Track Coach Graham Is Banned by USOC

U.S. Olympic Committee officials on Thursday announced that track coach Trevor Graham was banned “permanently” from USOC facilities because of his links to more than a half-dozen athletes sanctioned or implicated in doping offenses.

The action comes five days after Justin Gatlin’s lawyer announced that the 2004 Olympic gold medalist and co-world record holder in the 100 meters had tested positive for testosterone. Graham has for years coached Gatlin, who now faces a lifetime ban from competition if he is found liable of a doping violation.

The move Thursday is likely to prove more symbolic than concrete. Graham’s base has long been at a track in Raleigh, N.C., one that is not under USOC control.

Graham did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The announcement signaled a renewed bid by the USOC to seize a leadership role in the campaign against sports-related doping after irregular test results announced last week involving not only Gatlin but Tour de France winner Floyd Landis. Landis tested positive July 20 for an “unusual” testosterone ratio; results of a secondary test in his case are due to be completed by Saturday.

Graham has long been a controversial figure in track and field circles -- so controversial that a Berlin promoter announced Thursday that athletes trained by him would not be invited to a lucrative event there Sept. 3.

In 2003, Graham sent a syringe containing a new designer steroid to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a key development in what would become the BALCO scandal.

Graham has coached a number of track stars, including Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones. Montgomery, a former 100-meter world-record holder, was suspended after being found liable last December of doping. Jones, winner of five medals at the 2000 Olympics, three gold, has long been a subject of inquiry in the BALCO matter. She has consistently denied the use of illicit performance-enhancing drugs.

Overseas, for years, the USOC has been suspected of encouraging, or turning a blind eye to the doping of star U.S. athletes -- a proposition USOC officials have emphatically denied.

Still, USOC officials made it plain at prior Olympics that the job of the U.S. team was to win as many medals as possible, and with the U.S. team capturing the overall medal count at the three most recent Summer Olympics, that perception has lingered.

USOC officials Thursday struck a far different tone, saying the Chinese might win the medal counts at the 2008 Games in Beijing -- and, if that turns out to be the case, so be it.

“If we don’t participate with honor and dignity, then what we do means nothing,” USOC chief executive Jim Scherr said. “If there’s cheating, then it’s cheating other athletes, the American public and cheating the world of the legitimacy of sports.”

USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth added that the USOC intends next week to issue a “national call to action,” inviting government as well as sports officials to convene for greater support in doping-related “research and education.”

Greg Aiello, an NFL spokesman, said, “We are always open to new ideas and opportunities for dialogue on a topic that is important to all sports.”

Already under consideration: the possibility of strengthening sanctions for U.S. Olympic athletes found liable of a doping violation.

A first offense typically brings a two-year suspension from all competition. The Gatlin and Landis cases have sparked discussion about adding a lifetime ban from the Olympics for doping offenses.

U.S. gymnast Chellsie Memmel of West Allis., Wis., the 2005 world all-around champion, called that proposal “a good thing.” Triathlete Hunter Kemper, a native of Longwood, Fla., and member of the U.S. Olympic teams at the 2000 and 2004 Games, said, “If it’s more stringent than [a two-year ban], I’m all for it.”

Apparently not on the table is the possibility of subjecting athletes suspected of doping to criminal sanctions, which is now the law in Italy.

U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who has played a key role in recent congressional inquiries into the scope of doping in Major League Baseball and other sports leagues, said he is “skeptical” of the need for criminal sanctions.

“It didn’t take law enforcement authorities to catch” Landis and Gatlin, Waxman said.

Waxman added that Major League Baseball must move on a reliable test to detect the use of human growth hormone. “If they can not, I think it will be once again time for the Congress to consider legislation to enact such policies,” he said.