Much to the chagrin of British track and field officials, disgraced British sprinter Dwain Chambers is mounting a comeback. His goal is to make the British Olympic team in the 100-meter dash this year after a two-year ban from the sport, his punishment for being a drug cheat who followed the BALCO Labs regimen.
Chambers was banned for two-years but the British Olympic Association banned Chambers for life and isn’t going to let Chambers participate in the country’s Olympic Trials to be held in July. The BOA has taken a hard line stance, a stance that may not hold up in court. This is why Chambers is suing.
I say let Chambers run. His participation will serve as an illustration of the difference between a sprinter using high-end performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and a sprinter who is not. Chambers ran a 9.87 second 100-meter in Paris in 2002 at a time when the BALCO brand designer steroid THG was coursing through his veins. This past weekend in Greece Chambers ran, and won, a 100-meter race with the time of 10.25 seconds – a time good enough to qualify him to run in Britain’s Olympic Trials and a time that gives him a reason to go to court to sue and fight the lifetime ban.
Chambers says his time is good enough to make the top three in the 100-meter race in the summer games. This could be the case if the summer was 1956 and we were talking about the Melbourne Olympics, with hand-held timing, a cinder track and first generation track shoes. Forty-two years later Chambers won’t be in sniffing distance of the top men sprinters. Maybe Chambers has a plan to qualify for the British women’s 100-meter team, as the world record for the women is 10.49 seconds.
A 100-meter dash completed in over 10 seconds just isn’t going to cut it. To put things in perspective, Jesse Owens ran a 10.2 in 1936. In the 1968 Mexico City games Jim Hines won the Olympic Gold in the 100-meter dash when he turning in the first sub 10-second time, running 9.95 seconds.
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