athletes who provide significant cooperation potentially to avoid a suspension entirely.
Undoubtedly, the public blowback will be intense the first time a doping athlete gets off scot-free. But just as FBI and DEA agents have learned through investigations of organized crime, sometimes the only way to dismantle illicit networks is to motivate informants. Anti-doping is just following suit.
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Inconsistent punishment and Tyson Gay excuse
Tyson Gay excuse and inconsistent punishment makes it imperative the IAAF take responsibility to mete out punishment (http://www.trackalerts.com/track-and-field/Articles/inconsistent-punishment-and-tyson-gay-excuse/12325/)
By Robert Taylor, Special to Trackalerts.Com
May 12th 7:29am (TrackAlerts.com)
The talk about Tyson Gay not knowing as a reason for him testing positive three times in succession is not as cut and dry, as some believe. Another argument can be that he had been taking banned substance since 2012 and although he passed tests at the Olympics games and after, he did not expect the testing authority to catch up to him.
For Tyson Gay to believe the natural cream argument, shows that this argument borders on the absurd, ridiculous or stupid; you may select one. To equate it as ok for NFL athletes so it is ok for track and field athletes when the positive requirement standard and punishment is so far different, it calls into question the education policy of his country governing body. To use such an excuse and disclose it publicly is either genuine or his expectation of the average fan intelligence is very low. To be fair, I have heard excuses that were far more outlandish than this before. He could be innocent and blindly followed someone but it is clearly an illogical behaviour to say the least. Sometime something can seem too unreal to be true but in fact, it is. So who to tell what is fact from what is fiction?
Clearly out of this must be severe punishment for the people Tyson Gay claims to have trusted. If we are to believe there is a strong drive to stamp out illegal drugs especially something as powerful as steroids, those responsible for advising Tyson Gay on the illegal drug taking should pay a significant price. Especially if the authority that mete out punishment hope to be taken seriously.
So far, I have read that Tyson Gay got 12 months sentence and his London 2012 Olympic silver medal in the 4x100m relay has been returned. If he were taking the drug since July 2012, how did it take them until May 2013 to come up with a positive test? Thus, the excuse of “he was innocent because he tested positive for it three times in such short a time” should not be taken as gospel. At the very least, his handlers or the person (s) who introduced him to the anti-aging clinic (assuming this is where the steroids came from) most likely knew it would have eluded the testers. It leaves me to wonder who else was getting the cream rub into their skin that only those doing the recommending know about.
The penalty of one year came into question the punishment structure of track and field. It seems the individual nature of the sports permeated throughout the sports. Thus, each federation or drug testing body distributes punishment the way each wants. A one-year sentence for anabolic steroid seems extremely lenient. This is highlighted by the fact that the body responsible for overseeing the drugs control in Jamaica issued an 18 months ban for stimulant to both Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson.
The rule is that one is ultimately responsible for anything one consumes unless one can prove that sabotage was a reason. The USADA said Tyson Gay cooperated and thus the reason for the 12 months suspension. I guess he gave up others and was forthcoming with when he started usage etc. If so be the case, I would like to see the heavy penalty issued to those in track and field responsible for influencing Tyson Gay into “naively or ignorantly” if that is the case, accepting a cream that contains steroids in it, assuming this cream produced the steroid.
Regardless of the situation, it looks grossly disproportionate in penalty when two athletes get 18 months for stimulant and one gets 12 months for steroids. There could be a good reason for this but it sure makes the Jamaican authority (JADCO) look unnecessarily harsh.
This is not the first time JADCO gave disproportionate penalty relative to USADA. Dominique Blake of Jamaica, got six years for testing positive twice for banned stimulants, while Gatlin a USA athlete, got four years for a positive stimulant the first time and steroids the second time around. This proves to me that punishment should be the sole responsibility of the IAAF. WADA on the other hand, responsibilities should be about education, research and testing.
The fact that Individual nations can sometimes be subjected to internal pressures of Jingoism or in the case of JADCO, external pressure from foreign media makes the inconsistency likely to happen again. The major media houses coming out of Britain especially, had a strong effect on JADCO, thus they sought to sacrifice the athletes to show they are vigilant against drugs usage.
Only if the IAAF takes sole responsibility for punishment will there be objectivity in appearance and fact. At this point, not many believe there is objectivity and one would be hard press to see consistency. Track and field is a sport that has far too many cynics as fans.
