Roe insists U.S. team will be clean

Jul 2, 2008 - 4:38 AM By Simon Lewis PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

EUGENE, Oregon (Ticker) - USA Track & Field will send a drug-free team to Beijing next month for the Olympic Games, the governing body's acting CEO Bill Roe said on Tuesday.

Doping control at the ongoing United States Olympic Team Trials in Eugene this week has seen the introduction of random blood as well as extensive urine testing for participating athletes hoping to make the U.S. team for Beijing.

Speaking on Tuesday after giving a state of the sport address, Roe, who is also USATF's president, said all the results from doping tests performed at the trials were due back from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) within 30 hours of Sunday's final event.

The deadline for USATF to submit its team of nominated athletes to the U.S. Olympic Committee is next Tuesday.

"There are a couple of things that could happen that could be negatives, but for the most part, this team is going to Beijing and the USOC is insisting on the cleanest possible team - and they're going to do everything they can," Roe said.

"Our tests are due back from USADA in the doping area within 30 hours of the last event, so that we make sure we don't submit the name of an athlete who we're later going to find out has a doping offense or a doping test positive. So we're hopeful that we avoid that whole area."

Roe admitted that with the high-profile doping cases involving a number of U.S. track stars since the emergence of the BALCO scandal in 2003, his sport had suffered in the public's perception.

Olympic multi-medalist from 2000, Marion Jones, is currently in prison, in part for lying to federal investigators about use of performance enhancing drugs while 2004 Olympic 100 meter champion Justin Gatlin failed last week in his bid to get a four-year doping ban overturned.

Their former coach Trevor Graham, meanwhile, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted in May of lying to federal investigators, his trial bringing other former Olympic medalists to the stand to testify they had used steroids and other performance enhancing drugs on his advice.

Roe, however, remains optimistic that track and field was regaining the trust of its fans and the wider population, even if it came at a cost of more positive tests.

"The enthusiasm that has been generated out here (in Eugene) has been incredible for the sport," Roe said.

"It's been difficult over the last few years to put the doping issue aside, it's always seemed to be there, but we're here to celebrate the selection of an Olympic team, to celebrate athletic performance. I think that's been very easy to do."

Roe also admitted the past failures have clouded some judgment.

"We've had a couple of incidences in the past few years where we've had athletes who have professed their innocence, and then at the end of the day, they have had to recant that or have been convicted of something," Roe said.

"That is a blow to us, but I guess I maintain my faith in our sport by knowing that we do test, that we will find guilty people, we will get them out of our sport. We will find guilty coaches and get them out of our sport and that eventually will help our sport overall."