International Capsules: Sprinter Gatlin's doping ban set to end in July

Justin Gatlin the sprinter lived life in sub-10-second bursts. Justin Gatlin the banned doper has had four years to obsess about getting that life back.

Four years to think about how his suspension cost him his prime years. Four years to think about how to repair his tattered reputation. Four years to figure out how to catch the fastest man on the planet, Usain Bolt.

Eligible for reinstatement July 24, Gatlin has intensified his training, determined to write a successful final chapter to a career that has included tying a world record, an Olympic gold medal and the humiliation of being caught doping — something he promised would never happen.

"I just hope that 9 seconds of my life from this point on can make up for four years," the 28-year-old Gatlin told The Associated Press in an extensive phone interview.

The typically reclusive Gatlin realizes he’s in a Catch-22: Post fast times and people will be skeptical. Run slow and they’ll say it only figures.

That he simply can’t fix.

"If you love my performance, so be it and thank you," Gatlin said. "If you don’t, you don’t. There’s other runners out there for you to love."

There was a time when Gatlin — not Bolt — was the face of track and the sprinter to beat.

Gatlin was one of the fastest men on the planet then, tying the 100-meter world record of 9.77 seconds, a run that came weeks after a positive test in April 2006 for excessive testosterone and has since been erased.

He won Olympic gold in the 100 meters at the 2004 Olympic Games, followed by world titles in the 100 and 200 a year later.

In an era filled with bad characters and drug cheats, Gatlin was on his way to becoming the sensation of American track, selling himself as the sprinter who was doing things the right way and helping the sport emerge from its dope-riddled past.

A role model for clean competition — until he got caught.

To this day, he says he doesn’t know how a banned substance got into his system.

"I did my check, my background check on the supplements I took since I started professional track, all the way from 2003 to 2006," Gatlin said. "It just didn’t add up. Everything was the same. The only person that was touching my body at that point and time was the masseuse. I just eliminated the factors and came across a lot of sketchy stuff that I felt wasn’t on the up and up.

"There’s no smoking gun, but I feel that I know I’ve been victimized in some manner," he added. "At the same time, you allow yourself to step into doorways and into dark alleys. You just don’t appear there."

He said he no longer has a relationship with his former coach Trevor Graham, who was given a lifetime ban from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for his role in helping his athletes obtain performance-enhancing drugs. Graham also coached dopers Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

"I think (Gatlin) was taken advantage of by his coaches, to a certain extent," said Travis Tygart, CEO of USADA. "But you can’t stick your head in the sand and let people in locker rooms or at their houses, with no medical degrees, inject you with stuff. I hope other athletes will learn the lesson he’s had to learn, which is you have to be thoughtful and judicious who you associate with."

Track and field has been rocked by high-profile doping convictions in recent years. Last week, American 400-meter runner LaShawn Merritt accepted a provisional suspension after testing positive for a banned substance used in an over-the-counter male enhancement product, an embarrassing episode for the Olympic gold medalist.

Another black eye for the sport.

Later this summer, Gatlin gets a chance to redeem himself.

He’s training under speed technician Loren Seagrave, who once worked with former world-record holder Donovan Bailey. On a track in suburban Atlanta, they’re working on overhauling Gatlin’s starts and acceleration. Gatlin also is trimming some weight, not fat but muscle.

Gatlin bulked up while he was banned in an attempt to latch on in the NFL. He worked out for the Houston Texans and Arizona Cardinals, though he didn’t sign with either team.

Now, all that extra muscle must go.

Gatlin is attempting a comeback at an age when sprinters are more likely to wind down than ramp up. But he looks at fellow American Tyson Gay and Jamaica’s Asafa Powell as reasons for a return. They’re both around his age and still considered among the best in the world. Bolt, Gay and Powell went 1-2-3 in the 100 at worlds last summer.

"I think I have a shot just like them — or even better — to go out there and win a medal," Gatlin said. "That’s what I’m working for."

His calculated 100-meter times in practice are somewhere around 9.8 seconds. A nice number, for sure, but one that won’t make the cut nowadays.

Not with Bolt around.

The 23-year-old Jamaican has obliterated world records with such ease in both the 100 (9.58 seconds) and 200 (19.19), dusting opponents even as he clowns toward the finish. Bolt’s biggest competition has been the clock, altering sprinting in ways few could’ve imagined.

Watching him run has only made Gatlin more antsy to return. He beat Bolt on his way to winning the 200 at worlds in ‘05.

"Was he the Usain Bolt he is now? No, he wasn’t," Gatlin said. "That’s a great runner who’s running. You want to be on that line with him."

Can Gatlin someday catch Bolt?

