Trotter: Doping has made relays risky business

BOSTON -- Winning the 4x400m relay at the 2004 Olympics in Athens is unquestionably one of the highlights of Dee Dee Trotter's career.

But the gold medal she was awarded as a lasting symbol of that achievement might soon have to be given back, through no fault of her own.

On January 29, Crystal Cox agreed today to a four-year suspension and a disqualification of her previous results after she admitted to doping that summer six years ago. Cox, who ran for the U.S. 4x400m relay during the preliminary round, will turn in her gold medal as part of her penalty.

Because Cox ran in the preliminaries and not the final, it is unclear whether Olympic officials will also move strip Cox's teammates, Trotter, Sanya Richards, Monique Henderson and Monique Hennagan, of their medals as well.

On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that the International Olympic Committee has set up a three-man disciplinary commission panel to formally investigate the doping case surrounding Cox (read more). Similar processes have ended with the IOC retroactively disqualifying entire relay teams.

Jill Geer, Chief Public Affairs Officer for USA Track Field, said that the federation is troubled by this latest doping accusation and has been communicating with members of the relay.

"We were in contact with the athletes immediately upon the announcement of Ms. Cox's positive test and will continue to follow up with them as the situation develops," Geer said. "Although we believe most of our athletes compete clean, we know people cheated in the past, and that people are cheating now. Cases like this really show how one person cheating can affect many other innocent athletes."

One of those innocent athletes now caught up in this controversy is Trotter, who since 2007 has been the one track and field athlete in the United States most staunchly opposed to the ills of doping in the sport. Prior to the Beijing Olympics, she founded Test Me I'm Clean, a charity dedicated to combating the abuse of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.

But with the issue hitting closer to home for Trotter than ever before, she remains steadfast in her beliefs, even if it results in the forfeiture of her prized gold medal.

"I have made a very obvious verbal stance against steroids and performance-enhancing drugs with my foundation and the things that I've done as an athlete ambassador with USADA," Trotter, wearing a Test Me I'm Clean t-shirt, said following her victory in the 400m at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on Saturday night. "It's obvious where I stand on the situation.

"If, in fact, the allegations against her (Crystal Cox) are true, the fact of the matter is that they gave out six medals that year to six young women who were in the finals or the preliminaries. It would be far from me to change my opinion now that it so happens that the issue is on my side of the fence. I stand where I stand and my beliefs are my beliefs. I do not indulge or encourage the use of performance-enhancing drugs in any aspect. If the situation arises that we have to give our medals back, I guess that's just what happens. I'm not going to change my views on it. I refuse to do that."

Nor is Trotter prepared to think about the what-ifs.

Prior to relay competition in 2004, a tough decision needed to be made between including Cox, who had finished sixth in the open 400m at the U.S. Olympic Trials, or Jearl Miles-Clark, a five time U.S. Olympian who won medals in the 4x400m at the Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney Games -- the gold medal she won in Sydney was stripped following Marion Jones' steroid admission - in the relay pool.

The coaches ultimately went with youth (Cox) over experience (Miles-Clark) in that preliminary heat.

"In 2004 there was a lot a controversy with the relay decision, but that has been the case every year in my experience as a team member," Trotter said. "At that time I was a junior in college and because I was in the open 400m race, I was strongly focused on that, so if there was any campaigning for relay pool spots I wasn't aware of it. In my honest opinion, regardless of the current situation at hand, I believe that the six fastest runners should be in the relay pool at all times to make for the best assurance of a victory.

"It is without a doubt that Jearl has and always will be one of our country's well-respected and greatest 400m and 800m runners of all time. With that being said, her absence on the relay that year was unexpected and surprising. Ultimately, the decision that the team coaches made that year, for whatever reason, is irrelevant. I say that because if it wasn't Crystal it just as easily could have been someone else."

Given the state of scattered training groups and the win-at-all-costs mentality that rears its ugly head during Olympic years, Trotter said that it is a sad commentary on the sport when athletes are actually opening themselves up to future heartache and potential shame when they avail themselves to relay pool selection.

"If you get your own individual Olympic and World Championship 400m medal, then (teammates doping) are things that you don't have to worry about," Trotter said. "This is the risk that you take when you step onto the track with anybody other than yourself. I don't train with these girls every day. I love them as teammates, but I don't know what they do and they don't know what I do.

"Honestly, with any relay medal that I have that was earned over the last seven or eight years, the same thing could be happening. Don't put all of your eggs in that basket. Enjoy representing your country. Enjoy representing Team USA. I enjoyed being out there and that experience, but at the end of the day I am only responsible for the person in the mirror, and I know that won't happen with me. That's my whole outlook. I pride myself on being a 400m runner, not a 4x400m relay runner. My career is not based on that. My career is based on the 400m."

Geer agreed that relying on the integrity of others is a nature of the relays, and in this day and age there are no certainties.

"Part of being on any team, in any sport, is having to rely on your teammates to do the right thing," she said. "Track is an individual sport, but relays put the team component into play. There is no way of other athletes or coaches knowing if somebody is cheating. We take every precaution to make sure we have all drug tests back before selecting relay pools, but as the case of Crystal Cox, and many other BALCO-related cases show, it's impossible to know for sure if someone is clean."