4 Sprinters Face Possible Olympic Ban

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency launched proceedings Tuesday against four of America’s top sprinters, including 100-meter world-record holder Tim Montgomery, alleging “potential” doping violations in a first step toward banning the athletes from the Summer Olympics in Athens.

In addition to Montgomery, sprinters Chryste Gaines, Michelle Collins and Alvin Harrison received letters from USADA accusing them of doping violations, according to two sources familiar with the letters who spoke on the condition of anonymity. All four are world champions or Olympic medalists.

In Montgomery’s case, USADA alleges the use of multiple substances, including the designer steroid THG, the blood-booster EPO and human growth hormone, one of the sources said. Details on the allegations against the others were not disclosed. Montgomery’s lawyer, Cristina C. Arguedas, said Tuesday her 29-year-old client has “done nothing wrong.”

Arguedas added: “It is fundamentally unfair to try to take away an athlete’s reputation, their work and their dreams based on meager information, flimsy documents and a flawed process.”

Gaines’ attorney, Cameron Myler, said they were reviewing the letter but declined to comment further. Attorneys for Collins and Harrison did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Authorities have also focused on Marion Jones, perhaps America’s best-known track and field star. She did not receive a letter Tuesday, but her lawyer was contacted by USADA officials, asking further questions. Attorney Joseph Burton said he was “very puzzled” by the call because his client had answered similar questions in a previous meeting.

USADA’s action, sparked by an ongoing federal criminal case involving allegations of steroid distribution to top athletes in baseball, football and track and field, sets in motion a hearing and review process that officials hope will conclude by July 9, the first day of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Sacramento.

The trials conclude July 18 and the U.S. team must be named by July 21; the Olympics begin Aug. 13.

In late May, USADA presented Jones with “what [officials] believe is evidence” of doping, according to her attorney, who later characterized it as insufficient to make a case against her.

Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, three gold, has consistently said she has never taken a banned performance-enhancing substance. She has not been charged by USADA with misconduct.

She and Montgomery live together in North Carolina. They are the parents of a young son.

Kelli White, who at last year’s world championships in Paris won the women’s 100 and 200 meters, acknowledged last month she had used banned substances. She accepted a two-year suspension and agreed to testify against other athletes. White won’t compete at Athens.

The four cases disclosed Tuesday likely will test a rule that allows USADA to seek the suspension of athletes based on circumstantial evidence -- that is, without a urine sample showing a positive test for drugs.

USADA can offer leniency -- a doping offense typically means a two-year suspension -- in exchange for sworn testimony or reliable proof of doping involving other athletes or coaches.

“We are committed to taking a team to the Athens Games that represents the highest standards of fair play and clean competition, a team that will make America proud, and we appreciate and commend USADA for its efforts in helping us reach this important goal,” U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said Tuesday.

Jones and Montgomery used to train with coach Trevor Graham; a number of athletes in Graham’s camp have since been accused of doping. The pair trained in late 2002 with Charlie Francis, the coach of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who lost his gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics after testing positive for the steroid stanozolol. Jones was married to the shotputter C.J. Hunter, who tested positive for the steroid nandrolone before the 2000 Sydney Games.

On Sept. 3, during a raid at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, Victor Conte, BALCO’s founder, told federal agents that he supplied steroids to Jones, Montgomery and others, according to reports published in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News. Conte’s attorneys say that assertion was misrepresented or coerced.

The raid turned up calendars purporting to show steroid-use schedules for BALCO clients, including one labeled “Tim M” that listed a series of products, including a designer steroid nicknamed “the clear,” according to an account published last month in ESPN magazine.

Another account, in the San Jose Mercury News, indicated a training calendar the newspaper had reviewed indicated Montgomery was scheduled to use “the clear,” which federal prosecutors allege was code for the steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, eight times in May 2001.

Conte, a self-described nutritionist, and three others were indicted in February on a 42-count indictment that alleges the distribution of banned substances to top athletes. The other defendants are BALCO executive James Valente, noted track coach Remi Korchemny and Greg Anderson, personal trainer to baseball slugger Barry Bonds.

All four defendants have pleaded not guilty. No athletes have been criminally charged.

Some if not all of the four have been involved in recent days in talks aimed at reaching a plea bargain; information from Conte, in particular, could be used to pursue star athletes. No deals have been struck.

Jones, Montgomery, Bonds and others were among those who testified last year to a federal grand jury in San Francisco investigating BALCO. Each has denied using banned performance-enhancing substances.

In early May, meanwhile, the U.S. Senate released thousands of pages of documents to USADA after the Commerce Committee subpoenaed them from the BALCO criminal case.

If the athletes notified Tuesday are banned, the U.S. track team that heads to Athens could be forced to rely on some young, up-and-coming sprinters.

Collins, 33, a former training partner of Jones, is the 2003 world indoor 200-meter champion. Competing in the 1,600-meter relay, she won a gold medal at the 1993 world championships and a silver in the 1999 worlds.

Gaines, 33 and a onetime pupil of Korchemny, is the 2001 U.S. national champion in the 100 meters. She is a two-time Olympic medalist in the 400-meter relay -- gold in 1996 in Atlanta and bronze in 2000 in Sydney.

Harrison, 30, is the 2000 Olympic silver medalist in the 400-meter dash. He won gold in the 1,600-meter relay in Sydney and Atlanta.

Montgomery set the 100-meter mark by running 9.78 seconds on Sept. 14, 2002, at a meet in Paris. He won gold at Sydney in the 400-meter relay.

Jones has over the last several weeks been waging a public-relations campaign. She vowed at an appearance last month in New York to sue if barred from the Olympic team.

In an interview with the Sunday Times of London, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said it was “stupid” of Jones to “have a link with someone like Charlie Francis,” Ben Johnson’s coach.

She said that was an “extremely ignorant comment.”

In a statement Tuesday, Jones defended Montgomery, calling him “a good person, a great athlete and an even better father” and expressed her belief that if a “fair process” were applied that he would be cleared to race in Athens.

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Under Suspicion

The four sprinters who have been accused by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of violations:

* Michelle Collins

2003 world indoor 200-meter champion; 1993 gold medalist in 1,600-meter relay at world championships.

* Chryste Gaines

2001 U.S. national 100-meter champion; two-time Olympic medalist in 400-meter relay.

* Alvin Harrison

2000 Olympic silver medalist at 400 meters; two-time Olympic gold medalist in 1,600-meter relay.

* Tim Montgomery

World record holder at 100 meters; 2000 Olympic gold medalist in 400-meter relay.