Track and Field Stars Under Cloud of Suspicion

It used to be so automatic.

The question at track and field events at recent Summer Olympic Games was not whether the US team would win any medals, but how many, and what color. In 1996, the team won 23 medals, 13 of them gold. In 2000 in Sydney, the numbers were 19 and 10.

This year, doping allegations and disqualifications have cast a shadow over the star-studded track and field team. At least eight of the stars from games past either face doping bans or have not qualified for the Games in events they typically dominated.

Big names fall

Alvin Harrison, silver medalist in the 400m in Sydney, Jerome Young, world champ in the 400m in Paris in 2003 and Marion Jones, who won every 100m race between 1997 and 2001, all failed to qualify for the Olympics at the US Track and Field trials in the past week.

Of the three, only Jones, who has been haunted by doping allegations, can still qualify for the Games, in the long jump or 200m. Her boyfriend and the father of her one-year-old son, the sprint star Tim Montgomery, faces a lifetime ban from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for a doping offense.

He finished a disappointing sixth in the trials, failing to qualify for the 100m sprint, an event in which he holds the world record.

Doping rumors everywhere

The athletes blame the negative publicity and pressure on them since federal investigators uncovered a San Francisco Bay Area laboratory that supplied athletes with steroids. Since the scandal surrounding the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) broke last Fall, four athletes have admitted to using designer drugs to boost their performance.

Champion shot-putter Kevin Toth as well as hammer-throwers Melissa Price and John McEwen accepted two-year bans. In May, Kelli White, the reigning world champion in the 100m and 200m, also accepted a two-year ban after admitting to using drugs provided by BALCO.

Since the scandal broke, US track and field stars have been battling a storm of negative publicity. The strain appears to have taken a toll on athletes like Jones, who hasn't been able to shake off doping suspicions despite never testing positive.

Stress is too much

"Stress can burst a pipe," said Chryste Gaines, a 100m sprinter who along with 200m indoor champion Michelle Collins is under the microscope of the USADA. Both failed to qualify for the Olympics.

"So you can imagine what it can do to a person," she said.

Time is ticking down for the US Track and Field Association to pick a squad for the Olympic Games. Olympic Committees have until July 25 to provide organizers with a list of competing athletes. The early exits of some of the team's brightest stars should relieve some of the pressure.