It simply never ends. Doping has always been part of sport and it will continue to be. It can definitely help some athletes run, jump or throw faster. Sprinters Tyson Gay and Asafa Powel, who got caught in 2013, have been big fish, but they certainly weren’t the first or last to get caught in an anti-doping net.
While athletics has written many great stories in the past, there are some dark doping chapters in its history. We can probably find the most sinners among sprinters. Since the 1980s, the best runners on the shortest cross-country courses have been confronted with doping suspicions. While most of them remained adamant that they were clean, some of them admitted over time (often under the pressure of evidence) that they had taken banned substances. In the following, you will find an overview of the biggest doping scandals in sprinting history.
American sprinter was one of the stars at the Sydney Olympics when she won three gold and two bronze medals. From 2005, there were rumors that Marion Jones was not clean, but it vehemently denied all the accusations.
All changed in 2007, as she admitted to taking steroids before the 2000 Olympics. She subsequently lost all of her five medals. She was forced to serve a six-month prison sentence for lying under oath one year later. “I want people to understand that everyone makes mistakes. Now, what can I do about it?” she told Oprah Winfrey in a 2008 interview.
