Trinidad Express article gives wise advise to Ato.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161313615Ato, boy, your credibility is on the line here.
You love the sport of track and field, and we all know how passionate you are about catching the cheats and how much pride you take in proclaiming yourself as someone who has achieved so much while resisting the temptation to take the shortcut through banned performance-enhancing substances.
Still, in the rush to prove your innocence, you have to be careful not to false-start. Everyone assumes that an anonymous letter referred to by The Observer newspaper of London at the weekend came from you, lambasting as it did your former training partner Maurice Greene and coach John Smith following damning evidence by a Mexican middleman that he had supplied drugs to Greene in 2003 and 2004, and was paid around US$40,000, with copies of bank transfers to prove it.
It may have been an instantaneous lashing out to distance yourself from those two, but you shouldn't be surprised that the cynics are out in full force now, implying that it is almost impossible for you to be so tight with those fellas for so long and not, at the very least, know what was going on. And it's not just the run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorists but respected personalities in the sport who are causing furrowed brows with their suppositions.
Writing in The Guardian newspaper of London yesterday, this is part of what Steve Cram had to say in a piece headlined "Balco, Boldon (see, they pull you in already), Graham, Greene... stand by for the naming of names" in response to what is generally accepted to be your angry outburst in defence of your reputation:
"But what and who can you believe? Athletes have always been quick to accuse rivals of duplicity when failing to realise that in bedrooms along the corridor their own names were being spoken of in similar terms."
Britain's former 1,500-metre world champion, now a highly-regarded athletics correspondent and commentator for the BBC, doesn't leave it at that, though.
I'm sure you're aware of this article already, so it's no point telling you to brace yourself:
"Any performance slipping into the top-ten all-time list has always been met with admiration and suspicion. In 1997, I was flying back to Tyneside after the Stockholm grand prix meeting in July. The star had been Boldon who had a stunning double victory in the 100m and 200m with only about an hour between races, considered to be the quickest double in one evening, 9.95 for the 100 and 19.82 for the 200m with Greene hot on his heels.
"That night Carl Lewis ran an anchor relay leg as part of his farewell tour. He pulled me aside in the airport and without naming names he accused current athletes of diminishing the achievements of the likes of myself and Seb Coe and most importantly himself. He was prepared to go public, he had evidence, he said. I reminded him that many had pointed the finger at his own performances which he dismissed out of hand. His anger must have subsided and in due time his own name did surface some years later in an alleged cover-up by the US Olympic Committee."
If your blood is boiling right now, Ato, cool down first before you contemplate your next course of action. Don't do or say something in the heat of the moment that you will subsequently regret. If you're innocent, as you've always stated you are, then the truth will bear you out and any highly-emotional responses will more than likely be interpreted as a desperate man trying to take in front before in front takes him, especially as that Mexican middleman, former athlete Angel Guillermo Heredia, and Trevor Graham, disgraced former coach of disgraced American sprinter Marion Jones, are expected to name names when they testify at the latest stage of the Balco drugs scandal enquiry in San Francisco, beginning May 19.
Cram is one of those people fearing the worst:
"The name-calling now looks likely to reach new heights, this time under oath. It is to be welcomed but it will certainly not be enjoyable... the vultures will be hovering over athletics next month..."
Greene, who triggered this latest angle to the scandal, has since tried, unconvincingly, to backtrack from this comment he gave to another London newspaper, The Telegraph, more than a week ago:
"I would pay for stuff and not care what it was," he told the newspaper in an apparent defence in the face of evidence that he has had financial dealings with Heredia. "I've paid for things for other people without questioning it, done it plenty of times."
If nothing else, those remarks confirm that it is possible to become the best in the world in a particular endeavour and make tons of money without being too bright. Greene seems to have drowned himself and his reputation, but as the ripples of his eye-opening revelation widen, it will not be surprising if he seeks to pull a few down with him.
So, Ato, tread carefully and keep in mind that there was only one man who it was said could walk on water. This is about much more than lucrative deals as an expert analyst with the big-time television networks or coaching stints with countries whose governments are swimming in money.
It is about your reputation, something that will stay with you long after the glitz and the glory are gone.
-fazeer2001@hotmail.com