The IAAF needs to improve the way the sport is being viewed. The negative image which started in 1988 is yet to be abated. It is due time the ruling body takes more control and move the sports towards a more positive light. For one, the Tyson Gay 12-month suspension might have a sound reason behind it but many cannot see it. This can only create negative beliefs towards USA athletes and their federation’s drive to end performance-enhancing drugs in the sports. This is something the IAAF and the sports of track and field can ill afford to accept.
**The views expressed in this article are those of the author (Robert Taylor) and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, trackalerts.com.
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Coe asks USADA: "What 'assistance' has Tyson Gay provided to have ban reduced?" (http://www.insidethegames.biz/sports/summer/athletics/1020167-coe-asks-usada-what-assistance-has-tyson-gay-provided-to-have-ban-reduced)
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
By Mike Rowbottom (insidethegames.biz)
Sebastian Coe has asked the hard question of the US anti-doping authorities following their reduction of Tyson Gay's doping ban in exchange for what they described as the "significant assistance" he had provided them with - namely, what that assistance was?
Coe, a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) with a transparently good prospect of becoming President next year, has also said athletes should provide assistance to anti-doping authorities without using the help as a bargaining chip to reduce doping bans.
Gay's ban was reduced from two years to one, backdated from when he tested positive for a banned steroid at the US Championships, and the former world 100 and 200 metres champion will be eligible to return to the track on June 23.
"Well, first of all the IAAF has to look at this case," Coe told Reuters TV.
"We haven't had the opportunity to explore it properly.
"We would need to know what 'significant assistance' meant.
"And it is for our anti-doping teams at our headquarters in Monaco and the anti-doping board to decide if the sanction is appropriate."
He added: "This is not just about athletes proving or testing positive, and then once they've tested positive, starting to talk and help agencies."
"We would rather the athletes were helping, assist the agencies before they were tested or proven positive.
"For me, that's quite important.
"We need the cooperation of all athletes, and the most important aspect of testing is to protect the clean athlete."
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) claimed Gay's assistance had included "being interviewed on several occasions by USADA and providing all of the products he was using at the time of his positive tests".
Contact the writer of this story at mike.rowbottom@insidethegames.biz
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Leniency for information given, will it help track & field? (http://www.trackalerts.com/Articles/leniency-for-information-given-will-it-help-track-field/12375/)
May 20th 12:21pm (TrackAlerts.com)
Will the policy of leniency if dopers give valuable information help track & field?
I am reading about WADA rule considering the reduction of ban by up to 75%, the ability to keep earnings and potential secrecy if one is willing to give valuable information. I wonder if this will help track & field. Alternatively, will it provide additional incentive for athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs?
Athletes that are clean and lose their rightful reward of glory and earnings to unscrupulous athlete (s) do we expect them to accept this policy. It sure is hard to accept that after training for 6 days per week, sometimes 3 times per day, going through the agony of exhaustion, sometimes vomiting on the track and to find out your glory was stolen by someone taking short-cut through doping.
If all it takes for an athlete that get caught is to give up someone significant and still retain his earnings and escape the pariah treatment reserve for positive testing, do you think he would not do it? Are we to believe that athletes when caught and are willing to give up others suddenly develop scruples? The idea of getting access to the system of doping sounds wonderful but will it help athletes that got cheated out of the chance to enjoy the glory they lost?
Reliving an Olympic victory that was denied is impossible. Enjoying athletic accomplishments are best done when one is collecting ones medal on the rostrum before the crowd at that moment in time. It cannot be achieved after the crowd leave, the television sets turn off and a public announcement is made that the tainted athlete is caught or found out.
If leniency is going be a part of doping control then make the punishment extremely harsh so that a reduced sentence can be significant. One cannot deminish deterrent measures just to find out a doping system. There will be athletes willing to get over without doing the hard and difficult work necessary to achieve success the right way. If all it takes is a limited suspension and the ability to keep ill-gotten gains, then potential dopers will find doping a winning situation for them. Without significant punishment, the fight against doping will be a lost cause. An athlete that willingly takes performance-enhancing drug will not generally have conscience issue after giving up cohorts.
The saying that “there is no honour among thieves” stands and will thrive under this standard of “light punishment if you are willing to give us something”. This strategy might lead down the road of publicity stunt instead of something that really curbs unethical behaviour of consuming illegal performance enhancing drugs’. More importantly, an athlete that got caught might give information based on rumours he or she hears or vindictively say things about another athlete when in fact it is could only be guilty by association or completely false.
