Athletics: Trevor Graham, the coach of disgraced Olympic 100 metres champion and world record holder Justin Gatlin, could be suspended for two years by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) if the sprinter is found guilty of using anabolic steroids.
"Once we have enough evidence to prove it, then we have the power to prosecute him," the IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said.
"He would face a two-year suspension that is in line with the regulations of our anti-doping code."
Graham has been attracting the attention of the US federal authorities for more than three years, and was recently placed under investigation by them after Angel Guillermo Herdia, a Mexican athlete and nutritionist, testified he provided steroids, human growth hormone and the blood booster EPO at the direction of Graham from about 1996 to 2000 for several of his athletes.
At least 10 athletes coached by Graham have already failed drugs tests during the past eight years.
"We are all aware of the need of not just chasing athletes, because in some ways they are victims of a system they have been in," said Arne Ljungqvist, the IAAF's vice-president and chairman of the International Olympic Committee medical commission.
Britain's most promising young sprinter, 17-year-old Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, was invited by Graham to train with him and Gatlin in Raleigh, North Carolina, after the two met at a dinner arranged by the IAAF last year, and the world youth 100 and 200m champion travelled there at Easter. But Aikines-Aryeetey turned down an offer from Graham to coach him full-time.
The trainer first received attention in 1997 when he started working with Marion Jones, who had drifted away from the sport to pursue a college career in basketball but who fancied trying again.
On the back of his success with Jones more and more athletes were attracted to work with Graham, a member of the Jamaican 4x400m team that won silver in the 1988 Olympics. Even when she left him in 2002 after winning a record five medals at the 2000 Olympics, he continued to enjoy success with the likes of Gatlin and Shawn Crawford, winner of the 200m in the 2004 Athens games.
The fate of Graham and Jones remain inextricably linked, however, because of a decision he took three years ago. By sending a syringe that contained a small substance of the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) to the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2003, he triggered the biggest doping investigation in history which has snared some of the top names in the sport, including, Jones, Montgomery, Dwain Chambers, Kelli White and Chryste Gaines, in a web that is still continuing to grow. Graham said he had done it because he wanted to help clean up the sport.
Gatlin had claimed he was part of a new, drug-free generation. Renaldo Nehemiah, his agent, met him and his parents after his victory in Athens to discuss whether the relationship should continue when people began to publicly criticise it.
"I've told Justin, 'You're judged by the company you keep,' " Nehemiah said.
With Gatlin having now tested positive for testosterone and facing the end of his career, they are words that athletes should consider carefully in the future.
