Gail Devers, the elder stateswoman of U.S. Olympic track, said Saturday that the coaches and Marion Jones share responsibility for any risk involved in putting Jones on the 2004 Olympic sprint relay while she is under investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
“It’s a gray area,” Devers said. “I would not want to be the coach. You know you don’t want what happened to the relay in 2000, but you don’t want to slight someone. Then it comes down to the athlete. You can’t be selfish at that time.”
The international track federation has endorsed stripping the gold medals from the 2000 U.S. men’s 1,600-meter relay based on a ruling in June by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court said USA Track & Field improperly allowed relay member Jerome Young to run at the 2000 Games after a positive steroid test in 1999.
“That’s the last thing we want now,” Devers said.
Devers, 37, winner of three Olympic gold medals and eight individual world titles, was asked if a repeat of the 2000 relay problem would be the worst possible thing for a sport reeling from doping problems.
“At the state we’re in, I can’t say it would be worse,” Devers said. “But a lot of people would look back at the coaches and question them. Then they would question the athlete and say `Why?’ when she knew.”
Jones never has tested positive nor been charged with doping. But published reports say her ex-husband, C.J. Hunter, told a federal investigator she had used a variety of banned substances before, during and after the 2000 Olympics, where she won three gold and two bronze medals.
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U.S. women’s coach Sue Humphrey plans to use Jones to run the second leg of the 400 relay, saying, “No one has given me any objective information that would make her ineligible. The only thing I know is just innuendo I have read in the papers.”
“Whoever the coaches put on the relay, they have to have the confidence nothing is going to happen,” Devers said. “I hope the coaches would make sure.”
Devers likened the situation to the one Kelli White faced after it was learned she had tested positive for a banned stimulant at the 2003 world championships. Even while claiming she had not taken the drug to improve performance and before being formally was charged with a doping violation, White took herself off the relay later in that meet.
“She didn’t want anything to happen to the relay,” Devers said. “Regardless of what Kelli is going through now, I thought that was a courageous move for her.”
White, like Jones, is linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative doping scandal that has led to indictments against owner Victor Conte and three other men for supplying banned drugs to athletes. Conte reportedly told an investigator Jones and White were among 27 athletes to whom he supplied drugs.
White confessed this spring to having used banned steroids and EPO, an endurance booster, for several years.
Jones made the 2004 Olympic team in the long jump but did not qualify to defend her 100 and 200 titles.
Devers, the 1992 and 1996 Olympic 100-meter winner, ran on the 1996 Olympic champion sprint relay but declined an opportunity to be considered for a spot on this year’s relay.
After getting to run the 100 when reigning world champ Torri Edwards was banned for drug use, Devers was eliminated in Saturday’s semifinal.