There should be a balance between justice for those who suffer lost to unscrupulous athletes and enticement given for information that leads to hidden doping system. Without a proper balance and close to as rigid a standard as possible, we will find the situation of different federation doing things according to the level of their maturity or to the level of how harshly they view performance-enhancing drugs or how much pressure the media enforce on them.
Many have a cynical view of the top sprinters performance and if WADA implement this 75% reduction on punishment policy when the maximum sentence will be 4 years, cynicism might increase significantly. For a sport like track and field to thrive and grow, great performances have to be seen as more likely legitimate rather than illegal drugs induced.
This current system of enticement to those who are caught using illegal performance-enhancing drugs regardless of who they gave up will only swell the ranks of the sceptics. In my humble opinion, a harsher overall penalty is necessary which makes a reduced sentence significant. A one-year sentence for a major offense like anabolic steroid regardless of the information given, will not sit well with most fans. Public outcry is not good for any sports; track and field is not at the stage where negative coverage or negative views can be overcome easily.
**The views expressed in this article are those of the author (Robert Taylor) and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, TrackAlerts.com
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Local track coach sues Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay (http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/05/21/5838202/local-track-coach-sues-olympic.html?rh=1)
Posted Wednesday, May. 21, 2014 (Star-Telegram)
BY ELIZABETH CAMPBELL
liz@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH — Olympic gold medal winner and track and field coach Jon Drummond is suing top sprinter Tyson Gay and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, alleging that they falsely accused him of administering and providing performance-enhancing drugs to the star athlete.
The defamation lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Tarrant County civil court against Gay and Travis Tygart, the chief executive officer of the USADA.
Gay was handed a one-year ban by the USADA this month and told to return his silver medal from the 4x100-meter relay at the 2012 Olympics after testing positive for a steroid at the U.S. championships in 2013.
Drummond, who coached Tyson from 2007 to 2012, said he was notified in mid-April that the USADA intended to seek a lifetime ban against him, preventing him from participating in any professional activities related to track and field, according to the lawsuit.
Drummond is still training athletes at his facility in Arlington.
“Mr. Drummond was a proponent for clean competition when he was an athlete and a coach,” said Mark Whitburn, one of Drummond’s attorneys. “He categorically denies any wrongdoing.”
Ann Skinner, a spokeswoman for the USADA, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., declined to comment Wednesday. Skinner said the agency had not received a copy of the lawsuit and wanted to review it before issuing a statement.
Gay did not get the typical two-year suspension because the USADA said he is cooperating with investigators and providing information on others who might have used performance-enhancing drugs.
Neither Gay nor his agent immediately returned messages seeking comment late Wednesday.
Drummond, a TCU great who has also won an Olympic silver, says in his lawsuit that Gay did not test positive for any performance-enhancing drug during the years he was his coach.
In fact, Drummond says, he used his position in the sport to speak out against using banned substances and also discussed the subject in his capacity as an ordained minister. He says no other athletes he has coached have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
But in July 2013, 10 months after Drummond stopped coaching Gay, the sprinter tested positive for a banned substance, according to court documents.
Drummond “was absolutely stunned when rumors began to arise that either Mr. Gay himself or others intended to blame this positive test on Mr. Drummond,” the lawsuit says.
Visit with chiropractor
According to court documents, Drummond and Gay visited an Atlanta chiropractor in 2012 and Gay obtained supplements to help relieve “nagging injuries.” The supplements were creams with labels stating that they included banned substances.
Drummond asked for an explanation, saying Gay could not take any “illegitimate” substances. Drummond was told that the creams actually included just food-based products. The chiropractor said the labels were for marketing to nonathletes not affected by the bans to help them better understand the products’ “function,” the lawsuit states.
Later, after Gay received a shipment of the products in Eugene, Ore., from the chiropractor, valued at $9,000, Drummond “unequivocally” recommended that Gay discard them. He did not feel they were “safe and appropriate.”
Drummond didn’t know the doctor well enough to believe his claims, documents state. Later, when Drummond and Gay were in Monaco, the coach says in the lawsuit, he threw many of the items in the trash and told Gay to get rid of the rest.
Gay competed in the 2012 Olympics in London and stopped training with Drummond afterward, the lawsuit states.
