The drug-use denial statements of Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin are so similar because they were most likely both written by the same person, Coach Trevor Graham.
Right now Marion is probably wishing she stayed with Ben Johnson's former coach, Charlie Francis. Charlie was much better at juicing his athletes. Only one of Charlie’s elite athletes was caught for illegal drug use. Trevor now has six of his elite athletes found guilty of using PEDs (performance enhancing drugs). This includes: both of Marion’s former husbands C.J. Hunter and Tim Montgomery, Justin Gatlin, and Michelle Collins. Last week nutritionist Angel Heredia testified before a grand jury that he was the supplier of PEDs to Trevor Graham athlete’s and that Marion Jones, Antonio Pettigrew, Garfield Ellenwood and Duane Ross were also taking PEDs. Angel also testified that he had no knowledge of PED use by three of Trevor’s other top athletes: Justin Gatlin, Shawn Crawford and Lisa Barber.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/sports/20track.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=de3ec843ee79b313&ex=1311048000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Shawn Crawford and Lisa Barber are likely candidates to have positive PED tests in the near future. Trevor’s Sprint Capital USA organization should be more aptly named Steroid Capital USA. Given everything that has occurred, if Crawford and Barber are clean, why are they staying with Trevor?
Marion is the worst of the bunch. I've read that she refused to take a drug test while still in high school and as a result couldn’t continue to compete in HS track. Apparently she then switched to basketball, which she played in college. Several people (Victor Conte founder of Balco, C.J.Hunter, Angel Heredia…) have stated under oath to grand juries that they have 1st hand knowledge of Marion taking PEDs and have provided documentation to back up their claims. So when is the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) going to wake up and hold a hearing about these serious allegations? It would seem the evidence these unrelated accusers have on Marion is very convincing. The USADA has very little creditability while Marion is out there winning big races and declaring her innocence. Perhaps we need new leadership and USADA and at USATF. Marion is now making a joke of the sport of T&F.
Finally, while it is possible that every men’s world track record and every men’s road record might be legitimate, it is widely acknowledged that all of the women's world track records, from 100m thru 10,000m are juiced. They were set by: Florence Joyner-US, Marita Koch-Germany, Jarmila Kratochvilova-TCH, Yunxia Qu-China, Svetlana Masterkova-Russia, Junxia Wang-China, and Elvan Abeylegesse-Turkey – all suspected or known drugies. But thanks to Paula Radcliffe-Great Britain and Elana Meyer-South Africa, probably all of the women's world road-race records are clean.