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USADA bans ex-track coach Graham for life
2008-07-15
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AFP) - The US Anti-Doping Agency slapped disgraced ex-track coach Trevor Graham with a lifetime ban for his part in helping athletes acquire and take illegal steroids. The Tuesday ban prohibits Graham from coaching or participating in any competition or activity organized by the United States Olympic Committee, USA Track and Field, the International Association of Athletics Federations or any other group that participates in the World Anti-Doping Agency Program. Graham was convicted in May of one count of lying to federal investigators for his role in the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO scandal). He still is awaiting sentencing and has asked a judge to dismiss the conviction. Already banned from all USOC-sponsored facilities, Graham has been connected to some of the sport's biggest names including Marion Jones and former 100-metre world-record holders Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery. "While drug use by athletes is a serious wrong to be addressed with stiff penalties, involvement in doping by a coach is even more reprehensible and must be dealt with through the most severe of all sanctions," USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement. "It is truly disgraceful when a coach uses his position to assist athletes under his care in doping." Graham was the person responsible for providing a vial of "the clear," a then undetectable steroid to the USADA. He acknowledged mailing the drug at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Graham also joined Montgomery, Gatlin and Jones as prominent names no longer involved in the sport. Montgomery, banned for life, was sentenced in May to nearly four years in prison for check scam in New York. He pleaded guilty July 3 to distributing heroin. Gatlin currently is serving a four-year doping ban, while Jones is serving a six-month prison sentence for lying to investigators about a check-fraud scam and using steroids.
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