Bag kept under the sink
In summer 2013, a year after he stopped working with Drummond, Gay tested positive for banned substances. Gay told the anti-doping agency that the cause was the creams that Drummond had told him to use, records show.
Later, after meeting with the USADA, Drummond also remembered a bag of substances that Gay had received in 2012 from an unknown source, the lawsuit states. Drummond told Gay not to use anything in the bag, took it from him and stored it under a sink in his home. He later gave the bag to the anti-doping agency.
Eventually, Drummond discovered that Gay told the USADA that Drummond had injected him with substances from the bag in 2012 and had talked about the sprinter using human growth hormone, the lawsuit said.
After Gay made these statements, the USADA said he would receive the lighter sanction because he had cooperated in the investigation, allowing Gay to return to competition this summer.
In his defamation lawsuit, Drummond says the false statements injured his reputation as an honest track and field coach and athlete, exposing him to “public hatred, contempt, ridicule and financial injury by portraying him as encouraging the use of performance-enhancing drugs.”
Elizabeth Campbell, 817-390-7696 Twitter: @fwstliz
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I feel assured that Volney will plead guilty to this one as well ..given the right incentive ! John boy you safe wid we ! :laugh:
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Anti-doping agency calls track coach’s lawsuit ‘baseless’ (http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/05/23/5843499/anti-doping-agency-calls-lawsuit.html?storylink=addthis#.U3-o5A7SbJs.twitter&rh=1)
Posted Friday, May. 23, 2014 (Star-Telegram)
BY ELIZABETH CAMPBELL
liz@star-telegram.com
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency calls a defamation lawsuit filed by former Olympian and American track coach Jon Drummond “baseless” and an attempt to circumvent an established process designed to protect athletes from receiving banned substances.
Drummond sued the agency and Tyson Gay this week, alleging that they falsely accused him of providing performance-enhancing drugs to the star sprinter.
Drummond, who runs a training facility in Arlington and coaches track and field at Grace Preparatory Academy, is under investigation by the agency and faces a lifetime ban from the sport. He says Gay’s “false testimony turned the anti-doping agency against him.”
The agency says it will ask the court to dismiss the case “in favor of the well-established arbitration process.”
“Mr. Drummond’s baseless lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is an effort to circumvent the mandatory arbitration process established to protect the rights of all clean athletes, coaches and the integrity of competition,” Annie Skinner, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Springs-based agency, said in an email.
“Under the rules which were approved by athletes, the U.S. Olympic Committee and all U.S. sport federations, Mr. Drummond will have the opportunity to have his case heard by a panel of independent arbitrators, who will ultimately weigh all evidence presented and determine the outcome of the case,” she said.
Mark Whitburn, an attorney for Drummond, declined to respond to the agency’s comments.
Gay received a one-year ban from the anti-doping agency this month for taking prohibited substances. He and his agent have not responded to numerous emails and phone calls from the Star-Telegram.
But Gay has said he hopes to be able to talk about his suspension, which ends this summer.
“There’s a lot for me to tell, my side … ” Gay told the Lexington Herald-Leader this month while attending his daughter’s track meet. “But under the rules of USADA, they didn’t want me to speak on the case. But they definitely understand what happened, and USADA understands that it was a mistake. That’s why they’re allowing me to run this year.”
When Gay explained testing positive for banned substances last year, he told The Associated Press that he doesn’t “have any sabotage story.”
“I don’t have any lies. I don’t have anything to say to make this seem like it was a mistake or it was on USADA’s hands, someone playing games. I don’t have any of those stories. I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down.”
His coach, Lance Brauman, told USA Today last year that the person Gay trusted had “no affiliation with me or anyone else in my training group.”
Drummond coached Gay from 2007 to 2012.
Gay did not receive the typical two-year suspension because the agency said he is cooperating with investigators and providing information on others who might have used performance-enhancing drugs.
According to the lawsuit, Drummond and Gay visited an Atlanta chiropractor in 2012 and Gay received supplements to help relieve “nagging” injuries. The supplements were various creams with labels stating that they contained banned substances. According to court documents, Drummond asked for an explanation and was told that the creams contained food-based products.
When Gay received a shipment of supplements from the chiropractor, valued at $9,000, Drummond recommended that he discard them, according to court documents.
In summer 2013, a year after he stopped working with Drummond, Gay tested positive. Gay told the anti-doping agency that the cause was the creams that Drummond had told him to use, records show.
