FIRE DENNIS MITCHELL NOW

Plain and simple...............Mitchell is the coach because of Max Segal and Stephanie Hightower, two people who come up way short on integrity. Hightower and Mitchell go way back; it's all about nepotism and past relationships. Mitchell is a failure, and he is retained. This is in addition to the obvious conflict of interest of him being the personal coach of a member on the team. Truly a disgusting situation. Thanks USATF for your leadership.

And you didn't even mention his drug bust! Filthy situation.

T&F Nut wrote:

Plain and simple...............Mitchell is the coach because of Max Segal and Stephanie Hightower, two people who come up way short on integrity. Hightower and Mitchell go way back; it's all about nepotism and past relationships. Mitchell is a failure, and he is retained. This is in addition to the obvious conflict of interest of him being the personal coach of a member on the team. Truly a disgusting situation. Thanks USATF for your leadership.

Here's the doping timeline, which by WADA code today is a Lifetime Ban for Dennis Mitchell, which would be absolutely Brilliant!

In 1998, Dennis Mitchell was banned by IAAF for two years after a test showed high levels of testosterone.

Damu Cherry-Mitchell his current wife and USATF Women's Sprint Coach for the 2016 World Indoor Team: She was banned for two years by the IAAF for failing an out-of-competition drugs test in 2003. She tested positive for norandrosterone, a metabolite of an anabolic steroid.

Then in 2008 to avoid going to Prison for distribution among other charges: On May 1, 2008, it was announced that the U.S. government, in its trial against Trevor Graham, would have Mitchell, as well as Antonio Pettigrew as witnesses, with Mitchell to testify that Graham injected him with human growth hormone. Thus an admission to a 2nd substance which should have been a lifetime ban.

Next (his athtlete tested positive while Dennis was coaching him, which is count 3 for a Lifetime Ban): Femi Ogunode served a two-year ban lasting from January 2012 until January 2014 for the use of the prohibited substance. Can Denis prove that during this period he did not work with Ogunode, the answer is no.

Doping Report says let's not let the doping of Dennis, his family, and his athletes be treated lightly. Again the IAAF should have banned Dennis for life instead of letting him tell on his coach to go free. Americans love their dopers, as in the UK, no way Dennis is ever considered for even a coaching pass to a National Championship.

Anyone have a link to Leroy's interview where he made those comments?

The New York Times Said it best:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/sports/usa-track-field-gives-dennis-mitchell-banned-for-doping-in-the-past-another-chance.html?_r=0

How sad for USA Track & Field. It has clearly run out of credible coaches.

Of all the talented trainers in the United States, USATF, which governs track and field in this country, had to resort to naming Dennis Mitchell to lead its sprint teams at the I.A.A.F. World Relays in the Bahamas last week. That’s the same Dennis Mitchell who tested positive for banned testosterone in 1998, and then defended himself by saying that failed doping test was a result of too much beer and too much sex with his fiancée.

Mitchell was innocent, he had shouted for all to hear, insisting that his ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone — a measure used by drug testers to monitor testosterone levels in the body — was natural, even though it was nearly two times the current allowed limit. A USATF panel believed his story, but international officials did not, and Mitchell served a two-year ban.

“I feel terribly wronged,” he told The New York Times during the ban. “I feel like this sport owed me more than this.”

A decade later, the public learned that Mitchell, a four-time national champion in the 100 meters and an Olympic gold medalist, was not just a stellar performer on the track. He also had been a good actor.

Mitchell testified in 2008 in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative steroids case that his coach, Trevor Graham, had set him up with banned drugs and that Graham had injected him with human growth hormone. Under oath, Mitchell said that when he was an adviser to Marion Jones in 1997, they had sought Graham’s counsel about performance-enhancing-drug use.

Given that background, it seems ridiculous that United States track officials would want him anywhere near their delegation, or that any athletes would want Mitchell to coach them, for fear that his doping background might cast a shadow on them. But this is track and field, a sport that has repeatedly failed Public Relations 101, so nothing seems to be too ridiculous to be true.

And, unfortunately, this is where we are in sports. Scandals have uncovered pervasive doping in everything from baseball to cycling, outing drug users and revealing the seamy, performance-enhanced side of elite sports. Now the problem is, what should we do with those athletes who were involved in the past era of doping who now want back into their sport?

