Sports Agent and Sports Lawyer Blog

LaShawn Merritt is the latest American track star to be suspended, having accepted a provision suspension for an over-the-counter “male enhancement product.”

Merritt, who won gold in the 400 in Beijing, accepted a “provisional suspension” and will refrain from competition while his case is resolved:

According to a release from Merritt's lawyer, Howard Jacobs, the sprinter used a male enhancement product containing substances that caused him to fail three successive tests between October 2009 and January 2010. If that's the extent of his positive tests, it would presumably not put his Olympic medals or his 2009 world championships at stake. Merritt won gold in the 400 at 2009 worlds in Berlin and teamed with Wariner to win the 1,600-meter relay in Beijing and Berlin.

As usual, the USATF weighed in with its typical heavy-handed and exaggerated commentary on the subject. This time, CEO Doug Logan said he is “disgusted by this entire episode.”

My view on doping suspensions is well documented on this blog. There is no place for performance enhancing drugs in sports. On the eve of the Penn Relays, this is not the type of news that the track community needs. With that said, if the USATF would pay more attention to its elite athletes rather than blindly piling on when one of its stars gets into trouble and failing to make the distinction between the substances such as what Merritt took and performance enhancers.

Ivory Williams, who ran the fastest time this year in the 60m in the U.S. Indoor Championships last month, has been suspended by the IAAF for testing positive for marijuana. Published reports says that he failed a test last month which was conducted after his race at the championships.

While marijuana is not known to be a performance enhancing drug, this suspension shows how important it is for athletes subject to testing to be wary of what they put in their bodies. It also makes one question the athlete’s judgment. After all, if you know you’re going to be tested following a race, why would you smoke marijuana at any time before the event?

This article notes that Williams’ suspension is to last for three months, although it also contains a confusing reference to a possible two-year ban as well. I expect that we will learn more details over the next few weeks.

Justin Gatlin's story sounds like a sports lawsuit in waiting.

Let's be honest and say that Justin Gatlin does not inspire much sympathy. The 2004 Olympic medal winner in the 100 meters and bronze medalist in the 200 was banned for doping. After his four-year doping ban expires on July 24, 2010, Gatlin has made it clear that he intends to get back into the sport. In fact, he is here in Florida training hard to make it happen.

What I found interesting about this article is that it makes it sound like the new Diamond League, track and field’s newest elite circuit, and several top European meets, are possibly acting in concert to keep Gatlin from competing.

Similarly, the article says that the USATF would not intervene on behalf of Gatlin if those meets do not accept him. While USATF should be commended for its stance against doping, one has to wonder about whether the sport’s governing body is preventing Gatlin from earning his living. In addition, the article states that USATF has required Gatlin to make appearances to speak to youth about his indiscretions.

After all that, and after he pays his penance, USATF is not only refusing to help him, but actively standing in his way? It is not a lifetime ban. Gatlin would be within his rights to wonder whether the USATF is hindering his comeback. USATF may or may not have legal liability, but if they are seen as conspiring with the Diamond League and other meets to keep Gatlin from competing, I would not be surprised to see an eventual lawsuit. The issue is that even though Gatlin is forever stained by his doping suspension, if he is cleared by the regulatory authorities, then other bodies may not be on solid legal ground by obstructing his efforts to compete.

Track superstar Sanya Richards has weighed in with her take on sports agents, and she does not portray sports agents in a flattering light.

Richards notes that she is being sued by her own agent, although she provides no details on the lawsuit:

I am currently being sued by an agent, someone I once had a great deal of respect for. I speak out not just for myself but for so many athletes, in track and field, that have been in similar situations and for the athletes to come!!!

She also makes a crucial point about the USATF agent certification process, namely referring to the lack of regulation by the sport’s governing body. She apparently had a negative experience with her agent:

Now why would someone that got me a deal, that I would have gotten with or without them, believe that they should be paid beyond the time they worked for me?

It blows my mind that these kinds of people exist. People that want to watch you work as hard as you can and then take it away.

In my opinion, the USATF agent certification process leaves a lot to be desired. There is a reason that track athletes and track agents are on the verge of war with one another. The athletes come and go, but the agents are always there. As a result, they wield an extraordinary amount of power in the sports. I hope that someone such as Sanya Richards, who had the courage to put her name out there with this blog post, can start a drive to revamp the process and reform the sport.

Following up on our recent blog post about sports libel lawsuits, we have news of a libel lawsuit filed by sprinter Donovan Bailey against a Swedish newspaper.

As a disclaimer, I have to tell you that I have no particular knowledge of Swedish libel law. The article does not go into detail regarding the standard that must be shown to win a libel case, which is critical to understand in a libel lawsuit. In other words, we do not know whether Bailey has to prove “actual malice” by the newspaper in order to bring his claim. We do know that Bailey’s primary goal is to salvage his reputation and image:

"Financial damages is last on our list. First... would preferably be the source of what we think is a mischievous rumour that was given; the second is to repair the image damage that has been done to Mr Bailey. I mean, it was more psychological than anything else done to him," Seegobin said.

"It prevented him from further competing for the rest of the year (because), he was so distraught over this whole situation," he posited.

The seedy underbelly of track and field in the United States is well documented (from Marion Jones to Trevor Graham and more). Now we learn that track and field in China might have some of the same problems and controversies.

Chinese Sprinter Wang Jing has apparently been banned for life after failing a drug test. But that's not all. A new book by a former Chines Olympic official alleges a lengthy history of doping. The training methods discussed in the book are also more than a little questionable:

During training runs Ma would ride alongside his charges, shouting at them from the sidecar of a motorcycle. He has admitted that he berated and sometimes beat his runners if he thought they were being lazy or disobedient.

To say the least, this training technique probably would not go over too well in the United States.