Even though the Winter Olympics are less than two months away, it’s a Summer Olympics sport that’s providing more drama than a whole season of Real Housewives.
Justin Gatlin, who has served a four-year ban for doping in the last decade, fired his coach this week after a Daily Telegraph investigation found Gatlin’s coach, Dennis Mitchell, and agent, Robert Wagner, offered to supply the reporter — undercover as a movie director — testosterone and human growth hormone for an actor.
Wagner says he was just putting on a show:
“I made up the comments to impress them, led on by a make-believe scenario,” Wagner said in a statement to The Associated Press. “It was just big talk. I did not actually source or supply the substances the reporters asked for but stupidly claimed I could.”
Gatlin said he had nothing to do with Mitchell and Wagner’s offers:
Two-time Olympian Kara Goucher has more questions, considering how close the track world is:
Lolo Jones, a two-time Summer Olympian in hurdles and an Winter Olympian in the bobsled, has even more questions:
Jones is referring to American Kellie Wells, who won bronze at the 2012 Olympics. The U.S. Track and Field website lists Wagner as her agent and Mitchell as her coach. Jones lost to Wells by a tenth of a second in London.
The international track and field governing body as well as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said they will look into these serious allegations.
