Gatlin's fall from grace

I'm not sure if you guys have heard this yet or not, the news came yesterday and I was too lazy to post about it then, but it's huge news. American sprinter Justin Gatlin, Olympic gold medalist and co-world record holder in the 100m, was banned 8 years yesterday from the sport of track & field for violating U.S. anti-doping laws.

Back in April, Gatlin tested positive for testosterone after a race, and then in May he set the co-world record of 9.77 seconds. Well, Tuesday he was officially banned for 8 years, or in sprinting years, life. He did avoid a lifetime ban by agreeing to cooperate with anti-doping officials, but let's be honest, he's done.

The worst part for Gatlin is that his co-world record has been stripped from him and thrown out of the books, making Asafa Powell the sole holder of the record (which, if you read a few days ago, he has ran 3 times now). Since Gatlin won his Olympic medals before testing positive, he gets to keep those, but that's really all he keeps, because his pride is certainly gone.

It's really too bad, because he and Asafa Powell had a great rivalry going, and I was looking forward to them pushing each other faster and faster, but it looks like Asafa will be running alone at the top for a while. Gatlin is being urged to come clean about his trainer/nutritionist, who is tied to BALCO, and it's getting to look like one of those big mob boss trials in which they bribe the guy to rat out his friends in order to reduce his sentence. Nothing has come from Gatlin's mouth yet, about anything really, but we'll see what happens in the next month.

So, the poster boy for U.S. Track & Field has gone the way of Marion Jones. See you in 8 years Justin. Can you say comeback? Yeah right.