"That’s a whole other kettle of fish," Seagrave said. "After a layoff and a few more years ticking off the calendar, Justin has to step it up a notch. ... But there’s no reason he can’t run extremely fast."

Gatlin doesn’t have a schedule mapped out yet. He’s trusting that meet directors will give him a chance even with that dark cloud of doping hovering over him.

"I hope that my four years is punishment enough, and I don’t have to worry about being blackballed from meets," Gatlin said.

Tom Jordan, the meet director for the Prefontaine Classic, said athletes who are returning from suspension would be given consideration.

"But if there’s someone of comparable ability who hasn’t served a drug suspension, who would you give the lane to?" said Jordan, whose meet is July 3, before Gatlin’s reinstatement. "You want to reward the athletes who have been ostensibly clean."

Still, USA Track and Field CEO Doug Logan believes in second chances and summoned Gatlin for a hold-nothing-back meeting.

It was a frank discussion, both making their points.

"We recognize that if an athlete decides to return to competition after a doping suspension, a federation has two choices: to ignore the athlete’s return and make the person a pariah, or to try to use the lessons that athlete has learned to help positively affect our next generation of athletes," Logan said in an e-mail to the AP. "Justin has an opportunity here."

Gatlin has taken his tale to the kids, too, lecturing at a handful of schools around the nation. His message is simple: Take responsibility for yourself.

"At the end of the day, it’s your career on the line," Gatlin said.

Gay aiming for 200 mark at Great City Games

LONDON — Tyson Gay will try to break Tommie Smith’s 44-year-old mark for 200 meters on a straight track when he competes in the Great City Games on May 16.

The meet in Manchester, England, will be the first time the American has raced the distance on a straight.

Smith set the mark of 19.5 seconds on a cinder track in San Jose, Calif., in May 1966. It’s an unofficial record because only 200s run around a curve are recognized by the IAAF.

The 65-year-old Smith will attend the meet to watch Gay, whose best time in the 200 was a 19.58 in New York last May.

Medical examiner rules runner’s death natural

DALLAS — Heart inflammation killed a former Texas Tech first baseman who collapsed and died last month just after crossing the finish line of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Dallas.

The medical examiner’s office ruled Wednesday that Mark Austry died of myocarditis, an inflammation of a heart wall that is caused by a viral infection.

Austry collapsed and died after finishing the 13.1-mile run benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The 32-year-old former Red Raiders athlete from Lantana, Texas, lettered at Texas Tech from 1998 to 2000 after transferring from Coastal Carolina.

Olympics

London officials: Election won’t affect Olympics

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Preparations for the 2012 Olympics will continue "seamlessly" even if there is a change of government after next month’s general election in Britain, London organizers said Thursday.

London officials assured the International Olympic Committee that the multi-billion dollar project will not be affected by the May 6 vote, which could lead to the defeat of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Labour Party.

"The words Olympic Games have not tumbled from the lips of a single politician in this campaign," London organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe said. "It’s not become a political football."

Organizers also unveiled the London Olympics mascot to the IOC executive board, but details were kept under wraps until an official unveiling in the next two months.

"You are going to love it," London chief executive Paul Deighton said.

Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister, has trailed in most opinion polls against the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Britain appears headed toward a hung Parliament in which no party will hold a majority.

Coe said organizers have worked hard to maintain cross-party support throughout the bidding and organizing process.

"We will go on delivering seamlessly with whatever the political landscape looks like," he said. "We will continue to build those strong relationships that will help us deliver the project."

IOC president Jacques Rogge said his committee was "absolutely at ease" with a possible change of government.

"There is multi-party support for the Olympic Games in the United Kingdom," he said. "There is no doubt about that."

A defeat for Labour could lead to the departure of Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, a key figure in London’s winning bid campaign and games’ preparations.

Coe said that whatever happens in the election, there will be no delays or extended transition period in the Olympic project.

"There can be no time to adapt," he said. "We have very clear timelines. We know exactly what we need to deliver and when we need to deliver. There is an immutable deadline."

London’s $14 billion construction budget involves turning a disused industrial area of east London into an Olympic Park featuring an 80,000-seat main stadium and other new flagship venues and facilities.

Despite the economic downturn, London has already raised about $942 million from its domestic sponsorship program. Deighton said several other deals are in the pipeline.

"We are pleased by the pace of construction, the pace of preparations and also very pleased by the pace of marketing and fund raising," Rogge said. "That is something that is going extremely well."

Rogge and his 15-member board, meanwhile, got a sneak peek of the London mascot through photographs and video.

"It was less about revealing the mascot," Coe said. "It was much more about the narrative behind it."

The board enthusiastically gave the mascot its blessing.

"It was very, very well received," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

The exact date for the mascot’s unveiling hasn’t been determined, but it will be ahead of the two years-to-go celebrations on July 27.

