Truth or Wasted Black Ink?

Story written by EPelle

Dwain Anthony Chambers, the NFL Europe hopeful and a former world-class sprinter whom I've featured on several occasions on this blog, has spoken out on BBC's Inside Sport again being asked for a response on performance-enhancing drugs - including his own private usage and speculating whether or not Olympic athletes are also taking drugs.

Chambers' discussions follow a week-long spate of confessions in which former professional cycling riders and doctors to those Tour riders - and even a masseur - detailed their accounts of having used drugs (including EPO) and aided others along in the process, and comes at the heels of Floyd Landis' public arbitration hearing - which ended last Wednesday.

Chambers, interviewed by Matthew Pinsent - a BBC Sport reporter and four-time Olympic rowing gold medalist who was knighted in 2004, discussed among other things how a non-chalant attitude toward cheating caught up with Chambers.

"I was under the assumption that I wouldn't get caught," Chambers said on the programme, which airs tonight (28-may).

Chambers did get caught, and was punished by the three-man disciplinary counsel which heard his case and reached a conclusion after seven hours of testimony by the legal teams and expert witnesses representing UK Athletics (including Dr. Don Catlin) and Chambers. UK Athletics was said to have spent over £300.000 of its anti-doping budget on the Chambers case.

A newcomer to the drugs-testing world, THG was not named on either the WADA or IOC prohibited-substance list in 2003, however Dr. Catlin was able to scientifically demonstrate that chemically and pharmacologically, THG was directly derived from an identified anabolic steroid, gestrinone.

As previously stated on earlier blogs, Chambers was stripped of times, records, performances and honours achieved during the period he was on THG. He first denied having been a part of the BALCO scandal, attributing his positive test to a contaminated substace he received from a BALCO supplement, but later confessed and took his punishment following the hearing.

Since Chambers' admission to his performance-enhancing drugs usage, he's been an on-again, off-again topic for journalists the past four years, with courage to speak out about his misdeeds and the honesty to look people and other athletes in the face who have not been quick to extend him a welcome hand.

Chambers has tried to go on in life wearing two different shoes - one which has the lure of a good future, and one which has left a lengthy stretch of lawn gutted up when he dragged himself, his family, friends, fans and the sport of athletics through a dark period of lies, cover-ups and a blame culture.

"We all go through different chapters in life," Chambers said to Pinsett.

"I came to a crossroad in my life where I took a wrong turn, you know, got hit by a bus, but fortunately, I was able to get back up on my feet, and you know, go in another direction."

Chambers has had his back turned to athletics since he chose to go full-fledge into the world of professional American fotboll (NFL Europe) at the end of last year. Nevertheless, during each and every interview which is conducted with Chambers - even from yours truly, Chambers doesn't seem too tired or too bored to deal with the subject which continually arises about drug use - four years after the fact.

Chambers has no apparent axe to grind with the sport. He has parted ways temporarily in decent standing and at peace with his soul, and competed in last year's EAA European Championships in Göteborg in the 100m (7th in 10,24 seconds [result]) and 4x100m relay (lead-off leg on victorious 38,91 team [result]). Chambers has also gotten back a noticeable amount of fan support who have followed his transition to the gridiron.

Why then all the fuss about drug use, and is there any significance in speaking with Chambers about it?

Does Chambers provide insight into the issue of drugs usage, or do journalists simply find the right time to tie in old news to current events in order to piggy-back on the wave of the day?

Dwain Chambers, along with an American, Kelli White, seem to be the only athletes these days who have taken a social responsibility for their actions and have spoken openly, honestly and, at times, painfully about their exploits in the underground world of drug-taking and risk-taking.

So when the words "Olympics" and "sprinters" and "drugs" come up in conversation - a touchy topic, as Chambers has been barred from competing in the Olympics for Great Britain for the rest of his natural life, Chambers answers Pinsett's questions about whether a "clean" sprinter could defeat a "dirty" one in an Olympic final.

Plainly, calmly and assuredly, Chambers chimes in: "It's possible, but that person that's taken drugs has to be having a real bad day. That's what I believe."

Chambers believes a lot of things, and isn't shy to state what's on his mind.

One's first reaction to hearing and/or reading what Chambers has to say could be along the lines that Chambers harbours ill-will and a great deal of disappointment with the sport, and will take every opportunity to spread a cloud of doubt and suspicion over sprinting and athletics. He has not been alone, however, in discussing drugs-usage, with several other athletes from another sport, cycling, a step ahead of him.

A sudden about-face took place in professional cycling this past week, with Zheff de Hont, a former masseur of Germany's Team Telekom racing team telling the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that he injected Jan Ullrich with EPO, and Georg Huber, who worked on six Olympic teams, acknowledging he provided cyclists testosterone between 1980 and 1990 - including 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis. One other rider, Christian Henn, a former Team Telekom member, last week admitted to previous EPO use.

