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Gatlin Will Claim Sabotage In Defense of Doping Charges
Gatlin Will Claim Sabotage In Defense of Doping Charges, By: Amy Shipley
July 30, 2007
Facing a possible eight-year ban from track and field for a positive drug test last summer, Olympic 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin plans to allege during a two-day arbitration that begins today in Atlanta that he might have been unwittingly doped by a massage therapist who rubbed a testosterone cream onto his legs, according to Gatlin and his attorney.
Gatlin, 25, could find no other explanation for the positive test, which medical experts told him was consistent with the application of a steroid-based cream, said the attorney, John P. Collins of C. The therapist, Chris Whetstine, is expected to attend the hearing and has denied the charges.
Gatlin's legal strategy includes introducing possible motives for a sabotage, Gatlin said.
Gatlin tested positive for testosterone or its precursors at a meet in Lawrence, Kan., on April 22, 2006. Collins said the positive test was a one-time occurrence, and that the facts of the case and Gatlin's behavior -- including cooperation in a federal steroid probe -- substantiate Gatlin's claim that he did not knowingly take drugs or allow anyone to administer drugs to him.
"It has been a very hard and stressful year not only for myself but also for my family and friends," Gatlin said yesterday. "We are looking forward to this hearing and the outcome to justify my innocence. I have been working to clear my name since the moment of hearing this unbelievable and hurtful news, as well as working side-by-side with the federal government."
Gatlin's task is monumental: the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees drug-testing in U.S. Olympic sports, has not lost a doping case in its seven years of existence. The World Anti-Doping Code, meantime, offers little wiggle room for athletes who claim they ingested or received drugs unknowingly, and arbitration panels historically have denied athletes' claims for lenience. USADA senior managing director and general counsel Travis Tygart declined to comment other than to say, "In every case, we're here simply to ensure that rules are upheld for all athletes."
Collins is expected to argue that if Gatlin, who matched the 100-meter world record of 9.77 seconds on May 12, 2006, were systematically doping, he would have tested positive more than once given the unusual scrutiny his samples received after USADA discovered the synthetic steroid. Collins said five of Gatlin's urine samples after April 22, including four within nine weeks of the positive test, underwent examination by a highly regarded and rarely used test known as the CIR, which distinguishes natural from artificial testosterone. All were negative.
Gatlin was tested seven times between the date of his positive and when he was informed of the positive result two months later, Collins said. All were negative. Gatlin also tested negative in more than 35 other tests since 2001, including when a CIR test was used to probe an out-of-competition test in January of 2005.
"We have been able to determine that [the positive] was clearly a one-time event," Collins said.
Collins also plans to argue at the hearing, which will be closed to the public and media, that Gatlin should receive consideration for his cooperation with USADA and federal investigators in the five-year-old steroid investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, known as Balco. After meeting with Jeff Novitzky, the lead investigator in the Balco case, Gatlin said, he recorded several phone calls with his coach, Trevor, who was indicted last fall on charges of lying to Balco investigators.
Gatlin said his willingness to place the phone calls -- he made the first call in Novitzky's presence immediately after Novitzky made the request last August -- and the fact he was not implicated in any of the recordings prove he had no knowledge of or involvement in any doping activities. Gatlin said he received a federal grand-jury subpoena from Novitzky but was never summoned to testify before any grand jury.
"Novitzky did say that Justin was the only athlete they ever had to step up and to agree to work with him without any hesitation, right on the spot," said Jeanette Gatlin, the runner's mother.
Novitzky is expected to testify at today's hearing. It will be the first time he has attended an anti-doping arbitration as a witness called by an athlete. USADA has also called him as a witness. Novitzky declined comment in an e-mail.
An athlete's "substantial cooperation" could result in a penalty being reduced, according to the WADA code.
Gatlin faces an eight-year ban instead of the standard two-year penalty for a steroid positive because this is his second offense. Gatlin's supporters contend, however, that the first offense -- a 2001 positive test at a junior national championships for a stimulant in the attention deficit disorder medication Gatlin had been taking since childhood -- should be struck from the record and he should face no more than a two-year ban.
In its opinion at the time, the panel said Gatlin, who was 19 and a student at the University of Tennessee, had "neither cheated nor did he intend to cheat."
Whetstine massaged Gatlin the day before the test at the Kansas Relays and the day of the event, a relay in which Gatlin's team finished first, Gatlin said. Gatlin plans to tell the arbitration panel that tension between himself and Whetstine early in 2006 could have provided a possible motive for the alleged sabotage, he said. Whetstine did not accompany Gatlin on a training trip to Jamaica as expected after a dispute over a bonus, and he had verbally sparred with Graham that spring over work-related issues, Gatlin said.
Whetstine declined a recent request for comment. He has denied rubbing a testosterone-based cream on Gatlin through his attorney.
"From our investigation, it appears the only way the substance could have entered his body was through something rubbed on his skin," Collins said. "We have been unable to rule out [Whetstine's] involvement and look forward to cross-examining him."
Gatlin said a public-records search on Whetstine after the positive test revealed information that made him question Whetstine's integrity and which will be introduced during the hearing. Whetstine was convicted on felony marijuana charges in 1994 and in 2002 received a $1,500 fine and probation for "unprofessional conduct that could endanger the health or safety of a client or the public," according to the Oregon Board of Massage Therapists, according to public records. A spokesman for the board declined to elaborate. Whetstine also has been the plaintiff in two personal-injury lawsuits, one of which is ongoing, public records showed.
"As to his technique and talent, he's a great massage therapist," Gatlin said. "But to mirror that, he is a despicable person. The information we found out about him . . . showed me this guy needs to be banned from massaging anybody else for the rest of his life."
Whetstine, who resides in Eugene, Ore., worked for years as a massage therapist for Nike, traveling on the international track circuit to provide massages to some of the company's biggest track and field stars, including five-time Olympic medal winner Marion Jones. Whetstine, however, said in a lawsuit filed in June seeking nearly $4 million that he can no longer work in the industry because of injuries sustained in a fight with a Nike employee in June of 2006.
Even if Collins is able to show that Whetstine or someone else administered a drug to Gatlin, Gatlin could still be held accountable because the WADA code holds athletes responsible for the behavior of those in their "inner circle," such as coaches, trainers and spouses.
Since learning of his positive test, Gatlin has tried out with several NFL teams. Gatlin, however, said his first love is track, and he hopes to return to the sport in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
"We are looking forward to the hearing Monday," Collins said. "It has been a very long year for Justin."
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