Sacramento Running News

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote here about drug testing for the upcoming World Masters Athletics Championships that will be held this month in Sacramento.

It was nice to see in this morning’s Sacramento Bee, Sam McManis giving it the full treatment. McManis does an excellent job of picking through the various facets of the issue.

The money quote from elite masters runner Pete Magill:

“Like it or not, the perception of drug use among all athletes is out there,” he said. “It’s important that, as a group, we submit to drug testing to fight that perception. Any time now anyone has a great performance, the first thing people think is not, ‘That’s a great performer.’ They think, ‘That guy has a great pharmacist.’ “

I couldn’t agree more. It’s a definite “must read.”

Yesterday, I stumbled on this rather startling interview of Marion Jones on the Daily Show.

You may remember Marion Jones from the 2000 Olympics, where she was an unstoppable and glamorous force for the US team, winning the hearts of Americans and five medals.

That summer, there was a whiff of scandal as we learned her shot-putter husband, C.J. Hunter, had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. (In his case, I think “doped to the gills” was the actual, scientific term used.)

By 2004, when Jones came to Sacramento for the Olympic trials, rumors related to the BALCO doping scandal were swirling and she was a pale imitation of  the runner we’d seen in Sydney.

While it seemed everyone around her was tainted, it wouldn’t be until 2006 that Jones failed a doping test (for EPO). However, the “B” sample tested negative and Jones went back to competition.

During the federal investigation of BALCO, Jones was finally boxed into a corner and she admitted to perjuring herself, and to using steroids during training for the 2000 Olympics.

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