Kastor still has doubts about Jones

By DAVID LASSEN
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Whenever there's a new high-profile drugs-in-sports case _ be it Floyd Landis or Marion Jones or members of the NFL Carolina Panthers _ one of the most common refrains is that "no one is above suspicion."

I'm not quite willing to believe that, which is why _ in thinking about Jones, was cleared Wednesday after an earlier positive test for the endurance-enhancing drug EPO _ I called Deena Drossin Kastor.

The 2004 Olympic bronze medalist in the marathon is, to me, a perfect example of an athlete whose character shines through so strongly, and who loves her sport so much, that it is impossible to imagine her damaging it or herself by cheating.

So I wondered what she was thinking about Jones, who has been a track and field contemporary _ albeit one at the opposite end of the distance spectrum _ since Kastor was a senior at Agoura High in Southern California, while Jones was a sophomore at nearby Rio Mesa High. Both were also members of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Olympic teams.

Suffice it to say Kastor is having a hard time seeing Wednesday's news as any kind of clear exoneration.

"Athletes lose their credibility, even in instances like this," she said from her home in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., where she's training for the New York City Marathon. "She may be cleared to compete in competitions now, because the B sample came back negative, but it still rings guilty in my eyes."

The test for EPO may be the most disputed testing element in the war on performance-enhancing substances. Its usefulness is limited, even in the best of circumstances, because the substance erythropoietin (now you know why everyone just refers to EPO) clears out of the body for 48 to 72 hours. Stop using it more than three days before an event, and an athlete should be safe from failing an in-competition drug test, as Jones did at the U.S. track championships in June.

Kastor stresses she's not an expert on EPO, but she's read and learned enough to wonder if the short shelf life of the substance is precisely why so many athletes have had a positive A sample for EPO, but a negative B sample. (Notable cases include Bernard Legat, a U.S. distance runner who originally competed for his native Kenya; Italian cyclist Fabrizio Guidi, a Phonak teammate of Landis, and three high-level triathletes.)

"To my knowledge, that synthetic EPO doesn't have a very long life, which is why you have to stay on top of taking it," she said, "which is why we've seen repeated accounts of B samples coming back negative after an initial positive. I guess it allows these athletes to get off the hook, but I'm not really sure that they're innocent." If the substance does indeed degrade that quickly, she suggests, it's logical the B sample would be less likely to test positively than the A sample.

(Notably, when the French newspaper l'Equipe published allegations last year that tests showed Lance Armstrong had used EPO during the 1999 Tour de France, one facet of Armstrong's response was along these line, that the deterioration of stored samples made the tests invalid.)

Being clean, Kastor says she never worries about the prospect of an incorrect test result: "I guess I would never think in a million years that there's a possibility of having a false positive."

Which underlines her skepticism about the differing results.

"I don't see any reason why a test should be positive," she said. "I don't think that our testing is that far behind. I think our testing is pretty good."

Kastor takes no joy in seeing her sport ensnared in drug cases.

"It's obvious in so many cases that you have these athletes that have done so much for track and field," she said. "There's Justin Gatlin" _ recently banned for eight years for steroid use _ "and Marion Jones at the top of that list, that have done great things for track and field, and to hear stories like this is awful.

"But we would also rather have clean role models."

Kastor's skepticism about Jones provides no comfort to anyone who wants to believe the sprinter when she denies drug use. But that skepticism is wholly understandable from someone who remains strongly opposed to performance enhancers while seeing her sport harmed by them. And it's probably understandable from just about anyone.

While Jones has frequently decried being judged guilty by association, it must be noted that she has, at times, seemingly gone out of her way to associate with the guilty.

Her ex-husband, C.J. Hunter, was banned for steroid use. Tim Montgomery, father of her 3-year-old son, is serving a two-year ban for doping. Her former coach, Trevor Graham, has been banned from U.S. Olympic facilities because at least six of his former athletes have failed drug tests. And after Jones and Montgomery left Graham, they briefly worked with Charlie Francis _ who was banned by Canada's Olympic program after admitting he'd supplied steroids to Ben Johnson, stripped of a gold medal at the 1988 for drug use.

Those associations certainly don't mean she used performance-enhancing substances herself. But they do mean it's foolish not to wonder _ regardless of whether you prefer to believe in the test results from Jones' A sample or her B sample.

E-mail David Lassen at dlassen(at)venturacountystar.com