All is not lost for Antonio Pettigrew.

The 2000 Olympic gold medalist in men’s 4×400 meter relay will continue to coach student athletes at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The institution has decided to keep the disgraced Pettigrew as an assistant coach in men’s and women’s track and field.

Pettigrew lost his gold medal when he admitted in a federal court that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. He, along with his 2000 Olympic teammates, was officially disqualified by the International Olympic Committee on August 2 and was asked to return his gold medal. Pettigrew, however, had earlier volunteered to give up his medal in June.

From the News & Observer:

(University of North Carolina) athletics director Dick Baddour, in a statement released today by the university, said that “although we do not condone the actions Antonio participated in for a time as a competitive athlete, he is remorseful and is now in a position to speak out against the dangers and consequences of using illegal substances.”

“I deeply appreciate the second chance the University of North Carolina is giving me,” Pettigrew said in a prepared statement. ” … I promise to work hard not only as track coach but as a person who will dedicate myself to teaching young men and women to make the right decisions and to know that there are no shortcuts when it comes to competition, training and integrity.”

Pettigrew appeared before a federal court in May this year when he was subpoenaed by prosecutors to testify in Trevor Graham’s steroid trial. Graham was a former coach of Pettigrew and other prominent track athletes, including Marion Jones and her former husband C.J. Hunter. Graham was subsequently found guilty of committing perjury to federal authorities during their investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame, California.

Pettigrew, who never failed a drug test, admitted in his testimony that he had used the blood booster erythropoietin and human growth hormone in the period before, during and after the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Three of his teammates, however, had figured in doping violations before.

Twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison were suspended due to doping infringements. Jerome Young, another team member, was banned for life in 2004 from track and field for testing positive for banned compounds twice.

Pettigrew has been with the UNC coaching staff since 2006.

The BALCO incident is considered as the biggest steroid scandal in U.S. history. It involved preeminent Olympic and professional athletes, including star players of Major League Baseball and National Football League. This scandal prompted Congressional hearings on use of steroids and other banned substances in MLB. Several well-known sluggers were implicated, including Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds.

Legislators said the main motivation for the series of hearing was to stop the rising use of steroid use among young Americans.
“Kids are dying from the use of steroids. They’re looking up to these major league leaders in terms of the enhancements that they’re using. And we have to stop it,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif) in an interview on March 13, 2005 on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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This could be a calculated move on the part of federal authorities. As the 2008 Olympics was preparing to wrap up in Beijing former American track superstar Marion Jones is being relayed from one cage to another.

Remember that on July this year, the disgraced athlete has appealed to President George Bush to commute her six-month prison sentence for lying to prosecutors about her steroid use. Apparently, she did not get her wish granted.

The Belizean-born Jones shone in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 easily dominating the track and winning five medals there. She has been since disqualified and stripped of the medals, three of which were gold. She has also been disqualified at the IAAF World Cup in Athletics that took place in Madrid, Spain in 2002. The competition’s results were annulled where Jones participated in the 100m and the 4 x 100m relay, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively.

AP reports:

Former U.S. track star Marion Jones has been moved from a federal prison in Fort Worth and will serve the remainder of her sentence in San Antonio.

The disgraced Olympic star was sentenced to six months in prison in January for lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and a check-fraud scam.
Jones also was ordered to do 400 hours of community service in each of the two years following her release.

Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley says Jones was transferred to a community corrections center in San Antonio on Tuesday.

The Dallas Morning News reported Friday the transfer is part of the process toward the Sept. 5 scheduled release of Jones. She entered prison in early March.
President Bush has not acted on requests, on behalf of Jones, to commute her sentence.

For years, Jones denied using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. However, in October 2007, she pleaded guilty to two charges of perjury and was subsequently sentenced in January by a federal court in New York.

She admitted she had lied to investigators in 2003 when she denied knowing that she took the banned compound tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), known as “the clear,” before participating at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

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Top female Russian athletes are facing a seemingly insurmountable obstacle in the track ahead – a possible ban from their sport of athletics.

This arises when they were suspected of attempting to manipulate drug results. And one of the tell-tale signs, according to a report, is their showing up promptly during out-of-competition tests. The athletes reportedly were there even before the testers from the IAAF arrived. And this aroused suspicions from IAAF, the governing body for athletics worldwide.

According to BBC Sports, “athletes are not normally immediately available” for such testing. Because of their “unfailing punctuality”, the seven athletes were targeted for more than a year after the testers became suspicious.

Subsequently, they were charged for “fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process”, according to a statement from IAAF.

Two of the seven suspects are track superstars Yelena Soboleva and Tatyana Tomashova.

Soboleva currently holds the 1500 m-indoor world record. She was supposed to participate in both the 800 m and 1500 m events at the Beijing Olympics. Tomashova, meanwhile, is a double world champion in the 1500 m and has garnered a silver medal in this event in the 2004 Olympics.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now, because of doping irregularities, their chance of getting another shot at the Olympic glory is dashed.

More from BBC Sports:

Seven Russian athletes provisionally suspended for doping offences were tipped off ahead of visits from the testers, BBC Sport understands.

The International Association of Athletics Federations grew suspicious because the athletes were always available when the testers arrived.

“…the Russians were always waiting,” said BBC Sport’s Gordon Farquhar.

Five of the seven - Yelena Soboleva, Tatyana Tomashova, Yulia Fomenko, Darya Pishchalnikova and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva - were bound for the Beijing Olympics but they will now not compete at the Games.

The other two athletes are Svetlana Cherkasova and Olga Yegorova.

And Farquahar added: “IAAF sources say they began investigating the seven suspended athletes when testers expressed surprise at their unfailing punctuality.

“The athletes have an hour to show up at the specified location and give a sample, but the Russian athletes were always ready.

“The IAAF sources also say the Russian Federation knew of the problem more than two weeks ago, and they’re confident the suspected tip-offs haven’t come from within their own organisation.”

The athletes have up to 14 days to request a hearing with the national member federation.
If a hearing is requested, it must be held within a period of two months but the ARAF has said that they will not take place until after the Olympics.

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