Gatlin to miss Beijing Olympics despite doping ban reduction

Sprinter Justin Gatlin got his doping ban reduced but not by enough to make him eligible to defend his Olympic 100-meter title this year.

The 25-year-old sprinter had a potential eight-year ban reduced to four years, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday. With the ban set to expire May 24, 2010, it means Gatlin will be on the sidelines for the Beijing Olympics in August. He needed the ban reduced to two years to be eligible for the Olympic trials in June.

“We have no higher priority than the commitment we have made to clean competition,” U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said. “If that means leaving behind when we go to the Games an athlete who has the talent and ability to break world records but has also cheated, so be it. That’s an easy choice to make. It’s what the American public expects, and it’s what the overwhelming majority of our athletes who choose to compete clean deserve.”

USADA general counsel Bill Bock confirmed the details of the ban first reported by The Washington Post, saying arbitrators acknowledged the help Gatlin provided to federal authorities “in investigating doping in sport, to extent of wearing wire in communications with his former coach,” Trevor Graham.

In 2006, Gatlin tested positive for a banned substance for the second time and, under anti-doping rules, was supposed to receive a lifetime suspension.

But because of the special circumstances behind his first positive test — he was taking medicine to treat attention-deficit disorder — he reached an agreement with USADA that called for a maximum eight-year ban.

Under the decision, it’s conceivable Gatlin could stick around for the 2012 London Olympics, but the sentencing means he will have no immediate chance to regain his world record in the 100 meters. He shared the record of 9.77 seconds with Jamaica’s Asafa Powell. Since then, Powell has improved the record, finishing in 9.74 seconds last September.