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 Hunter drug case could hurt Jones' quest
Tuesday, September 26, 2000 By Lori Shontz, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
SYDNEY, Australia -- They were supposed to be the Golden Couple of the Olympic Games.
As recently as July, sprinter Marion Jones and her husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter, were talking about bringing six gold medals home to Raleigh, N.C. Five for Jones, who was aiming to be the first female track athlete to win so many in one Olympics. One in the shot put for Hunter, the defending world champion.
Now their plans are in a shambles.
The IAAF, the international governing body for track and field, confirmed an Australian newspaper report that Hunter tested positive for the steroid nandrolone at a meet in July in Norway. That raises questions about whether his decision to drop out of the Games because of knee surgery was simply a convenient excuse.
And 100-meter gold medalist Jones, in a best-case scenario, has another distraction to contend with while she attempts to win four more gold medals this week. Far more serious consequences could result, as she will surely be faced with questions about what she knew of her husband's circumstances and the suggestion of guilt by association, even though no one has accused her of using performance-enhancing drugs.
The story broke two days before probably Jones' toughest day of competition, when she runs two rounds of the 200 meters, one in the morning and one in the evening, and then has to qualify for the final in the long jump, her weakest individual event.
"The challenge that Marion was facing, a real athletic challenge, has only been enhanced by the developments here thus far," said Craig Masback, the CEO of USA Track and Field.
Masback confirmed that the IAAF had referred an athlete-eligibility issue to his organization, but confidentiality rules prohibited him from providing any specifics. He could not even say that the athlete in question was Hunter, even though the IAAF had released his name and the athlete said that he was aware of the situation.
So bigger questions went unanswered.
Masback said notification from the IAAF comes directly to him, in an envelope marked confidential that arrives on his desk. He could not say, however, when he received notification of the failed test and if USA Track and Field was aware of it when Hunter pulled out of the Games.
Not until a long appeals process is completed does USATF comment on positive tests. And that happens only when an athlete is found guilty of cheating.
Masback did say that no one who had qualified to compete at the Olympics during July's trials had tested positive. That includes athletes in Sydney and athletes who withdrew from the team citing other reasons, he said.
But given his inability to give specifics, his comments did little to quell the storm of drug questions brewing around the U.S. team.
News of Hunter's positive test prompted re-examination of several other issues that have been raised during the Games, including whether positive drug tests for five American track athletes were covered up before the 1988 Seoul Games and whether USATF had failed to disclose 12 to 15 positive drug tests during the past two years, an allegation made by the IAAF's doping chief.
Masback and USOC officials denied all such allegations, with Masback saying USATF has been a leader in the fight against drugs, doing more out-of-competition tests than any organization.
Still, USATF apparently didn't catch Hunter. Six days after the U.S. trials, his urine sample from the Bislett Games was 1,000 times greater than the amount permitted by the IOC, 2 nanograms per milliliter of urine.
Jacques Rogge, vice chairman of the IOC medical commission, said such a high reading is possible when an athlete is tested within two days of a massive injection of the steroid.
Had information on Hunter's positive test not been leaked to The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney tabloid, news would likely not have come out until after all of his appeals had been exhausted. There is plenty of speculation on the reasons for the leak, most centering on the Americans' holier-than-thou attitude toward what the newspapers here call "drug cheats."
In short, the prevailing international opinion is that U.S. athletes and officials are quick to criticize other countries and organizations for their drug-testing procedures but slow to react to potential internal problems.
Even Johann Olav Koss, the Norwegian speedskating star who is now an IOC member, felt compelled to speak out. "The athletes feel that the IAAF and USA Track and Field are covering up and have special rules for American athletes," he said.
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