Sprinter Young Sues Over Disclosure in Steroid Case

U.S. sprinter Jerome Young has filed a lawsuit against USA Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee after their separate confirmations that he was the athlete who tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in 1999 but was allowed to compete at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

According to court records unsealed Friday, the suit was filed Feb. 4 in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis and asks for unspecified damages.

In a separate legal action, track’s worldwide governing body, the International Assn. of Athletics Federations, recently moved to take to arbitration a USATF appeal panel’s decision in July 2000 to clear Young to compete.

At issue are the gold medals won in Sydney by Young and five other Americans, including Michael Johnson, in the 1,600-meter relay.

The International Olympic Committee’s ruling executive board is due to be updated on the matter at meetings this weekend.

USATF for years protected the identity of an athlete who was known to have tested positive before the Games but who was nevertheless allowed to compete after a hearing and appeal process conducted in secret. USATF’s position was that it was abiding by confidentiality rules in place at the time.

The Times disclosed in August that the athlete was Young. The next month, the USOC confirmed that to the IOC.

Earlier this month, and only after having been threatened with financial and other sanctions by the USOC and the IOC, USATF turned over to the USOC its files in the case.

In the Feb. 4 court filing in Indianapolis, Young’s attorneys clung to the position that the athlete at issue should not be named.

Young was referred to as “Unnamed Athlete No. 13,” a reference to a description of the case in a 2001 blue-ribbon panel’s review of U.S. doping policies. Moreover, the lawsuit was filed under seal.

In a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker lifted the seal, according to court records. The USOC had pressed to open the court files.

Attorneys for Young, one at a law firm in Indianapolis and two at a New York-based firm, did not return calls late Friday.