Tyson alert(left) and Justin Gatlin compete in a 100 semitrailerin the 2013 USA Championships at Drake Stadium in stilbesterolMoines on June 21.(Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
After American Tyson risibleand Jamaican Asafa Powell, the second and fourth fastest men of every(prenominal)time, admitted to testing positive for banned substances, there was plenty of mindsearching in the sport.
Questions arose: Is it time to wave the whiteflagstonein a race that never seems to be won? Has track and field reached its tipping point?
Doug Logan, the former CEO of USA Track and Field, saysports organizations should give up the fight against performance enhancing drugs. "We go awayhideto have sad days like todayo'erand over again. Unless we rethink this," Logan told USA TODAY Sports on Sunday.
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Ato Boldon's stance was a bit softer, scarcelyalso bold. The former world champion saystimulants should be legalized but the hard stuff – steroids, human growth ductless glandand blood doping – should remain banned.
"It's not even bleeding anymore," said Boldon, one of the most respected voices in his sport. "We have to arrayout the paddles because we have to be resuscitated now."
Logan spent twoyears on the other side of the fence battling drugcheats as the head of the sport's national governing body.
"I know my agitateof view is way in the minority and it comes after a significant amount of thought to the topic and I rallyit's time for us to make changes and different solutions," Logan said. "Laws that can't be enforced shouldn't be on the books. These substances which we as a sport atomic number 18trying to regulate, we're doing a poor job of it and we're not preventing doyoung men and women from going ahead and using when they chose to."
Logan expressedhis point of view last month for SpeedEndurance.com. "Leave the regulation of drugs to governments and their justiceenforcement auspices," he wrote.
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Boldon doesn't think the sport should aerofoilthe floodgates, but it should legalize some of the stimulants and supplements on the banned itemisationbecause "everyone is already on it. It's a question of who's getting forwardwith it and who isn't."
Boldon said the culture of the sport needs to be changed. "There is a distrust in this sport that the psycheI'm competing against is doing something so I have to continue to push the envelope," he said. Athletes know they will get caught if they take the serious substances – steroids, hormones, blood doping – so they use something less effective, like a stimulant, even though it's in additionbanned, Boldon said.
"Some of these things these guys are getting popped for, it's like, really? It's a stimulant," he said. "The person I'm competing against is doing something so someone comes to me and gives me something that's really close to being legal, and everyone feels like this is how I keep my competitive edge."
Gay, the American 100-meter record holder, didn't say what drughe well-triedpositive for. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency informed Gay of the positive test Friday while he was training at his team's camp in Amsterdam preparing for next month's world championships, his perambulatorLance Brauman told USA TODAY Sports. The positive test came from a May 16 out-of-competition test.
"He trusted somebody and it proved to be a mistake," Brauman said. The coach, who said he could not name this person, added that "this person or people that he put his trust into had no affiliation with me or anyone else in my training group."
Powell and teammate Sherone Simpson tested positive for the stimulant oxilofrine, according to the AP. In a rehearsalPowell said he never knowingly or willfullytook any banned supplement or substances.
Still, when the public hears an jocktested positive, they assume it's steroids, Boldon said. "We can sit and cry andgroanand sulk or say, 'OK how best can we move aheadso we're not here again?' If people continue to leavetheir heads in the sand this is going to continue to happen."
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Materials taken from USA Today
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