Athletics News: The American sprinter Tim Montgomery faces financial disaster if the Court of Arbitration for Sport bans him for life today for his involvement in the Balco doping scandal.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is set to disqualify Montgomery retrospectively and to demand back the money he earned for racing during the period in question.
For one race alone in 2002 Montgomery earned €210,000. That was for winning the 100 metres at the Grand Prix final, when he set a world record of 9.79 seconds.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency has accused him of serious doping violations after a US federal investigation into Balco (the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) in California.
Montgomery has denied ever taking drugs but the San Francisco Chronicle has alleged that, when he gave grand jury testimony, he admitted taking banned human growth hormone.
Victor Conte, the founder and owner of Balco, sentenced to four months' jail in October after pleading guilty to steroid distribution, said last year he had supplied Montgomery and his partner, the triple Olympic champion Marion Jones, with tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), erythropoietin and insulin.
In a separate television interview he said he had witnessed Jones using steroids.
Jones, who has not been charged with any doping offence, has denied the allegations.
Montgomery has hardly raced since the scandal erupted and failed to make the US team for the Athens Olympics.
"Tim's doing light stuff but he's ready to get this over with so he can relax his mind and get on with it," said his coach Steve Riddick. "It's difficult to train when you don't know if you've got death row or not."
Meanwhile Britain's Dwain Chambers could find himself running for nothing when he returns to competition next month after his two-year ban for using anabolic steroids.
The IAAF are set to ban the British sprinter retrospectively from races in 2002 and 2003 and to demand back the €296,000 he won in that period. Chambers admitted at the weekend he took drugs for 18 months before he tested positive in 2003.
If Chambers, who claims to be penniless, is unable to return the money, the IAAF has the right under its rules to withhold any he may win in future until it has been fully reimbursed.
The news will be a crushing blow to the 27-year-old, who has said one of his main motivations for making a comeback is to earn money to support his partner and three-month-old son, Sky.
"I need to get some money back in my pocket, because I'm broke," said Chambers in an interview with the BBC. "I have to earn a living. I miss competing and that's made me determined to come back and have fun on the track again."
He was one of the highest-earning athletes in 2002-2003. In 2002 he won the Golden League meetings in Oslo and Berlin as well as big events in Sheffield and Crystal Palace and finished second in the Grand Prix final in Paris. He was paid at least €8,000 for each race appearance.
Chambers enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, owning three cars and a motorbike.
Most of what was left went on his legal defence as he tried to clear his name after testing positive in August 2003.
He has earned little during the ban period after a failed attempt to break into American football.
The IAAF yesterday requested from the BBC a copy of the interview with Chambers in which he confessed to having started in 2002 taking THG, given him by Conte.
"We have to look at the tape first and then contact Dwain," said an IAAF spokesman last night.
"Then we will follow our procedures."
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