Dwain Chambers isn’t going to win any 100-meter races in 2008 running against world-class male sprinters. Let him go out there and show the world what a natural, 30-year-old sprinter looks like, because there aren’t going to be many other examples of this particular kind of sprinter. There will be a whole bunch of sprinters running 9.9 seconds or faster.
Over the past few weeks the insular world of track and field has been exposed for all to see, at least for all who are interested, as a result of the trial of elite sprint coach Trevor Graham. Graham was caught up in the BALCO mess, and just like every other person who was involved with Conte and crew, can attach “disgraced” to his name and resume. During the trial we learned that an Olympic gold medal winner doped for his entire career and yet never failed a drug test. We found out that the prevailing wisdom in track was that athletes needed to use PEDs in order to crack certain performance barriers.
For instance, Dennis Mitchell testified that Trevor Graham told him that PEDs were needed in order for a sprinter to run 100-meters in 9.8 seconds. By the way, Mitchell was a 4-time U.S. 100-meter champion. And Antonio Pettigrew testified that he took PEDs throughout his Olympic medal-winning career, never failed a drug test and that they were responsible for him running medal-winning times. This testimony coming from two world-class sprinters says all that you need to know about what it takes to be a successful sprinter.
So I hope Dwain Chambers gets his moment, gets his chance to run in his country’s Olympic Trials and that his performance is covered by the sports media. His performance will serve as a contrast to the guys running sub 9.8 second races with the echo of Dennis Mitchell’s testimony ringing in our ears.
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