Despite Never Failing a Test, Montgomery Is Banned for Doping

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The New York Sun

LONDON – His world record is erased for good, along with every result, medal, and prize money from the past five years. It’s as if Tim Montgomery never ran the 100 meters. And whatever else he did – it doesn’t matter now.


Though he didn’t test positive for drugs, the American sprinter was banned for two years yesterday based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.


For the same reason, two-time Olympic relay medalist Chryste Gaines also received a two-year ban from the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.


The bans were backdated to June 6, 2005,the first day of Montgomery’s hearing. CAS voided all of Montgomery’s performances since March 31, 2001, and Gaines’s results since November 30, 2003. That means Montgomery’s former world 100-meter record of 9.78 seconds – set in Paris in September 2002 – is no longer recognized. The record was lowered to 9.77 by Jamaica’s Asafa Powell on June 14 in Athens, Greece.


Montgomery, 30, will also lose the 100-meter silver medal from the 2001 World Championships, a race won by former record holder Maurice Greene. The silver will now go to fellow American Bernard Williams, with Ato Boldon going from fourth to bronze.


Montgomery, who is the father of a child with Olympic sprint champion Marion Jones, also forfeits his gold medal in the 400-meter relay from the 2001 worlds.


“It is always a great day for clean athletes when individuals who cheat are held accountable and stripped of the rewards gained through doping,” USADA chief executive officer Terry Madden said in a statement. “The unfortunate part of this Balco chapter is that these two athletes knew they were guilty of doping and they wasted everyone’s time and resources attempting to run from the consequences of their actions.”


CAS said it had “strong, indeed uncontroverted, evidence of doping” by both Montgomery and Gaines. The court said it based its ruling largely on the testimony of White, a former world sprint champion who was suspended for two years in 2004 in the Balco case.


White testified that Montgomery and Gaines both admitted to her that they used a prohibited substance provided by Balco.


CAS said White’s evidence was “fatal” to both athletes’ cases, especially since they both declined to testify at their hearings.


The CAS panel cited other evidence submitted against Montgomery by USADA, including blood test results from a Mexican laboratory in February 2000 allegedly showed Montgomery’s testosterone level doubled in one day; evidence of possible masking in 59 urine tests from March 1999 to September 2004; and abnormal blood test results on five occasions between November 2000 and July 2001.


USADA can ban athletes without a positive drug test if there is other sufficient evidence – so-called “non-analytical positives.” The agency reviewed thousands of documents seized by federal investigators looking into the Balco case.


Montgomery and Gaines were among dozens of athletes who testified in 2003 before a federal grand jury in San Francisco probing Balco. Last month, Balco founder Victor Conte began a four month prison sentence in California for orchestrating an illegal steroids distribution scheme. Montgomery testified that in 2001 Conte gave him weekly doses of human growth hormone, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in June 2004.


The New York Sun

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