Deighton said the sale of mascots will be an "important driver" in reaching London’s merchandising budget of $106 million.

The switch of two of London’s sports venues is close to being finalized.

Organizers proposed last year that badminton and rhythmic gymnastics be moved to Wembley Arena in northwest London rather than be held at a planned temporary venue near the Olympic Park in east London. Scrapping the temporary facility would save organizers tens of millions of dollars.

"We believe we are almost at the end of that," IOC executive director Gilbert Felli said. "We still need a little bit of time to finalize it, a few little details to solve."

The IOC board also heard from organizers of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Sochi organizing committee chief Dmitry Chernyshenko confirmed that Alexander Zhukov, the deputy prime minister overseeing games preparations, is the only candidate and will become the new president of the Russian Olympic Committee in elections on May 20.

Leonid Tyagachev resigned as ROC president following Russia’s poor performance at the Vancouver Olympics, where the traditional winter powerhouse won only three gold medals and 15 medals overall.

"It’s impossible to have successful games without the national team collecting a big number of medals," Chernyshenko said. "No doubt the situation will change."

On another matter, Rogge said Dubai’s hot weather would be an "important factor" if the city decides to bid for the 2020 Olympics. Temperatures here can exceed 122 degrees.

"We would have to find an ideal period," Rogge said. "The weather is not a disqualifying factor but it is an important factor."

-- Stephen Wilson

China respects IOC decision on underage gymnast

BEIJING — The Chinese Gymnastics Association said Thursday it is "pained" by the ruling to strip its women’s team of a bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics for using an underage athlete but respects the decision.

The International Gymnastics Federation found that Dong Fangxiao was only 14 during the 2000 Games. The International Olympic Committee then ordered China to return their medals, which will now be awarded to the United States. Gymnasts must turn 16 during the Olympic year to be eligible.

"We are pained over this incident. We will learn a lesson and further strengthen all kinds of administrative work on athletes and resolutely prevent a similar incident from happening again," the Chinese association said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency. "The attitude and stance of the Chinese Gymnastics Association is completely the same as that of the IOC."

News that China was losing its bronze over age falsification was reported only briefly in the country’s entirely state-run media. Such an incident is considered hugely embarrassing to the communist government in the sports-crazy country that puts heavy emphasis on Olympic achievement.

The Chinese statement did not say who was responsible for the apparent age falsification or whether the gymnastics association was involved.

"We are very confident of our position that this was a violation," FIG president Bruno Grandi said Thursday in Dubai. "From our point of view, this is a closed case. The IOC confirmed our findings."

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to help protect still-developing athletes from serious injuries. The FIG raised the minimum age to its current 16 in 1997.

The issue drew worldwide attention in 2008, when media reports and Internet records suggested some of the girls on China’s gold-medal-winning Olympic team could have been as young as 14.

A FIG probe cleared the Beijing gymnasts and closed the case in October 2008, but the organization said it wasn’t satisfied with "the explanations and evidence provided to date" for Dong.

The federation didn’t find sufficient evidence to prove that a second Sydney gymnast, Yang Yun, was underage; instead, it gave her a warning.

-- Anita Chang

Rogge defends mild punishment in ethics case

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — IOC president Jacques Rogge defended the decision to issue only a reprimand to Rene Fasel for violating ethics rules, and said the IOC executive board member did not commit financial wrongdoing.

Fasel, who also heads the International Ice Hockey Federation, was reprimanded Wednesday for breaking conflict-of-interest rules but escaped without any type of suspension.

Rogge denied the Swiss official received preferential treatment, saying the International Olympic Committee upheld the recommendation of its ethics commission. The panel found that Fasel tarnished the reputation of the Olympic movement by helping a friend profit from a sports marketing deal.

"The proposal of the ethics commission was very clear," Rogge said Thursday. "Mr. Fasel did not commit financial irregularities."

Fasel retains all his IOC and IIHF positions. In other recent ethics cases, lower-ranking IOC members were barred from serving on IOC commissions for five years.

The ethics probe followed allegations in a Swiss newspaper last year that Fasel received kickbacks from deals struck by the hockey body’s marketing partner, Infront Sport Media, and Proc AG, a company run by a childhood friend.

Fasel, who has admitted making an "error of judgment" but denied receiving money, was cleared by the IIHF in September after a report from auditing firm Deloitte.

"Mr. Fasel made a mistake to support a personal friend in having a contract with the broadcasting company," Rogge said. "The report was very clear in stating that Mr. Fasel did not benefit personally. However, he has tarnished the reputation of the IOC and therefore he got a reprimand."

Fasel said Thursday he accepted the reprimand.