Later, after meeting with the agency, Drummond also remembered a bag of substances that Gay had received in 2012 from an unknown source, the lawsuit states. Drummond told Gay not to use anything in the bag, took it from him and stored it under a sink in his home.
He later gave the bag to the agency.
Drummond discovered that Gay told the agency that Drummond had injected him with substances from the bag in 2012 and had talked about the sprinter using human growth hormone, the lawsuit said.
Elizabeth Campbell, 817-390-7696 Twitter: @fwstliz
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Wada will not appeal Gay's ban (http://www.trackalerts.com/Articles/wada-will-not-appeal-gays-ban/12421/)
June 3rd 9:59pm (TrackAlerts.com)
MONTREAL, Canada (EME News) - The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will not appeal Tyson Gay's one-year doping ban, inform Reuters.
Gay, the world's joint second fastest man, last month had accepted the one-year suspension by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) after a 2013 positive test for an anabolic steroid.
WADA, on Tuesday, said, “After careful review and scrutiny of the full case file, Wada is satisfied that Mr Tyson Gay provided substantial assistance to Usada in an appropriate fashion.
“Wada will therefore not appeal Usada's decision which is compatible with the World Anti-Doping Code.”
At the World Relays, IAAF President Lamine Diack said that he supported the World Anti-Doping Code rule that allows athletes to receive reduced sentences if they provide substantial assistance to anti-doping agencies.
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The deafening silence of the critics! (http://www.trackalerts.com/Articles/the-deafening-silence-of-the-critics/12448/)
June 8th 3:04pm
By Robert Taylor, Special to TrackAlerts.com
All the critics of Jamaica testing policies are silent about the Tyson Gay issue. Are we to believe the Victor Conte, the Dick Pound, the Philip Hersh, the Carl Lewis and of course less we forget, the British and USA media are hypocrites?
They were all over the Asafa Powell story and funny it was only a stimulant. For a long time CNN website for track and field had Asafa Powell as their poster child for performance enhancing drug ban. It was as if nothing took place in track and field since then. It was only after the Tyson Gay punishment announcement that Asafa Powell posting disappeared. Tyson Gay innocent/naïve story that some in the USA media tried so hard to sell us makes me wonder if they actually think out their apologist mantra before coming out with it. Of course, Tyson Gay could be innocent but did he not at least look at the significant improvement he experienced and question what he was consuming as cream on his body?
I understand Carl Lewis and his hatred of anyone who outshines him. I even understand his inability to accept his place in history as one of the all time greats instead of the current greatest. I understand Victor Conte need to feel important and media coverage bestowed upon him as the séance in performance enhancing drugs. With that being said, I cannot understand the media blitz of negative coverage about Jamaican athletes yet silence on the Tyson Gay situation and the lack of question on who is or are implicated by Tyson Gay. We heard about Jon Drummond and that is it.
Apart from rumours, Jon Drummond implication becomes officially known because of the lawsuit he filed. As for Dick Pound, why the contrasting silence on this situation? Phil Hersh of the reputable Chicago Tribune media house, he might have written something on the Tyson Gay positive test issue but I have yet to see it. He came out so vocal against Jamaica and performance enhancing drugs yet so silent in this situation.
Funny no one seems to question the silly excuse given for hard-core drugs usage. I have read where some talk about he was innocent in his consumption but no condemning anywhere near what was bestowed on the Jamaican track and field athletes, federation and testing body. Recently WADA issued a statement that they would not challenge Tyson Gay 1 year ban because he has provided substantial information. Is this “substantial information” Jon Drummond? No one seems to know or care to ask. In this day of high-speed technology, information on this case is moving at the pace of the tortoise.
Funny the hypocrisy displayed. No one seem to question the lifetime banning of Trevor Graham and Raymond Stewart but nothing for another coach who had both himself and some of his athletes implicated by an admitted supplier of illegal performance enhancing drugs. It is so funny the pointing of fingers and damning of the Jamaican athletes yet silence about situations that are obvious in a powerful track and field nation. I guess Jamaica had the misfortune of having Bolt represent Jamaica instead of Canada, like Donovan Bailey, former world record holder, world and Olympic champion in the 100m or Linford Christie Great Britain only Olympic 100m champion. I say this because surely with the rich history of Jamaican sprinters dating back to 1948 Olympics, there should not be any surprise that Jamaica produce the fastest man alive. I guess the fastest man alive and the slew of sprinters coming out of Jamaica is hard to accept. This thought process is baseless because if one look at cultures, competition, expectation, systems are what drive certain regions or demography to consistently produce certain qualities.
