Trevor Graham was the person that sent a syringe with THG to start the BALCO scandal in 2003.
It seems that the Gatlin story keeps getting better and better– no thanks to his coach Trevor Graham. According to Graham, the reason that Gatlin tested positive was because his masseur put some “cream” on his leg before the Kansas Relays and had a grudge against Gatlin. I can see it now– a new movie title– “The Revenge of the Masseur.” Yikes! 😀
The masseur, Chris Whetstine, said that Graham was not speaking for Gatlin and that the story is false, according to a story that appeared on Yahoo! News. It is also possible that Gatlin won’t be the only person that will get a lifetime ban from track– but also Trevor Graham. He could face a two-year ban, which would make him ineligible to coach during the 2008 Olympics. With Graham’s history of athletes testing positive and being banned from the sport– he needs to be banned. I think that the IAAF and Olympic Committee should not only look at the athletes that are testing positive, but see who they are getting their drugs from (coaches, support staff, etc) and they should also follow the same consequences. If these individuals persist and their athletes still test positive– they need to be banned from the sport.
In this case, there are so many “PR Nightmares”– no matter what you do or say, it just will always sound really bad! My advice for both Gatlin and Graham at this point is simple– let others (ex. lawyers) do the talking– the more you say, the worse things will get.
2 Comments
Laura · August 3, 2006 at 11:44 am
Hey, Karen….great post! This story just keeps getting better and better, but not for track and field. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this as a movie for real!
theseaners · August 5, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Great advise Karen. I have a friend who was just busted by WADA for a masking agent. He has three weeks before his results are posted and the first thing he did was go to our local paper and tell them about the circumstances. He asked me my advise after he went to the paper and after reading the article I told him I thought he should of told the paper what the masking agent was but he was embarrased to admit it but 100% honesty seemed appropriate to me. So my advise is if your going to confess, confess absoutly everything.
Sean Elkinton