Also in the NY Times Article:

Max Siegel, the chief executive of USA Track & Field and the person who approves all coaching decisions, would not make himself available to discuss how coaches are chosen. But Jill Geer, a spokeswoman for the organization, said any coach in good standing with the United States Anti-Doping Agency was eligible “for the privileges of the sport.”

Geer got it right. Being named to coach a United States team is a privilege, not a right. That’s what upset so many people in the sport about Mitchell’s return.

Lauren Fleshman, a two-time national champion in the 5,000 meters, wrote on her blog that naming Mitchell as coach would be “like putting someone who has formerly served time for fraud in charge of your bank,” arguing that “he casts a shadow on USATF as a whole.”

“I wish him a fantastic life, but I don’t want him or his wife involved in my sport in any position of influence or leadership,” she added, referring to Mitchell’s wife, Damu Cherry-Mitchell, a coach who also served a two-year doping ban in 2003.

Mitchell, who served his punishment, certainly has a right to work. He also has every right to collect payments from USA Track & Field for coaching athletes who receive stipends from USATF and choose to employ him.

But to lead the United States team at an international meet, as if the last 16 years never happened?

Maybe someday. But not yet. Redemption is too important to just happen overnight!!!!

Is there video of the race? I have combed flotrack and can't find it...

Dennis Mitchell, the world-class sprinter whose career began at Edgewood Regional High School in Atco, N.J., and Randy Barnes, the world record-holder in the shot put, have been suspended indefinitely for testing positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs.

get rid of that criminal

All I can figure is that Mitchell must have dirt on somebody in Indianapolis. Nothing else makes any sense. It would be one thing if he was getting results, like Drummond did. But there is no conceivable upside to this guy as national relay coach.

At that pace ... A baton change is impossible. They need to slow down.

Rodger's and Gatlin's comments do nothing to defend themselves or DM. Keep speaking out of your a$$ in front of media, guys.

I really am not expecting the USA to make it around the oval at Rio. If they did successfully get around without a stumble, shots on me.

T&F Nut wrote:

Plain and simple...............Mitchell is the coach because of Max Segal and Stephanie Hightower, two people who come up way short on integrity. Hightower and Mitchell go way back; it's all about nepotism and past relationships. Mitchell is a failure, and he is retained. This is in addition to the obvious conflict of interest of him being the personal coach of a member on the team. Truly a disgusting situation. Thanks USATF for your leadership.

Hold on. That can't be true, because Lord Coe himself with his impeccable standards just selected this lady as "chair of IAAF Conflict Resolution Advisory Group".

Didn't USATF put in a rule that TeamUSA relay coaches (all coaches?} can not have a runner in the team pool. . .

BUT

. . . grandfathered DM in? Or did he have to sue (or threaten to) to get the exemption?

Another worthy cause for a petition. Put those fingers to work letsrun!

U Asked For It wrote:

And you didn't even mention his drug bust! Filthy situation.

T&F Nut wrote:

Plain and simple...............Mitchell is the coach because of Max Segal and Stephanie Hightower, two people who come up way short on integrity. Hightower and Mitchell go way back; it's all about nepotism and past relationships. Mitchell is a failure, and he is retained. This is in addition to the obvious conflict of interest of him being the personal coach of a member on the team. Truly a disgusting situation. Thanks USATF for your leadership.

You bros are mad. There is no use asking.

That's tantamount to seeking out a plumber for brain surgery. "Leaders" like Coe, Hightower, and Segal speak to the sorry state that track and field is in. Sad.

T&F Nut wrote:

That's tantamount to seeking out a plumber for brain surgery. "Leaders" like Coe, Hightower, and Segal speak to the sorry state that track and field is in. Sad.

I agree that Hightower and her lapdog Siegel bear the ultimate responsibility.

The history of problems with the U.S. relay teams goes back a long way. Previous relay coaches for USATF/USOC included Jon Drummond, Orin Richburg (who was standing right next to Mitchell on the infield at Penn yesterday), and Brooks Johnson. Was any of them any good at coaching the U.S. relay teams? I'd say no.

Perhaps Pat Henry, Dennis Shaver, or Robert Johnson would be good candidates for this gig, if their university responsibilities allow them enough time for it. If not, maybe they should get a good H.S. coach!

I think Burrell's comments were reasonable and well spoken. But I've become so pessimistic about USATF that I don't think anything will ever change.