Former track coach Trevor Graham is suing the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for $30 million. The suit filed in Federal court this week alleges that USADA permanently tarnished Graham's name when they accused him of providing performance enhancing drugs to the track athletes he coached. According to court documents, Graham says USADA "slandered my name for the whole world to see."
In July 2008 Graham was banned for life from coaching by USADA for his role in helping his athletes obtain performance-enhancing drugs. Graham has always denied providing performance-enhancers to his athletes that once included Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin. Graham alleges that that USADA wrongly banned him without due process, stating that USADA violated his First Amendment and due process rights by not granting him a hearing before the American Arbitration Association. Graham says that he has never been tried and never found guilty. This is why he has filed the lawsuit.
Many of you might not know that it was Graham that sparked the entire BALCO investigation by mailing the feds an empty syringe that had traces of what was ultimately identified as "the clear," one of the drugs (along with "the cream") that was at the heart of the BALCO scandal. Graham was granted immunity for his cooperation, however in 2008, Graham was sentenced to a year of home confinement for lying to federal investigators during a doping investigation because his cooperation agreement did not protect him from prosecution for making false statements. According to the lawsuit, Graham wants a hearing before USADA and the arbitration association with the intension that his "good name" be cleared, thus allowing him to be reinstated with all sport agencies and the media as well as the ability to coach track athletes once again.
According to a statement made by USADA in response to the lawsuit, Graham was afforded full legal process established under federal law prior to being sanctioned by USADA. The agency contends that Graham's suit is frivolous and seeks to rob clean athletes of USADA's limited resources by forcing the agency to defend itself.
Victor Conte weighed in on the situation and said that the lawsuit Graham filed against USADA is crazy. He says he knows Grham is guilty because he personally provided him with performance enhancing drugs from hand-to-hand!
The way I see this is that Graham is confusing the actions of USADA with those the feds. As far as USADA can see, Jones, Montgomery and Gatlin - all charges of Graham - were caught using PEDs and lying about it. Graham was caught lying about providing the drugs, and the feds know Graham got them from Conte. All that is enough for USADA to pass judgment, just as they did with Jones and Montgomery, both of whom were banned by USADA without ever failing a drug test. Graham isn't going to get anywhere with this lawsuit. What he will do is cash in the last of his celebrity bringing the suit and ultimately keep alive yet even longer the BALCO name, which ultimately continues to fatten the coffers of Victor Conte, who, through all of this, has made more trips to the bank with a big bag of money than anyone else involved. So, my message to Graham is to bring it on! Right after he got out of prison I told Victor that BALCO will go down in history as sports "never ending story" and that he will continue to reap the benefits of his celebrity for many years to come. So far it's been running for seven years and there is no end in sight. I just love being right!
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