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s ta rt i n g b l o c k s
Merritt Case Echoes Reynolds
The LaShawn Merritt doping case has similarities to that of another top 400 runner, Butch Reynolds. Based on the past, track fans might want to brace themselves for what could become a political battle rather than an outcome based on science or fairness. In 1990 Reynolds, the world recordholder at the time, tested positive for the steroid nandrolone but was exonerated by a U.S. panel that found significant irregularities in the testing of the Paris lab that handled his sample. He also won a multimillion dollar award against the IAAF, though he never collected a penny. The IAAF and Olympic movement, however, were not about to accept the decision of a U.S. panel or court. If the Olympic lords acknowledged the Paris lab was guilty of incompetent testing, it would destroy the credibility of the drug program for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France to be handled by the Paris lab. Reynolds competed in the 1992 Olympic Trials thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, but the IAAF threatened to ban under its “contamination rule” any runners competing against him. The IAAF and IOC barred him from competing at the Barcelona Olympics. Then the IAAF added a few months to his two-year ban for having the temerity to challenge them. Now we have Merritt, the 2008 Olympic and 2009 world champion who tested positive for steroids in out-ofcompetition tests in October and December 2009, and January 2010. Merritt was neither training nor competing
at the time of the first two tests. An American Aribitration Association panel believed his explanation that the offending substance was contained in ExtenZe, a sexual enhancement supplement. The AAA decision stated a clerk at a 7-Eleven store was “devastatingly convincing” in her testimony. The female employee said that Merritt typically came to the store and purchased lottery tickets, juice, ExtenZe and condoms, a combination she found amusing. Both the panel and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency agreed Merritt’s positive test was a result of taking the supplement and that he had no intention of improving his sports performance. The panel did find Merritt negligent in not being more aware of the contents of the supplement but reduced his suspension from two years to 21 months. Merritt can begin competing in late July, making him eligible for the 2011 world championships. However, his participation in the 2012 Olympics is in jeopardy because of an IOC rule passed in 2008 that makes anyone serving a drug ban of longer than six months to be ineligible for the next Olympics. The AAA panel says that is excessive and amounts to a three-year ban for Merritt. The IOC shows no signs of backing down. So Merritt could be at the 2012 Trials, like Reynolds was in 1992, but have no chance of competing at the London Games because the IOC and IAAF don’t want to suffer a political loss and be seen as soft on drugs.
A Great Miler Passes Wes Santee, one of the best milers in U.S. history, died in November at 78 after a battle with cancer. Santee set a world record in the 1500 outdoors, two indoor mile world records and a 1500 indoor world record. He probably was best known for his battle with Roger Bannister of Britain and John Landy of Australia to become the first sub-4-minute miler, which Bannister achieved in 1954. “I am not exceptionally disappointed,” Santee said when Bannister broke the barrier. “Having to compete for the university, I’ve had to run everything from soup to nuts. I haven’t been permitted to concentrate. I think I could beat Bannister if I had the chance.” The 1953 NCAA cross country champion for Kansas had bigger obstacles than the U.S. collegiate system that had him competing in three seasons each academic year. Santee may have achieved more internationally if it were not for his battles with the Amateur Athletic Union, which
controlled U.S. Olympic sports at the time. The AAU kept Santee off the Olympic team in the 1500 at the 1952 Olympics because he had already made the team in the 5000, though the 1500 was his better event. The AAU banned him from international competition in the summer of 1954 for “breaking training.” He never got a shot at the 1956 Olympics because the AAU banned him for life for accepting what it considered excessive expense fees for traveling to meets. Santee, whose best mile times were 4:00.5, 4:00.6 and 4:00.7, had three of the top four mile times ever at one point. He rose to the rank of colonel in the Marine Corps and owned an insurance agency in Lawrence, Kansas. Santee’s background is the kind now associated more with African runners. He grew up without running water or electricity, on a farm in Ashland, in southwestern Kansas. He ran five miles to school and five back home each day. Starting Blocks continued on page 14.