Shawn Crawford hit with 2 year suspension

par for the course--

This is excellent material, I would very much like to hear Kersee's response, although I'm pretty certain as to the form it would take.

how to retire from T&F?? wrote:

Anyone know what the "proper" or "recommended" way to retire from T&F? Is there an official letter/email you have to send to USATF? Is there a web-based where-abouts site you have to deregister from? Just curious if there is a structured and well known process that all pro T&F athletes know about.

Pretty simple process to retire from T&F, it took me about 30 seconds to find it on the USADA website:

Retirement Responsibilities

Retirement

For USADA purposes, any athlete who retires must promptly inform USADA and his/her respective NGB, in writing through fax, courier, or e-mail. If an athlete sends the retirement statement via e-mail, the retirement statement must come from an e-mail address that is on file with USADA. If a USA Swimming or USA Track and Field athlete wishes to retire, he/she must first contact his/her NGB as those sports require specific forms to be completed.

It is very important for the athlete to check with his/her respective International Federation (IF) for its policy on retirement. Under the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) National Anti-Doping Policies, any athlete who has not provided advance written notice of retirement to USADA and then refuses to participate in a USADA Out-of Competition (OOC) test claiming retirement will be subject to an anti-doping rule violation.

If an athlete retires, he/she is immediately removed from the USADA Registered Testing Pool (RTP) and will no longer have to comply with certain athlete requirements such as providing whereabouts information. To confirm retirement, an athlete will receive a retirement letter from USADA stating the date of retirement, withdrawal from retirement information and return from retirement options should an athlete wish to return to competition at a later date.

Although Crawford was the idiot who was goofing with Gatlin at the finish line once upon a time, he's also the guy who gave his "official" silver medal to Martina.

For me, that single act of class redeems a heck of a lot that he could possibly have done, including this event, which seems like a mere administrative oversight by either him or some institution.

Not only should he be immediately and totally reinstated and automatically retired, but before he is retired, he should win some sort of sportsmanship award, if he hasn't already.

This is a guy who IMHO has banked some goodwill.

You cannot tell me someone who has been in the sport as long as he had didn't know what he had to do. The fact is, he did. Otherwise he wouldn't have filed them this year.

Seems what everyone is failing to see is that he wasn't retired last year and he still missed 2 tests.

This year he decides to retire but seems to me he probably filed it after he missed the 3rd test.

I like the guy, will always like him after he gave Martina his medal, shows character. But he made a stupid error and has no one else to blame. He didn't follow the rules so he can't really sue for breaking them. This is like another Merritt incident.Banned for stupidity.

As for the comment about what happens if you're in another country, it doesn't matter where you are, where you're visiting, the testers can test you anywhere. I'm guessing the only exceptions are North Korea and Myanmar. These athletes travel a lot, whether for meets or publicity tours, award ceremonies or endorsement engagements. Being in another country doesn't matter. They still have to provide their itinerary and be prepared for testing anywhere.

here's the problem, still in the national pool myself from a good run a year ago. I intentionally didn't file my quarterly whereabouts until the day before it was due last time, and I got 5, count em, FIVE diff emails and notifications from usada and usatf combined. if that's the case, then I'd have to think that, especially after 2 missed tests, that crawford was getting LOTS of notifications from both of them about his wherabouts and filing correct paperwork. just can't see any excuse coming from him, likeable guy no doubt, but just comes across as a tad shady considering that he's plenty of chances to do it right. my .02

Assuming it was Crawford who didn't file in a timely manner, this is why I disagree with Sprintgeezer's assessment that "...he be immediately and totally reinstated and automatically retired...."

I like the guy too, seemed a little fruity over the years with his phantom-of-the-opera debacle and race-a-zebra stunt, but overall a likeable guy. Part of the crux of the matter in this case that hasn't been addressed in this thread is that in order for drug testing to be as effective as possible it has to apply to everyone equally and justly, without regard to status of the individual -- no special favors for anyone, even Olympic gold medalists or good character individuals or exceptionally likeable people.

