World Championship Track & Field - Thoughts from Afar on the Olympic level of our sport

Pro Track and Field - World Champs par for the course!!

You read a minimal amount about the pro level of track and field on the DyeStatCal pages for a couple of reasons. One is there is just a limit to the number of hours in a day, and while it is fun to trace the careers of former prep stars in the Golden State, there is more than enough news at the high school level to follow. One of the other reasons that we are not interested in the sport at this level is the constant politics that goes on over drug usage, and other strange issues.

The biggest news at the World Championships has been, as we can tell from the general US media, has been Jon Drummond's tantrum at the start of the 100m when he felt wrongly disqualified for flinching at the start of that event. His nearly hour long episode, which included laying down on the track, was the kind of "human interest" story that our media picked up far beyond any other for a couple of days in our Olympic level activity. It appears his behavior really sparked a special chord with the US media, and, while they mentioned Kelli White's sprint double win, Drummond seemed something akin to a NASCAR crash or some bizarre X-games accident that seems to mesmerize the media for a time and raise awareness level of those activities in some strange way. The second set of stories emerging from the World Championships seem to center around drug usage and whether Jerome Young, the 400m champ in Paris this past week, tested positive for drug usage before the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but was allowed to compete in those games. Young said he knew nothing, some claimed to have inside info, and Young admitted that he had tested positive before the games, with some wondering why he was allowed to compete, some demanding gold medals from the Australian games be returned, and a full explanation lacking from those involved with the testing or that information.

The capping blow on the drug question was when double sprint winner, Kelli White, tested positive for some prescribed drug (modafinil) that does not seem to be on any banned lists, but is considered, "clearly related to substances on the present banned list, which is also an offence." (quote from the IAAF Vice President there). Anyway, it appears that Kelli White has a health condition, summarized in one of the story links below, that has had a doctor prescribe the modafinil medicine, with White indicating that since it was not on any drug lists she and her camp had not felt there was any violation. While we are not privy to any of the inside info on this drug scene, it appears that the threats over this "non-listed" substance taken by White with threats to take her medals away caused the US to leave her off the Finals in the 400m Relay. The U.S. team lost that event 41.78-41.83 with errant baton passing a part of the US act. With the headlines caused over the White situation, her non-presence (she did win the 100m flat event finals by .08 over Torri Edwards) and the switching in team members up until the last minute as the US tried to figure whether they should use the sprint champ or not, the mind-set of the US Relay group (Angela Williams - Inger Miller - Chryste Gaines - Torri Edwards), was probably not affected in a positive way. We are inclined to doubt that the media has had its last gasp with this drug situation with White (and others). We are not so nationalistic to think we should win all the gold medals, but to hold someone out with the very unsure atmosphere surrounding her usage of a substance that does not appear on any banned lists "in-name," but as a related substance, shows the inability of the World Governing Body to effective police itself and have a backdrop of procedures that are quick and effective.

The World Championships will end this Sunday. Once again, this great sport's headlines were buried (if anywhere) on the back pages of the sports headlines, with only the stories above edging their way towards the front of sports TV broadcasts or the page 1 of a sports section. It will be tragic if they go ahead and disqualify White if this drug she was prescribed by a doctor was not on any list and there was an honest mistake on her camp's part in not pursuing the possibility beforehand. If it turns out that the World governing body, the IAAF, does back down and not take action against White, it is a sin that she could not have run on the 400m relay, helping to secure a third gold medal for herself and a place in Track & Field sports history.

Who knows where this will go? Who knows--all I know is that for myself the enjoyment of this year's World Championships were severely affected in a negative way by this latest incident of drug politics at the Olympic level. You may ask, am I naive enough to think that young, prep age athletes are not involved with drug usage? Of course not, and as as a High School Athletic Director, I have been asked to help set up a program of substance education that includes "over the counter" substances that you can pick up at convenience stores as a 13 or 14 year old such as Creatine. I am sure that there are abuses of substances at all levels, with I hope that at the prep level the competition is a bit more pure, with the constant changeover of top athletes as they rise and graduate appealing to me.

We have dedicated interest in the World Championships this summer because it involved a ton of names of athletes who competed at the high school level in the last decade or so in California, and they have done super, for the most part. However, it kind of falls into line with the sport at that pro level that the World Championships have degenerated into a game of charge and counter charge over this "quick-sand" top of drug usage or possible drug usage or some list that something is not on. Give me a break! The 2003 Paris World Championships will be remembered by me as a chance for a former great California prep athlete (Kelli White) to achieve one of the sports's great accomplishments individually and as a part of the US team, but because of some substance misunderstanding once again degenerated into a confusing issue and story that I will leave for a walk in the park or something else.

Doug Speck - One person's involvement with modafinil-type drugs and his thoughts on IAAF in this situation

• Link to story about Kelli White and the Modifinil situation (from New Zealand paper interestingly - this is no small local story)
• White explains that she did not know the material was a "banned substance" - if it was on no list I think you have to assume so, but in this "guilty until proven innocent situation" I guess not
• Sprint Champ Flunks Drug Test - Oakland Tribune cuts to the core in local headline - kind of like when the teacher tests you on material you never covered in class - your problem, sorry
• White Drug Scandal Rocks American Team - Australian paper adopts the moderate approach also - geez
• White Tests Positive - the plot thickens in Toronto paper

Of course, I hope everyone realizes there is the chance of a two year ban here, which would keep White out of the Olympics.

• Chico newspaper read on our sport -