EUGENE, Ore. – The announcer at Hayward Field was introducing notable sprinters in a quarterfinal heat of the women's 100 meters yesterday at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He never mentioned the woman in Lane 8, who has won an Olympic gold medal, a bronze and three world championships.
STEVE DIPAOLO / Reuters
Lauryn Williams (left) passes Chryste Gaines during the first heat of the women's 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.
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It's as if Chryste Gaines no longer exists, or people no longer want her to. USA Track & Field, the sport's national governing body, lists bios for 89 women on its Web site; Gaines is not one of them.
But there she was, stuck in Lane 8, barely visible behind the trackside fence, chugging along on a sultry night, tugging an uncertain legacy behind her – the lone remaining track athlete here tied to the BALCO doping scandal, a link to the sport's dirty past, a pariah.
She turns 38 in September. Why is she still bothering?
“Because I'm a track and field athlete,” Gaines said after finishing seventh in her quarterfinal heat in 11.24 seconds and failing to advance to today's semifinals. “BALCO didn't define me. I'm an Olympic gold medalist. I'm an Olympic bronze medalist. I'm an outdoor world champion three times. That speaks for itself.”
Gaines served a two-year suspension after being charged with what the anti-doping world calls a “non-analytical positive,” which is a fancy way of saying that she never failed a drug test. The two-time Olympic medalist (both came in relays) was found guilty largely on the testimony of fellow BALCO sprinter Kelli White, who said they discussed the use of BALCO's various illicit potions.
Gaines' ban was lifted a year ago, and she began training again in earnest in September while juggling duties as an academic adviser for football and basketball players at Georgia Tech.
“I was trying to go under 11 seconds,” said Gaines, who ran 11.15 in her opening prelim yesterday and has yet to go faster than 11.13 since her doping ban. “But I have no start right now.”
Cynics will say she doesn't have something else, either.
“I'm slow now because I had two years out of the sport,” Gaines said. “Two years is a long time, a lifetime, a career for some people.”
Gaines was gone after the quarterfinal. The specter of doping was not. In the quarterfinal heat immediately before hers, Texas alum Marshevet Hooker clocked 10.76 seconds.
That's Marion Jones territory, although Hooker was aided by a 3.4-meters-per-second tailwind (over the allowable 2.0 mps). Using a complicated set of wind tables, track geeks convert that to a 10.88 in legal wind conditions – an impressive, and suspicious, leap for someone whose progression of times over the last four years is 11.14 to 11.12 to 11.09 to 11.06.
Hooker, 23, is coached by Jon Drummond, who used to run for the Southern California-based track club HSI and coach John Smith, who was recently implicated by Texas steroids dealer Angel “Memo” Heredia about supplying banned substances for sprinter Maurice Greene and other HSI athletes.
“Only God knows how fast I can run,” Hooker said.
“Ready for a world record?” quipped Lauryn Williams, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist. “Everyone is bringing their A game.”
Gaines said she mostly coaches herself these days and no longer has a professional relationship with BALCO founder Victor Conte, whom she has known since the mid-1990s. And the rest of the BALCO track crew has retired or is in jail.
But that doesn't mean Conte has no presence here. Conte admitted yesterday he is working with “five or six” athletes at the track trials, and an equal number at the upcoming U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Neb. – including, he said, “some who likely will make the team.”
He insists his advice is limited to nutritional and mental preparation, and not banned performance-enhancing substances. He also declined to identify any of the athletes.
“I continue to work with people in many sports, including track and field,” Conte said by phone from the San Francisco area. “I don't want to bring any heat to anybody. I don't want to be a distraction because of my history. I do it because I enjoy it.
“I believe athletes who work with me, even without (banned) drugs, would have a certain edge. You can't have the same benefits with nutritional supplements that you can with drugs. Let's get real here. But I do think you can gain some advantage.”
Mark Zeigler: (619) 293-2205; mark.zeigler@uniontrib.com