USADA is a pretty meticulous bunch, and if they say he violated the rules, he probably violated the rules (even if out of stupidity), and needs to be banned for 2 years. If he's such a stand-up guy as many on this thread have indicated, his response to the masses ought to be "I messed up, I didn't file my retirement paperwork in a timely manner, I respect and accept USATF's ban for my errant handling of my retirement, USATF/USADA must apply the rules equally to all athletes for the fairness and integrity of our sport." Anything less and he diminishes his character.

One of the Pandora's boxes that you open if you don't follow the rules in this case is loopholes in testing -- so he tells "someone" that he is retiring in July 2012, but doesn't officially notify USATF or USADA. He expects no further testing because he notified his neighbor, his pet parakeet, or his mailman. He then goes through several doping cycles from Aug 2012 to Mar 2013, no out-of-competition testing is done because he notified "someone", then competes in 2013 U.S. Outdoor Nationals and runs a Tim Montgomery 9.78 and qualifies for 2013 WCs. It's a potential mess, and that's why athletes returning from retirement have to be in the testing pool for at least 6 months prior to competing again.

OK, I agree with all of that. Had I given it any consideration, I would have posted the same thing, except that I think that in addition to his ban, he receive a sportsmanship award. I'm glad somebody posted this.

Also, it's spelled "quandary".

What fool thought that Crawford was clean in 04'? He was so obviously juiced it wasn't funny. He also acted like a jackass in the Olympic quarterfinals when he and Gatlin toyed with a decent field and were obviously on rocket fuel. I can't see him being clean in 08' as he was the defending champion and could have cemented his legacy with a back to back gold. As for now who knows as his times are pedestrian for top Americans or Jamaicans but decent for other countries.

I remember that at Athens. Couldn't stand Gatlin or Crawford after that, although Crawford's medal stunt in 08 is worth something.

Those guys were on rocket boosters, yes.

100% natural rocket fuel I'm sure.

Well, there's no really good argument to be made that Crawford is the sharpest knife in the drawer.

I also was pissed at him in the 2004 Olympics.

I also believed back when that he was juiced, but he's someone who is forgettable, even though he won some medals in decent times.

It's no wonder that USADA couldn't find him, since Crawford is now living in the sewers under the Paris Opera house.

Well i guess i'm just plain stupid then because i wasnt avoiding any test and i've never taken any PEDs. i am kind of stupid when it comes to filing my whereabout forms because its like your every move you have notify them (USADA) and most of the time aint nobody thinking about that. And every time i take a drug test i check the box for them to keep my samples in case they wanna test them in the future. I stopped training and unofficially retired before the 2012 trials but only went because i did train a little that year, and i only say unofficially because i didnt turn in the papers. And for you idiots out there i've been naturally fast and big up top my entire life. You are talking about a guy who ran 19.88 and 9.95 training himself jumping trash cans and shit.

This is epic, you're the best Shawn!

f**** Kenteris...worst Olympic champion ever...

as someone currently in the int'l pool, i decided to try something this time. I intentionally waited until june 30th (the final day to file whereabouts) to file my forms online. I received.......wait for it.......SIX different letters (email AND text msg) regarding my lack of filing. SIX FRIGGIN CONTACTS. folks, if this is what i got, I'm a friggin scrub compared to SC, so he sure as SHNOT was getting lots of reminders to file his whereabouts.

plain and simple, no excuses for this one, though it's pretty sad that he'll go down this way. just too abd they didn't actually catch him when he was really going hard on the sauce.

international lister--

Well said. +1

This is a distance website, mainly, Geezer notwithstanding. If you are a sprinter you know damn well arrogance comes with the territory. We don't got no stinkin bhadges; I don't need to file no stinkin papers. Shawn's not in kindergarten and he does not have to raise his hand to go out and take a piss. I doubt Shawn raised his hand in kindergarten either.

This is Shawn just being Shawn. He's got "attitude" and you either like it, tolerate it or none of the above.

The guy is 35 and hasn't ran anything fast in years. He probably just retired and didn't file the paperwork. Is tarnishing his name really that big of a deal?