There is no question about the absurdity by the usual finger pointers at Jamaica. The disparity in punishment is ignored and the fact that all the positive tests happened in Jamaica even though the athletes trained at different camp and different countries with no positive test happening outside of Jamaica. No question was asked, why this anomaly. It is either the testing abroad was weak or there is something nefarious happening in Jamaica with regards to those applying the test.
Of course, certain questions would not help their cause of denying the athletic capability of the Jamaican athletes and the quality development system of Jamaica. We know Carl Lewis and Victor Conte reason, the frailty and ego of man is evident. As for the media houses in USA and England, Dick Pound and Philip Hersh, these are professionals and blatant hypocrisy should not be expected. At the very least, subtlety and or appearance of objectivity and balance should be a constant. It seems more like conspiracy to diminish the accomplishment of a country with vastly more impediments in their economic system and much smaller population size. This is too much for their ego to accept.
In all honesty, the deafening silence of the critic rubs me the wrong way. Who among us is not upset about the hypocrisy and abuse of power against the weak by the powerful?
**The views expressed in this article are those of the author (Robert Taylor) and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, TrackAlerts.com.
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Anti-doping agency wants Tyson Gay defamation case dismissed (http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/07/12/5966232/anti-doping-agency-wants-tyson.html?rh=1)
Posted Saturday, Jul. 12, 2014
BY MAX B. BAKER maxbaker@star-telegram.com
FORT WORTH — As Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay took a victory lap in France last week after winning the 100-meter dash, attorneys in Fort Worth representing him and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency were seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them by the athlete’s former coach.
Jon Drummond, a one-time TCU track star who trains athletes in Arlington, earlier this year filed a defamation lawsuit against Gay, the agency and its executive director, Travis Tygart, saying that they falsely accused him of providing performance-enhancing drugs to the world-class sprinter.
Drummond, who coached Gay from 2007 to 2012, faces a possible lifetime ban from the sport if the USADA eventually finds that he violated its policies.
In response, the agency says Drummond’s defamation claims are based on protected and confidential statements made during the agency’s internal investigation and that the coach has not provided adequate proof that Gay or Tygart said anything about him publicly.
Repeating arguments used to throw out lawsuits by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, the agency’s lawyers — after successfully moving the lawsuit from state to federal court — also contend that Drummond wants to circumvent the established process for doping cases.
With the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, Congress required that arbitration be the exclusive forum to resolve disputes relating to the eligibility of U.S. athletes and coaches involved in Olympic sports, the documents state.
In fact, the agency’s arbitrators already have conducted a preliminary inquiry and set a final arbitration hearing in September in Dallas to review the case against Drummond, according to documents filed last week. Three independent arbitrators have been appointed to hear the case.
“Congress made clear choices to keep disputes involving the eligibility of amateur athletes and coaches ‘out of the federal courts,’ ” the documents state. If allowed to proceed, Drummond would be “litigating the truth or falsity of an arbitration witness’s testimony in two forums — in court and in arbitration — in violation of the express intent of Congress.”
The USADA wants U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, if he decides not to dismiss the case, to at least stay the proceedings until after the arbitration process is completed.
Mark Whitburn, Drummond’s attorney, did not return calls from the Star-Telegram seeking comment. Drummond also did not respond to phone calls seeking an interview.
Chad Arnette, the Fort Worth attorney representing the anti-doping agency, referred all questions to USADA.
“We view this lawsuit as a misguided attempt to undermine the established arbitration process agreed to by the entire Olympic movement that is in place to protect the rights of all clean athletes and uphold the integrity of sport,” said Annie Skinner, spokeswoman for USADA.
Gay, whose win Monday was his first after serving a one-year ban for taking prohibited substances, has been reluctant to discuss his suspension, citing USADA rules. His agent also did not respond to a request from the Star-Telegram for interviews.
But after his victory in Montreuil, France, Gay told The Associated Press that his doping suspension was a learning experience.
“I’m learning to be more responsible,” Gay is quoted as saying. “As an athlete, you have to be responsible for your supplements.”
