Former Arkansas Razorback Tyson Gay, a four-time U.S. champion and second-fastest 100-meter runner of all time, has tested positive for a banned substance and faces a two-year ban from the sport.
Gay wasn’t the only world-class track athlete to receive bad news recently.
Two Jamaicans - Asafa Powell, the former world-record holder at 100 meters, and Sherone Simpson, a winner of one gold and two silver Olympic medals, tested positive for oxilofrine, a banned stimulant, their agent told the Associated Press.
Powell and Simpson issued statements denying any wrong doing, while Gay, the American record-holder at 100 meters, attributed the positive test to belief in others.
Gay, 30, who won the world championship in the 100, 200 and 400-meter relay in 2007, took part in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s “My Victory” program - in which athletes volunteer for enhanced testing to prove they’re clean - and his results never raised red flags. Until, that is, an out-of-competition test May 16, where results came back positive for a banned substance, the identity of which neither he nor USADA CEO Travis Tygart would reveal.
“I don’t have a sabotage story,” Gay said in a telephone interview. “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.”
Gay, who won the 100 and 200 meters at U.S. nationals last month, said he would pull out of the world championships scheduled to be held next month in Moscow.
Gay said his “B” sample will be tested soon, possibly as early as this week.
Generally, first-time offenders are hit with two-year bans, though reduced penalties are sometimes given if there are extenuating circumstances, which both Gay and his coach, Lance Brauman, said there were.
Max Siegel, the CEO of USA Track and Field, said in a statement: “It is not the news anyone wanted to hear, at any time, about any athlete.” He said he looked to USADA to handle the case “appropriately.”
Siegel’s predecessor at USATF, Doug Logan, called it “a sad day.”
“But I don’t see anything on the horizon that says this will be abated in any way,” Logan told AP.
Brauman is a former Arkansas assistant track coach who recruited Gay to Arkansas in 2003 but was at the forefront of an NCAA investigation that resulted in Arkansas track being placed on three years probation, stripped former Coach John McDonnell of two NCAA Outdoor track championships and expunged all of Gay’s Arkansas accomplishments from the record books.
Powell, 30, whose 100-meter record of 9.74 stood until Usain Bolt beat it in 2008, was calling for an investigation as to how a stimulant called oxilofrine entered his system and caused a positive test at Jamaica’s national championships in June.
“I am not now - nor have I ever been - a cheat,” Powell said in a message released through his Twitter account.
Simpson, who tested positive for the same stimulant, said she “would not intentionally take an illegal substance of any form into my system.”
The news came a month after another Jamaican Olympic gold medalist, Veronica Campbell-Brown, another former Arkansas Razorback, tested positive for a banned diuretic.
Campbell-Brown is being suspended while a disciplinary panel reviews her case. Track’s governing body said the case appeared to involve a “lesser” offense, which could mean a reduced sentence for the 200-meter champion at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.
Shortly after news of Campbell-Brown’s positives, her agent, Claude Bryan, said his client is not a cheat and she does not accept “guilt of willfully taking a banned substance.”
The known banned substances in these cases, a diuretic and a stimulant, don’t resemble the steroids and designer drugs that took down some of the world’s top athletes - Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Ben Johnson, to name a few - over the past years and decades. But many of the denials and claims of extenuating circumstances in the current cases carry a whiff of familiarity.
“This result has left me completely devastated in many respects,” said Powell, who didn’t qualify for individual spots at worlds but could still make Jamaica’s relay team if his positive test doesn’t net a suspension. “I am reeling from this genuinely surprising result. I am confident, however, that I will come out stronger and wiser and better prepared to deal with the many twists and turns of being a professional athlete.”
Powell was calling for an investigation as to how a stimulant called oxilofrine entered his system and caused a positive test at Jamaica’s national championships in June.
Information for this article contributed by Democrat-Gazette staff.
Tyson Gay at a glance AGE 30 HOMETOWN Lexington, Ky.
RESIDENCE Clermont, Fla.
COLLEGE Arkansas HT/WT 5-10/177 pounds SPORT Track and field EVENTS 100, 200, 400 relay PERSONAL BESTS 100 9.69 seconds (U.S. record) 200 19.58 seconds 400 44.89 seconds NOTABLE Tied with Jamaican Yohan Blake as the second-fastest ever in the 100 meters behind Jamaican Usain Bolt, who holds the world record (9.58 seconds). ... Fifth-fastest in the 200. ... In 2010, was a member of the fifth-fastest 400 relay team (37.45) seconds with former Arkansasteamamte Wallace Spearmon, along with Trell Kimmons and Michael Rodgers. ... Also in 2010, ran the 400 in 44.89, became the first man to finish in under 10 seconds in the 100, 20 seconds in the 200 and under 45 seconds in the 400. ... Remains one of only three sprinters to have beaten Bolt in a final since the 2008 Olympics. The others are Blake at the Jamaican Olympic trials, and Justin Gatlin at the 2013 Golden Gala in Rome. ... Fourtime American champion, having won the 100 title three times (2006-2008) and the 200 title in 2007. ... Won a silver medal in the 400 relay at the London Olympics in 2012. ... Three-time gold medalist at the World Championships. ... Two-time gold medalist at the World Cup. ... Three-time gold medalist at the World Athletics final.
Sports, Pages 13 on 07/15/2013