"At that time it was poor judgment," he said. "I apologize for that. There was a mistake and I accepted that."

Fasel said he was not in the room when his IOC board colleagues considered his case.

"They were free to discuss it," he said after rejoining the board for Thursday’s meetings. "That was the proposal of the ethics commission and it was discussed and then they accepted."

Fasel has been president of the IIHF since 1994 and an IOC member since 1995.

Earlier this week, Fasel was re-elected as head of the Association of the International Olympic Winter Sports Federations, which represents the seven sports in the Winter Games. Fasel also headed the IOC’s coordination commission for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

-- Stephen Wilson

Cycling

Armstrong finishes 3rd in 2nd stage in New Mexico

SILVER CITY, N.M. — Lance Armstrong finished in third place in the windy second stage of the Tour of the Gila on Thursday, helping teammate Levi Leipheimer preserve his overall lead.

Luis Amaran beat out Leipheimer in the final sprint to win the 80-mile loop that started and ended in Fort Bayard. Seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong finished in a group of about 20 riders.

Wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour hampered riders protecting teammates proved to the major focus of teams.

"I don’t know that I’ve seen wind like that," Armstrong told VeloNews. "You have to stay at the front, that’s it. You could sit back a little bit, but there’s nothing good at the back. You have to stay out of trouble, just stay with your team, just stay at the front."

That’s just what Armstrong and RadioShack teammate Jason McCartney did, protecting Leipheimer for much of the race, as the course became more hectic and windy down the stretch.

"You could tell that the riders were trying not to get wind blown," race co-director Jack Brennan said. "By the time the racers came out of Bayard toward Fort Bayard, Lance was sitting in third position, and then fragments of riders fell of the pace, as the riders sprinted toward the finish line."

Armstrong and defending race champion Leipheimer are using the five-day Tour of the Gila as a buildup to next month’s Tour of California. Leipheimer won the opening stage on Wednesday while Armstrong finished 22nd.

Before Thursday’s race, Armstrong’s team director Johan Bruyneel said he advised his team that if conditions got to be a little hectic that winning wasn’t worth the overall goal of getting ready for the Tour of California.

"Levi hasn’t raced in more than a month, and he’s been training at home," Bruyneel said. "His body is going to be shocked after the first stage, and the wind will play a factor in both his and Lance’s conditioning. Winning is not our priority or obsession. We only have three riders here, and the factor of the strong field is going to be a challenge the rest of the way."

The wind caused six crashes during the race, though none of the racers needed to be transported to Gila Regional Medical Center. One rider in the Men’s 3 Division got hit in the face with water bottle that was thrown at him from a passing vehicle.

In the women’s pro race, Carmen Small won the stage, breaking away from Colavita-Baci teammate Andrea Dvorak. Their teammate Cathy Cheatley finished the sprint for third, while Mara Abbot retained her overall lead.

Winter Sports

IOC disqualifies Polish skier for doping

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The IOC on Thursday disqualified a Polish cross-country skier who tested positive for a blood-boosting drug at the Vancouver Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee stripped Kornelia Marek of all her results from Vancouver, although she did not win any medals. Marek tested positive for EPO after helping Poland finish sixth in the 20K relay on Feb. 25.

She admitted taking injections but said she believed the substances were allowed.

Marek also was a member of the Polish team that finished ninth in the team sprint. She placed 11th in the 30K mass start, 39th in the 10K freestyle and 35th in the 15K pursuit.

All the results were voided, including the relay and team events.

Polish Olympic Committee spokesman Henryk Urbas said Marek was notified of the IOC decision.

"It does not deny us the joy over winning six medals (in Vancouver), but is an unpleasant and unwanted tarnish," he said. "We would have preferred nothing like this ever happened."

The IOC told the international ski federation FIS to consider any further sanctions. The use of EPO normally results in a two-year ban.

Under IOC rules, Marek would be banned from competing in the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. Poland’s ski federation also has suspended her for two years.

She becomes the first athlete disqualified by the IOC for doping in Vancouver.

The Olympics, which ended Feb. 28, had produced only two minor violations — both involving hockey players who tested positive for light stimulants and were let off with reprimands.

The IOC stores doping samples for eight years so they can be analyzed retroactively once new testing methods become available. If future testing shows an athlete cheated, the IOC can impose sanctions and strip any medals.

Swimming

German swimmer Schoeber banned for 1 year

FRANKFURT — German 100-meter breaststroke champion Sonja Schoeber has been banned for a year by the country’s swimming federation after an elevated testosterone test.

Schoeber denied doping and attributed the elevated readings to irregularities in her hormones and dietary problems during training.

She remains banned until Nov. 5 and will miss the European Championship in Budapest in August.