Anti-Doping Agency Seeks to Ban Four Top Runners
By Cynthia Kirk
This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special
English.
This week, the United States Anti-Doping Agency accused
four top runners of drug violations. The athletes could face lifetime
bans from competition. One of them is Tim Montgomery. He holds the record
as the fastest man in the world. He ran the one-hundred-meter race in
nine-point-seven-eight seconds in two-thousand-two. The other athletes
are Chryste Gaines, Alvin Harrison and Michelle Collins.
The four athletes have never failed a drug test. The
agency has built its case with evidence from a federal investigation
of the BALCO company in California. BALCO is the Bay Area Laboratory
Co-Operative. The agency says the evidence includes e-mail messages
and other documents. A United States Senate committee gave the agency
thousands of pages of documents from the investigation.
Federal officials have charged BALCO founder Victor
Conte and three other men with illegal trade in steroids. These drugs
which can increase athletic performance are banned in most sports. But
their use can be difficult to discover in drug testing.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency is a private
organization. It is known as USADA [you-SAH-dah]. It was created in
two-thousand for the Olympic movement in the United States.
Its rules permit athletes to continue to compete until
their cases are decided. Competition is set for July ninth to choose
the United States Olympic track and field team. The agency says it hopes
to have the four cases settled before then. The Athens Olympics are
in August.
The agency sent letters to the four runners earlier
this month to tell them they were under investigation. They can appeal
to a United States court or to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based
in Switzerland.
Punishments could also include a loss of past results.
Tim Montgomery could lose his world record from two-thousand-two.
His lawyers say the evidence against him is weak.
They say the agency is treating him unfairly and wants to ruin him.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported this week that he told an investigating
grand jury last year that he used performance drugs.
Tim Montgomery is the boyfriend of Marion Jones, the
runner, who has won three Olympic gold medals. Marion Jones is also
under investigation. But she has not been charged. She has strongly
denied using illegal substances.
Last month, Olympic runner Kelli White admitted to
such use. She accepted a two-year suspension. She also lost her world
championship titles in the one-hundred and two-hundred meter races.
All this comes as Americans follow the issue of performance
drugs in professional sports. Some top baseball players have been named
as part of the BALCO investigation. This has increased pressure to ban
the use of such drugs by professional players.
In the News, in VOA Special English, was written
by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember.
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