Chambers tells Pinsett that WADA is a long way behind the dopers, and assures that there are other non-detectable drugs on the scene.

Ultimately, Dr. Catlin announced his resignation from the helm of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory on 2007-March-13 in what he described as an opportunity to turn to research.

According to Dr. Catlin, performance-enhancing drug use increased – not decreased – following the BALCO saga.

“If you’re a pro athlete and you read all about it and how extensive it is, even if you’re clean, you think: ‘Gee, I’ve got to get with it,’" he said in an interview with the New York Times last year.

"I have been quite surprised to see how extensive it is, even me, with the jaded eye with which I look at sports. There’s a lot more than I ever thought.”

Chambers offers an answer for the continued cat-and-mouse game being played between those who are behind the testing and those who are creating elusive ways for athletes to continue cheating.

"It's simple," he told Pinsett. "Science always moves faster than the testers."

Chambers' feet have moved faster than most others, as he's run from noll to 100m in under 10 seconds. His mouth moves slower than others when it comes time to talk about drugs, his past and the influence he has had on the sport - both positive and negative.

The words which he utters from his lips have proven to be true, thus far, and there's no reason to believe he won't continue speaking openly, freely and truthfully about the dirty world hidden far beneath the surface the every-day fan is able to see. He'll continue talking, because people continue asking. We continue asking, because others continue to get caught. Catching cheats will continue to happen, but, according to Chambers, millions of dollars thrown at "research" won't slow down the process.

Chambers Invited to NFL Camp in Tampa

Story written by EPelle

British sprinter Dwain Chambers has made the next stage in his bid to become a professional American Footballer, having been selected among 89 international players chosen for a six-week NFL Europe training camp in Tampa, Florida in March.

Chambers, the former European Champion over 100m, will not compete during the indoor athletics season, and he is almost certain to miss the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka in August.

Tony Allen, NFL Europe's director of international player development, said: "As well as his obvious speed, he has impressed us with his toughness, dedication and determination at the previous camps (blog link).

"Dwain is learning the sport quickly. He understands that he faces many tough challenges if he is to make a career for himself in the NFL.

"But he has shown us he deserves the chance to test himself against NFL players at the NFL Europe training camp."

I've followed Chambers' NFL development with keen appreciation, as I've had an opportunity to spend time with him one-on-one, and experience the sincerity he displays when he speaks about his life openly and with stunning candor.

The road ahead for Chambers will test him to wits' end, as he attempts to jump through hurdles and obstacles to further make the cut as the month of March concludes.

Chambers has been selected to attend a four-day mini camp for international players at the NFL Europe cam in Tampa, beginning on 5-March. Successful candidates will then be assigned to one of the six NFL Europe teams (Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Rhein Fire) at the conclusion of the camp, 8-March.

In what promises to be a taxing, whirlwind of a process, international players arrive at their respective camps 9-11 March, where they will vye for the 48 spots for the season (including eight non-Americans). If Chambers has made it through his boot camp of a process, he will then depart with a respective team 2-4 April for Europe.

According to BBC reports, 270 non-American players took part in NFL Europe trials for places on the Florida training camp last winter.

A very low total of between eight and nine of those have been chosen to line up alongside about 300 American players - mainly young players on the rosters of NFL teams in the USA - for the Florida camp.

Chambers will need an incredible amount of luck on his side in order to prove to selectors he not only has the talent to play the American sport, but that he should be entrusted to play the sport professionally despite lacking any grassroots training and development.

Chambers has faced tall odds previously in life, with his return to the athletics last season his biggest to date. His drive got him a look during training camp in Barcelona. His determination has gotten him to the next level, where all the grit in the world will not be sufficient enough - nor stretch far enough - to provide Chambers one of those precious few spots on an international field.

Chambers will need to bottle up all of his anger, every bit of his remorse, his entire stock and supply of hope and combine them with a genuinely large stroke of luck in order to look like he should be picked as a boy among men.

Combine those with tenacity, a powerful will and an iron-clad resolve aided by nothing more than the voices within screaming for respect and success in his endeavor, and Chambers may prompt a scout to raise his hand Chambers' direction, put a black checkmark next to his name, and bring the British sprinter back home to Europe for an enduring test of patience and bodily contact unknown to Chambers in the slightest degree.

Chambers has demonstrated remarkable composure and dedication to this venture. Will the men in charge at the next junction pick the last man standing, or will they pen a red line through his name, yell, "next?", and tell Chambers "thank you, you may go home now, goodbye"?

