World's fastest man Christian Coleman faces potential whereabouts failure ban for 3 missed drug tests

I don't have first-hand experience, but restrictions and reporting with USADA's Whereabouts program for Registered Testing Pool athletes seem impossibly onerous.

It's a wonder there aren't more missed tests.

Missing tests could be intentional, to avoid probable failures, but could be due to any number of less nefarious reasons.

Availability needs to be published months ahead and advance updates constantly posted.

Real Life is different. Plans change, you sleep in, get drunk, hook up, run into bad traffic - any number of mundane yet inexcusable events could cause a missed test.

USADA allows testers to arrive without notice. (Would a day's notice be unreasonable?)

USADA can "test athletes without any advance notice in an out-of-competition setting".

And while the Athlete must nominate a daily 60-minute testing window, USADA reserves the right to ignore it. Presumably, they can drop by unannounced any day of the week between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m.

"USADA can choose to, and does test athletes outside of the their 60-minute window."

"USADA may attempt to test athletes on dates and times outside of the times designated in Whereabouts information. If a DCO makes a reasonable attempt to locate an athlete for no-notice testing and the athlete is not able to be located, or the athlete confirms they are unavailable, the DCO will fill out an Unsuccessful Report Form and submit that to USADA."

So why aren't we hearing a chorus of athletes saying the testing protocols are "impossibly onerous"?

Yes, because it’s your third missed test and you failed to update your whereabouts. Not rocket science.

Kara Goucher just said the opposite. A simple text, and done, she wrote.

@subway: 9 to 11 times in the last 2 years each, less before.

Associates with Justin Gatlin , misses drug tests, is not a cool dude, where there’s smoke, there’s fire...

Man Rojo, Coleman is never going to talk to you guys again if he gets wind of this thread. He was already pissed about the Lyles thing and now this.

Coleman = goon sauce

“Coleman, who was eight years old when he watched Gatlin win the 100m gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, said US sprinting's elder statesman remained an inspiration.

"He's going to go down as an all-time great," said Coleman, the fastest man in the world this year over 100m with a leading time of 9.81sec. "To be able to last that long and still be performing at that level is incredible. So hats off to him. Major respect."

Gatlin, meanwhile, remains on friendly terms with Coleman, whom he mentored during his college career at the University of Tennessee, Gatlin's alma mater.”

^^

This is all you need to know. Gatlin, unapologetic drug cheat and lover of history majors everywhere, is Christian’s mentor.

He’s either a drug cheat or a moran, but my money’s on the former.

casual obsever wrote:

SlowFatMaster wrote:

Well, one of Brianna's violations was at an airport. Rollins had already passed through airport security. The testers were not flying that day, so they were on the other side of security. In order to comply with the testers, Rollins would have had to exit security, give the sample, then go through security again, possibly risking a missed flight, a missed meet, etc.

Yes, this. Risk management. A missed test is nothing compared to possibly risking a missed flight, a missed meet. An obvious choice.

Exactly! I wonder if someone knew they would test positive and used the airport security line as a nice excuse for the public perception.

Sir Mobot just posted a drug test on his Instagram story.

Coleman should address the Media with his explanation by himself, The WORST thing he could do is Hire a Lawyer To confront the Media, because just by hiring a Lawyer makes people think, he is paying someone to get him off/ find a loophole or technicality, better to handle it himself.

Ernest wrote:

I don't have first-hand experience, but restrictions and reporting with USADA's Whereabouts program for Registered Testing Pool athletes seem impossibly onerous.

You can do it from your phone, its very easy to update when you have changes.

The majority of athletes set their whereabouts to like 4am or something, since they know they'll be at home the majority of days at that time. That simplifies it, since then they only need to update it for travel.

For travel, you can usually do the same tactic, since usually you arent on an airplane at 4am, so you just set your hotel or air bnb to your whereabouts. Very simple.

If you are going to be taking a red eye or something, you can set the airport as your whereabouts.