Disputed cream ingredients
Drummond is a legendary track and field athlete who competed for the U.S. for many years. In 1993 and 1999, he won gold medals at the World Championships in the 4x100 relays, and in 2000 he won a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in the same event.
He retired from competition in 2003 and began coaching, sometimes working out of gyms in Arlington or at the University of Texas at Arlington track.
He coached Gay in Tarrant County at various times over five years.
At the 2012 London Olympics, he coached the men’s and women’s 4x100 relays, with the latter team shattering the world record and winning a gold medal.
Drummond was so well-respected among his peers that he served as chairman of the USA Track and Field’s Athletes Advisory Committee. In his lawsuit, Drummond said he advocated against the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
At no time, Drummond contends in court documents, did he encourage Gay to take prohibited substances nor did Gay test positive for any banned material while he was working with him.
But Drummond concedes in court records that in June 2012 he introduced Gay to Clayton Gibson III, a chiropractor who has a sports medicine practice in Atlanta, after Gay needed help recovering from nagging injuries.
Drummond said he had heard good things about Gibson from other athletes he trusted, including one he had coached, Marshevet Hooker, a University of Texas standout sprinter and long jumper, court records state. She has lived in Grand Prairie.
Gibson provided Gay with creams that had labels referring to substances such as DHEA, a hormone that is a precursor to testosterone and estrogen and can be used to boost performance. Gibson said the labels did not truly reflect the food-based ingredients; he said the labels were for marketing to non-athletes not affected by the ban.
Gibson did not return a phone call from the Star-Telegram seeking comment.
Later, after Gay received a shipment of the products in Eugene, Ore., from the chiropractor, valued at $9,000, Drummond “unequivocally” recommended that Gay discard them, according to court documents, because he did not feel that they were “safe and appropriate.”
In 2013, after Drummond stopped coaching Gay, he heard that Gay had tested positive for banned substances and that he was “falsely contending” that his coach had encouraged him to use the creams provided by Gibson.
After meeting with USADA, Drummond remembered a bag of substances that Gay had received in 2012 from an unknown source. The coach said he told Gay not to use anything from the bag, which Drummond stored under his sink and eventually turned over to the USADA.
Eventually, Drummond learned that Gay told USADA that his coach had encouraged him to use the creams from Gibson and that he had injected him with substances from the bag during 2012.
Gay, who cooperated with the anti-doping agency’s inquiry, received a one-year ban in May, backdated to June 2013, avoiding the typical two-year punishment. He also surrendered his silver medal from the 2012 London Olympics 4x100 relay team. Gay also gave back money he earned.
The International Association of Athletics Foundation and the World Anti-Doping Agency both announced last month that they would not appeal Gay’s one-year ban for doping. In a brief statement, the IAAF said the sanction was “appropriate under the circumstances.”
Tygart has praised Gay for “accepting responsibility for his decisions and fully and truthfully cooperating” with the agency.
When Gay explained testing positive for banned substances last year, he said that he didn’t have “any sabotage story.” He simply said that he had put his trust “in someone and was let down.”
Revealing footnote
USADA and Gay have been careful in what they’ve said — or not said— about the case.
In its latest pleadings to have the case dismissed, USADA said statements referred to as defamatory by Drummond allegedly come from an affidavit taken in April from Gay during disciplinary proceedings, which was never publicly quoted by the athlete or by Tygart, court documents state.
“Courts in Texas and elsewhere routinely recognize the well-established and absolute immunity of parties and witnesses from liability for statements made when testifying in judicial proceedings,” documents filed by USADA’s attorneys state.
USADA’s attorneys also point out, in a footnote, that the letters Drummond received in May telling him there was an inquiry say that no one is suppose to “publicly comment or disclose information” until the case is concluded. Disciplinary proceedings against Drummond were only confirmed when the coach filed his lawsuit and his attorney’s released a statement, records show.
“USADA at all times maintained these statements and Mr. Gay’s affidavit as confidential and have disclosed that affidavit only within the confines of the established disciplinary process,” according to court records.
The anti-doping agency in court records also made it clear that the Sports Act gives the U.S. Olympic Committee exclusive jurisdiction over amateur athletic activities. It formed USADA in 2000 to handle investigations of doping allegations and rule violations.
National governing bodies such as USA Track and Field agreed to submit their disputes — including anti-doping rule violations — to arbitration. The final body for disputes in Olympic sports is the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Max B. Baker, 817-390-7714 Twitter: @MaxBBaker