Chambers, who has been playing as a wide receiver, will not have to put on a spectacular display of raw speed which demonstrates he can run 100 yards from point A to point Z faster than his pursuers, rather that he can shake, roll, fake-out and out-maneuver his opponents at a rapid pace and break free and known when to look up - an instict he'll have to quickly develop - for a long pass invariably hauled his way from a quarterback under heavy scramble.

The NFL will be a completely new song and dance for Chambers, but he has shown remarkable poise in perfecting his plan to gain self-confidence and respect. He's remained on the field of practice long after hours, and has asked the right developmental questions reminiscent of rookie wide-outs attempting to better their game. He's taken his lumps and bruising, and learned to deal with the obvious pain mistakes on the field make.

Here's hoping to a changed man in Dwain Chambers the athlete as he puts his mind to its greatest test to date hoping he will find the lost needle in the haystack as time quickly runs down.

Chambers Given Another Look

Story written by EPelle

Dwain Chambers has made an initial cut of NFL hopefuls, and has been invited to an additional two-day camp in Barcelona to be held 13-14 January.

I first reported to you on on 20-December that Chambers had gotten his act together, and was pursuing his dreams in the NFL (read: From Threads to Riches).

NFL Europe coaches were impressed with Chambers' raw speed and determination during his initial tryout in November, and would like to have a better look at him and other rookies in their camp - to be held over a Monday and Tuesday.

Scouts had known of Chambers' raw speed, but did not expect to see such blistering pace and use of it when he was put through a simple drill at the start of the one-week camp in November.

This bodes well for Chambers, as he would like to forge a name for himself in the NFL and gain confidence in a new sport. The odds are highly stacked against him, but he's giving it a go.

BBC accurately reported that Chambers will need far more than raw pace if he is to fulfil his initial ambition of becoming a wide receiver for one of the five NFL Europe teams, as catching skills, strength, determination, teamwork and tactical appreciation all count equally into the total package exhibited by the best NFL players.

Whether or not Chambers makes a successful journey to the NFL, he vows to return to the track.

"Part of my mind is saying, 'leave track alone' but it is not the wise thing to do. If it doesn’t work out in Tampa, I’ve time for track this summer," he is quoted as saying in the Daily Mail (2006-December-29).

"I plan to come back to track regardless. It’s something I still believe I have a passion for. At the moment, I don’t but I will in time."

Chambers has a great support system behind him, having his mother, Adlith and his partner, Leone backing him as he continues forward from a past filled with a commitment to excellence, but also a past which crossed over to a darker period he'd just as soon forget.

Of Leone, he states: "If I didn’t [listen to her], I’d get my ear chewed. And then I speak to Jonathan and he brings a whole different perspective to it. It’s tough because I am used to doing everything my way."

Chambers opens up candidly about his mother.

"She always said, 'be careful what you do', and then for her to have to go out still holding her head up when people made comments … that’s hard on her.

"She was fantastic. In her mind, as long as I am okay, she is okay. She always says what people write in the papers are just words. Mind, I only showed her positive stuff in papers. Mothers don’t understand negative stuff, do they?

"She’s strong and she has her church and that kept her uplifted a lot, and during that time I kept with her a lot which helped put her mind at ease, and now she gets to see my son a lot which takes her mind off the other things."

Being a team-player - one who does things the coach's way - is one characteristic NFL scouts will look for in Chambers and his rookie class next week. If he's successful there, his wait on hearing if he is one of 80 players selected for a camp in Florida in March will be duly rewarded.

If Chambers can make a successful leap between the two sports and become an NFL player, the only thing he'll have to do is explain to his mother why those big, helmeted men are running as fast as possible to knock Chambers off his feet.

Click here for a link to NFL Europe.

NB (2007-January-16): Video Q&A With BBC (link)

From Threads to Riches

Story written by EPelle

Have you ever considered what it may be like to spiral down the totem poll?

Dwain Chambers and Justin Gatlin find themselves there at this very moment - and have actually for some time.

They were once enamored with praise, showered with money, and fed monstrous amounts of respect for being the quickest down a small piece of real estate, 100 metres to be exact.

Now, each has his sites set on performing in front of other crowds, for more money, and for a different type of esteem, namely that of being an NFL star.

Chambers was caught up in the BALCO affair, and accepted his two-year banishment from the sport in 2004. I caught up with him in Göteborg in August - his first major championship since his return this season, and had two very good conversations with him.

I like the guy. He's personable, he's funny, he's approachable, and he's shown an interest in not just continuing to explain the same old story he's told for the past 30 months, but to face the fact that people look at him differently than before.

