Who tells these athletes who test positive for performance enhancing drugs to use the excuses they use? First Floyd Landis uses the ‘it was the alcohol’ that caused his high levels of testosterone (this has been proven to be false), and now it’s a massage therapist who is sabotaging Olympic Champion, World Champion, and joint World Record holder, Justin Gatlin, by rubbing testosterone into his legs? Do athletes think that sports followers are ignorant? Gatlin already tested positive once before, for amphetamines, and as a result he faces a lifetime ban.

Please don’t ban me for life

It’s not looking good for Gatlin - he is coached by Trevor Graham, who was a controversial appointment by Gatlin considering Graham’s involvement with the BALCO scandal and his history of coaching athletes that have tested positive for banned substances. His excuse for the positive test is flimsy and surely will not hold up. If he is indeed banned for life, he will be remembered with Ben Johnson and Tim Montgomery as 100 metres champions who have had their careers end in drug disgrace.

While the huge amounts of money continue to be offered to the premier athletes in the world, athletes will continue to push the envelope when it comes to drugs. Athletes continue to be willing to risk being caught taking performance enhancing drugs in search of the big payoff. Gatlin has no doubt made millions of dollars in endorsments since his Olympic victory in Athens, but now he is disgraced. He’ll just have to go into hiding in his mansion or take a drive in one of his luxury cars - tough life for someone who cheated the system.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 9:32 pm and is filed under General Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.