100 metres, Men

Maurice Greene started the new millennium by winning the 2000 Olympic gold medal and winning his third consecutive title at the World Championships in 2001. But he would be 30 years old in Athina, and injuries were doing what no runner had been able to do since 1996, bring him back to their level. Other major international champions in 2001-03 came from some unusual places, with Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu winning the 2002 European Championship and Kim Collins of St. Kitts & Nevis winning the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 World Championship in Paris. Greene was not in Paris but did make the US team for Athina, along with Justin Gatlin. Gatlin had emerged at the 2002 Southeastern Conference Championships, running for the University of Tennessee, when he won the 100, the 200 in a new collegiate record of 19.86, anchored the 4x100 relay team, and placed second in the 110 hurdles in 13.41.

A few days later, it was revealed that Gatlin had tested positive in 2001 for an amphetamine, which was in a prescription medication he had taken for a decade. This should have been announced in his medical paper work, but was not, and the IAAF considered this only “a paperwork or technical violation.” He was suspended retroactively to 2001, but was reinstated by July 2002. In Athina, Gatlin won the gold medal in a very close race over Obikwelu (1/100th second), with Maurice Greene winning a bronze medal. In 2005, Gatlin won the 100/200 double at the World Championships. In 2006, he equaled the world record of 9.77 for 100 metres. But only a few days later, he again tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), and was suspended from international athletics for four years. Gatlin attempted to have this reduced to only two years, claiming that his original violation was only a technicality. Appeals went all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in June 2008, shortly before the US Olympic Trials, but they were all denied.