Keep in mind that only the best in the sport need to be in this program. If you arent making your living on running, you wont be in this program, so the fact that a stressful career gets in the way won't apply. If you are making your living on running, you should be able to take the 20 seconds each travel or day you're away from home to update it. If you're at home, nothing needs to be done.

Well done, letsrun, for forcing users to register.

Now, this Coleman situation is 100 percent bogus. This man has been tested 20 times in the past year or so.

His coach stated that WADA showed up to his practice to test Coleman, a place and time that Coleman stated that he would be at for the 1 hour window. WADA shows up, but Coleman had stepped away and was headed back to the facility. The WADA Tester told the coach that Coleman had 30 mins to show up or it would be listed as a missed test. If the guy is headed back to the facility, and he happens to get there 5 or 10 mins afterwards, that should not lead to a penalty.

Testers will show up unannounced during the one hour window, which is the way it is supposed to be, and it is the job of the athlete to be there during that one hour window. However, since it is a random situation, and the athlete just happens to be away at the moment, like stepped to the store,, etc., that is beyond stern.

Even the Brianna Rollins situation was bogus, because 2 of her missed tests was because she was attending a ceremony in her hometown that was honoring her, and she was traveling to the white house to meet the then US President, Barack Obama. There was some type of calendar update mix up, which is why her ban was only for one year. But she shouldn't have been banned.

There has to be some leeway here, considering the amount of times that Athletes are tested per year. A one hour window is way to short in my opinion.

But of course his name is going to get dragged through the mud, and people will accuse him of doping, without hearing the full story.

douglas burke wrote:

Coleman should address the Media with his explanation by himself, The WORST thing he could do is Hire a Lawyer To confront the Media, because just by hiring a Lawyer makes people think, he is paying someone to get him off/ find a loophole or technicality, better to handle it himself.

No. That is the best thing that he should do. You should always have legal representation in court, for the press, etc. Athletes who don't have that are always the ones who put themselves in deeper water for saying the wrong things.

Never address the press, etc, without being prepared. This situation is a legal sports matter, because it is dealing the laws of his particular sport, and a major infraction that was committed.

And who cares what someone thinks based of them having representation. You judge someone off of facts and not their image or how they appear.

From Jon Drummond himself:

shorturl.at/ainBS

Rumours I hear:

Coleman - Missed 3 tests (test due to issues in regards to test performed by USADA and WADA around the same time)

Lyles - TUE not submitted

Kerley - Bust

How true.... no idea. people love to talk s##t

I’m not buying it.

First of all, it is not set up for the athlete to fail. It is set up to hold people accountable and when you are in the elite athlete in track and field, part of the price of doing business, you are subjected to this type of random testing.

Secondly, if he was actually on site and just in another facility, instead of standing there arguing with the drug tester, move your ass and go find your athlete. That’s pretty simple to me. They don’t care that he had recently been tested by someone else. What they care about is that they have a job to do right there, in that moment, and you are not helping.

Let’s even give Christian the benefit of the doubt in this one particular situation. The problem is, there are three missed tests over the course of the year. Three.

Can drug testing be a pain in the ass from time to time? Yes. Of course it is. Does it suck when they contact you and you are in the middle of a meeting or in the middle of dinner with your family? Yes, of course it is. However, when you signed up to be an elite athlete and to make money all over the world doing this, this is a price of doing business.

He can appeal all of this. Of course. The problem is, we do not have a test on record for those three missed opportunities. It’s not impossible for an athlete to be taking random, micro doses of banned substances over time.

I’m not saying that Christian Coleman is guilty of using banned substances. What he is guilty of, is missing three mandatory drug test. That’s a big deal! When you are the top sprinter in the world, you already understand that you are under a microscope because of the history of abuse in the last 30+ years.

At best, he guilty of being a dumba$$.

Scorpion_runner wrote:

From Jon Drummond himself:

Hilarious. Drummond standing up for Gatlin's buddy Coleman - hard to make up a better story.

funny that the us. doping apologists are out in full force. For real the usa should be banned from sprinting including the 800m for constant doping violations and letting known dopers (beef eaters) run for them. Worse case than russia for sure