Hammer Falls on Sprinters Montgomery and Gaines
by RunTex Staff, 12/13/2005

Tim Montgomery and Chryste Gaines of the United States received two-year bans from competition on Tuesday from the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition, the 100-meter world record that Montomery once held has been wiped from the record books.

Although neither Montgomery or Gaines tested positive for drugs, both sprinters were implicated in the BALCO drug scandal and the U.S. Doping Agency sought the bans based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of BALCO. USADA had requested a four-year suspension, but that penalty was cut in half by the Court of Arbitration.

The bans are retroactive to June 5, 2005. In addition, all the prize money Montgomery won since March 31, 2001 and Gaines since November 30, 2003 must be forfeited.

Montgomery's world record of 9.78 seconds which was set in Paris in September, 2002 has been anulled. His record has since been broken by Jamaica's Asafa Powell and currently stands at 9.77. Montgomery will also lose the 100-meter silver medal from the 2001 World Champs as well as the the gold medal he won at those Worlds in the 400-meter relay.

The Court of Arbitration ruled that it had "strong, indeed uncontroverted evidence of doping" by both Montgomery and Gaines. Its ruling was based largely on the testimony of Kelli White, another former World champ who is suspended for drug use. White testified that Montgomery and Gaines admitted to her that they used a banned substance provided by BALCO.

Montgomery and Gaines both declined to testify at their hearings. But Montgomery has already testified before a federal grand jury in San Francisco that in 2001 BALCO founder Victor Conte gave him weekly doses of a human growth hormone and a substance called the "clear"--a previously undetectable steroid now identified as TGH.

Montgomery is the boyfriend of three-time Olympic champion Marion Jones who has been under investigation by USADA but has not been charged. Like Montgomery and Gaines, Jones has never tested positive for a banned substance but Conte has testified that he injected her with the "clear."