Saddened Track and Field Legend Makes Shocking Revelation 17 Years After Avoiding Lifetime Career Ban

No matter which way you view it, the 100m sprint remains arguably the most popular and glamorous event in track and field. Usain Bolt became a household name thanks to his 100 and 200m records. However, this is the story of how one of Bolt’s biggest challengers lost four years of his career and may have lost even more.

Before Usain Bolt’s rise to become the fastest man in history, it was Justin Gatlin who held the 100-meter world record. Even today, the 42-year-old’s 9.77-second record ranks him as the fifth-fastest man in history. Now, 16 years after his 2008 ban, Justin Gatlin divulged shocking details of how he could’ve been banned for life.

How Justin Gatlin’s lawyer salvaged his career

The trouble started in 2006 when one of Gatlin’s test results showed the “precursors of testosterone” in his system. While appearing on the Run Your Race podcast, Gatlin explained how his layer Joe Zarzeur rescued the athlete. “We took it federal, and we actually won the case. We won the case financially, right? But the thing, it came with strings attached,” revealed the former world champion.

“They said they would pay but I had a gag order. I couldn’t talk about how I beat them in court until my career was ended. Until I retired,” the track and field icon said during the podcast. The reason? “If I did it would open up a Pandora’s Box… the Federation would be inundated with different lawsuits,” added Gatlin.

Yet, you may be wondering how it came to this. Thankfully, the Olympic gold medalist explained what led to the incident that nearly ended his career. “You test positive once in our sport you get a two-year ban. Test positive a second time, you’re facing a lifetime ban,” said the Olympian. Unfortunately for Gatlin, he had a prior offense from 2001.

The track and field star first ran into trouble in 2001 when his ADD medicine led to the sprinter testing positive for a banned substance. An American Arbitration Panel technically cleared the sprinter of the offense, as he had been unknowingly consuming the ADD medication with the substance. However, it still counted as the five-time Olympic medalist’s first strike.

So the 2006 issue became far more serious until his lawyers argued that the first offense shouldn’t have counted, and the second offense may have been sabotage. They argued that one of Gatlin’s physical therapists used a new product containing the banned substance on his legs after the Kansas City Relays. “I realized, like, he had gloves on. He was rubbing me down. I’m like, all right, whatever,'” Gatlin recalled during the podcast.

Thankfully, their argument worked, and instead of an eight-year or lifetime ban, an American arbitration panel reduced it to four. However, Gatlin continued to fight until the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed that ban in 2008. 16 years later, the 42-year-old also revealed the mental health distress he underwent due to the legal trouble.

The mental toll pushed the track and field icon to the extremes

“Imagine being away from a sport, your sport for 4 years,” Justin Gatlin told the Run Your Race hosts. The 5-time world championship medalist argued that an athlete gets stressed even if they lose a single season. Yet, despite all his effort, the then-26-year-old had no choice but to sit out the prime years of his sprinting career.

“I went through depression, I went through so much anger issues,” expressed the track and field icon. While the Olympian didn’t actively think about taking an extreme step, he stopped caring about the consequences. “I didn’t care much about the quality of life, like I was out drinking every night,” confessed the athlete. The ban had driven him away from the disciplined life of an athlete.

“I’ll be like, ‘Man, if my car wraps around this telephone pole right now, who gonna miss me? That’s how I was thinking,” explained Justin Gatlin. Thankfully, despite such extreme steps crossing his mind, the athlete never crossed the line. Despite being away from the sport for four years, the American sprinting icon worked his way back to the top. In 2012, Gatlin won an Olympic bronze, and then a silver at Rio 2016. A year later, Gatlin would climb to the top one more time, winning the 100m gold at the World Championships.