HE’S HOPPING MAD : Banks Says TAC May Rig His Drug Test to Keep Him Off Olympic Team

The man who holds the world triple jump record has been left off the preferred list for Olympic financial aid by The Athletics Congress.

Willie Banks is so irked about it that he made some serious accusations before his induction into the San Diego Hall of Champions’ Breitbard Hall of Fame Tuesday night.

Banks said that TAC, the governing body of United States track and field, may conspire to keep him off the Olympic team by declaring that he has tested positive for drugs in the Olympic trials this summer at Indianapolis.

He claimed that Berny Wagner, who coordinates TAC’s drug-testing program, had told him he had flunked his drug test after his record jump of 58 feet 11 1/2 inches in the TAC national meet in Indianapolis in 1985.

Banks said: “There’s a distinct possibility that TAC could rig the drug testing, even though I’ve never even thought of taking drugs.

“I know it could happen, because an official of TAC accused me of being on drugs when I set the world record. It was Berny Wagner.

“I said to him, ‘You’re crazy, Berny. There’s no way I could test positive, because I’ve never taken drugs in my life.’ He said, ‘Well, it’s probably nothing. These things happen. False positive results come up all the time.’ Then he just dropped it, but he knew what he was doing.

“If it happens in the Olympic trials, I’ll have to take them to court. That would really get nasty.”

Wagner, from TAC headquarters in Indianapolis, denied the charge.

Wagner, a former track coach at Oregon State and four Bay Area high schools, said: “I have no recollection of any conversation with Willie about drugs. I’ve never said he used drugs or tested positive for drugs. This has no basis in fact as far as I’m concerned.

“Willie has made that accusation before. He included it in his appeal letter for inclusion in Operation Seoul (TAC’s Olympic financial-aid plan) after our selections were made.

“I don’t know what he’s getting at. I don’t know what he’s trying to prove. Whether he’s mad at me, I don’t know. I was on the selection committee, and he said I shouldn’t have been. I have no idea what his problem is, but he’s certainly off base.

“The crazy thing is, I sat next to him at a luncheon meeting of the TAC board of directors in Chicago two weeks ago, and he didn’t say a word about this.”

Banks’ charges also were denied by LeRoy Walker of Durham, N.C., president of TAC, and John Chaplin, Washington State track coach and chairman of TAC’s international competition committee.

“I won’t even respond to that,” Walker said. “It’s too ridiculous. Testing isn’t under our control in the first place. It’s just too ludicrous to talk about.”

Chaplin went into more detail.

“I’m well aware of what allegedly happened with Wagner,” he said. “All such charges have been investigated and proven to be false.

“In the first place, Wagner is not the one who had control of that. Doctors handle drug testing, and there’s no way anyone could fake a test by substituting one urine sample for another. All samples are sealed.

“We call it protective testing, and we’re extremely careful about it. Even if a test is positive, we give another test, just in case the first one was in error.”

Banks’ immediate goal is to redeem himself in the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, this fall. Banks, an alumnus of Oceanside High and UCLA, placed sixth in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

When TAC picked 28 track athletes to receive $1,500 each per month for Olympic training expenses, Al Joyner and Mike Conley, who placed 1-2 in the 1984 Olympics, were the only triple jumpers chosen.

“There’s no way they should take anybody ahead of me,” said Banks, 32, who lives near the UCLA campus. “I’m the world record-holder, I’ve been in the top three in the United States for 10 years, I’m a three-time national champion, and I’ve got every record there is in the triple jump.

“Yet they picked Joyner, even though he has done nothing before or since the Los Angeles Olympics. I’m one of 13 alternates, which means I may be added if they find more money.

“It looks like the triple jump isn’t a fair event anymore. If I jump farther than Joyner or Conley, I honestly feel that TAC may cheat.

“Their intent is to have those two make the team, and it’s like Charlie Simpkins and I are fighting it out for the third spot. Charlie has the second-best jump ever--58-8 1/2--so he belongs up there with me. Conley’s best is 58-5 or 6, and Joyner’s is 57-4.”

Chaplin told how the selections were made:

“First, we decided to fund anyone who won a medal in the World Championships in Rome last year. That gave us 13 athletes. They picked themselves.

“After that, we had 14 left, plus Butch Reynolds, the Ohio State quarter-miler, who will be funded after he completes his college eligibility in June. There were four people under me on the committee, and we worked on an original list of about 100. We struck out collegians, because we can’t give them aid.

“We cut the list to 35, and finally to 14. Then we picked 13 alternates. Joan Benoit Samuelson said she didn’t want the money, so we took the first name on the alternate list, and that happened to be Joyner.”

Chaplin said that, because the vote was taken by secret ballot, he didn’t know how high Banks ranked among the alternates.

Wagner, however, said that Banks was one of the bottom two.

“Willie wasn’t on the original list of alternates,” Wagner said. “We added him and another man later. Simpkins isn’t included.

“The primary thing you have to consider is that we had only one criterion: Does the athlete have a reasonable chance to win a medal at Seoul?

“If Willie had not competed at all in ‘87, he probably would have been selected on the basis of past performance. But he had some injuries, and he didn’t do well, and I’m sure that influenced the voting.”

Chaplin put it more bluntly, saying: “If Joe Blow is good enough, why didn’t he get a medal in the World Championships?”

Banks didn’t qualify for the finals in the world meet. Neither did Simpkins. Conley finished second, but Joyner wasn’t even there, having failed to make the team because he had placed fourth in the nationals.

“I’m going to the U.S. Olympic Committee to protest,” Banks said. “I’ve written letters and haven’t gotten any satisfaction. TAC is supposed to be above board, but it’s tainted now. They’ve picked the 28 people they want, and as for the rest of us, they don’t care if we die.”

Banks admitted that his poor season in 1987 had worked against him.

“But I’m on schedule with my training for the Olympics,” he said. “I’m stronger than I’ve ever been after doing a lot of work with weights.”

Despite having been bypassed by TAC, Banks said he isn’t hurting for training expenses. He has money coming in from his corporate sponsors.

“I make a comfortable living,” he said. “I work. I really go out and hustle.”