Steroids talk didn't get old with Chambers when I brought up the subject in August after stopping him a second time for a quick photo along the service road between the warm-up track and Ullevi Stadium where the European Championships were taking place. I kept the focus off of his expulsion, and asked him questions about Gatlin and the entire drugs mess within athletics. He was honest about his situation - so honest, that he signed an autograph for a fan who stuck her program in front of him during our discussion with his name, and "9,96" under it. (Read further: Chambers comes clean)

"It is now," he said of his personal best, and chuckled.

Gatlin is traveling down a similar road.

He's been on top, over the top, and has fallen beyond the extended public grace extended for certain crimes of conscious. He's been busted for performance-enhancing drugs.

Friends and family have stood by his side since his inner circle decided to reveal the positive testosterone - or precursor - in July, but the public has grown faint and weary of another story of good guy turned bad through his own fault or not.

Gatlin, as is Chambers, is on the bottom of the list of influentials - those notable somebodies the rest of us had no business pretending to be. He was once perched so high up in his own postal code that the only person who was even in the neighbourhood was Asafa Powell - an athlete who had already occupied space there, and had twice tried kicking Gatlin off the block, so to speak.

Both athletes face their own athletics hurdles, though in the absense of the Gatlin verdict, it is noticeably Chambers who will have the easier ride should he continue to steer his athletics course.

Chambers faces a very formidable foe in having to repay the IAAF a substantial amount of prize money (thought to be £180,000) he collected while competing as a doped athlete - a period between the beginning of 2002 and his positive test in August 2003.

He was welcomed back to compete for England this year, and made waves at both the Super League and European Championships. He's taken some lumps, however, from teammates who have continued to express bitterness over losing out on the 2003 IAAF World Championships 4x100m silver medal.

He will never be allowed to participate in a future Olympic Games, and he will always carry with him a stigma as a cheat in other athletes' minds.

Gatlin has kept his athletics profile as low as it can go - nearly obsolete - as he has prepared his defense of his second positive drugs test in his career. You know the story well. He may (or not) gain a special circumstances exception to his drugs test, and it seems he has kept his options open to other earning potential - the NFL being the most lucrative opportunity should he find a suitor willing to take a gamble on a man who hasn't played the sport since high school.

Chambers and Gatlin are two men who have burned up the track, collected a share of high-value medals, and have either been world-record holders or in races where world-records were set. Chambers, oddly enough, was in the world-record race when Tim Montgomery ran 9,78 in Paris three years ago - a time which would later be annulled from the record books due to Montgomery's drugs use and connection to the same BALCO mess which snared Chambers.

It seems fitting that both athletes have turned over one leaf for the prospect of gaining attention and a roster spot in an even higher-profile sport, the NFL.

Gatlin has worked out for the Houston Texans and the Arizona Cardinals, though neither team has been thought to be considering him for service.

Gatlin may have to continue shopping his talents around, and perhaps hope his agent, Renaldo Nehemiah, can utilise any remaining influence he may have remaining in the sport he played from 1982 - 1984.

BBC Sport on Thursday, 2006-December-14 that Chambers had toughed it up, worked out hard, and showed a lot of determination in front of coaches at the NFL Europe training camp in Cologne, Germany, and may have considerably more opportunity as he is invited back to a second round of workouts.

If Chambers makes it through that he will join a six-week camp in Florida which could see him drafted to one of six teams: Amsterdam Admirals, Berlin Thunder, Cologne Centurions, Frankfurt Galaxy, Hamburg Sea Devils or Rhein Fire.

Whether they are here or there, going deep or slanting to the right, two grown men are at crossroads in their lives, and are entertaining sports which may give them excellent salaries, but much shorter careers.

Any career at this point in time would be longer than the prospect of waiting eight years to walk like an Olympian in Gatlin's case, and never again setting in the Olympic blocks for Chambers.

Though Chambers will never wear the Union Jack at an Olympic Games, UK Athletics Performance Director Dave Collins insists Chambers could still have an international athletics career.

Regardless of which paths they choose to take, I wish them both the utmost success as they climb back up the wooden pole to a place where they both feel comfortable with their free time activities. With any luck, Gatlin may get picked up as a reserve. Even better, I'd like to see him up and move to Europe where an NFL Europe game featuring two of the fastest sprinters in the league lay down historical receiving numbers which will only be exceeded by their next meeting. And next. And so forth.

That woman who snuck in that arm during my conversation should keep that autograph in a safe spot. Chambers may light it up on the field here in Europe, and the next time she sees us talking, she can stick the other arm in there and ask how fast Chambers can run a 40.

Alas, I can then say more positive things about that young man who took time to chat with a complete stranger about some very personal Fort Knox feelings and gave me some feel good stuff to hang out there on the internet.

Further reading:

• I'm still on track, insists Chambers