By Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
Graham
TREVOR GRAHAM, the Jamaican-born coach who guided Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford to Olympic gold medals, has no regrets about his decision to expose the steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
"As far as I am concerned, there is a right way to run; there is a right way to train and I chose the right way. Everybody else should choose the right way to do things," the Jamaican Olympian told The Gleaner in an exclusive interview.
The man who was a part of Jamaica's silver medal mile relay team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics says he is vehemently against athletes cheating.
"If you bring it (drugs) to my camp (Sprint Capitol, USA), I will expose you, so don't bring it to my camp," warned Graham, speaking from his Sprint Capitol USA office in North Carolina.
Apart from Olympic 100m and 200m champions Galtin and Crawford, Graham, who attended Papine High, has Jamaicans Dwight Thomas and Patrick Jarrett, along with Americans Lisa Barber and LaTasha Jenkins and Bahamian Chandra Sturrup in his camp.
NO DETERRENT
Despite the fact that he spent his early life here, Graham said that being Jamaican did not deter him from disclosing the drug, sourced from the infamous BALCO
organisation in California, to American authorities. According to the holder of a B.Sc. in Business Management, he knew he was doing the right thing.
"I am a coach and you just always try to do the right thing. That is the right thing to do," he said. "If you are into it, then you are going to try to cover it up, but if you are not into it, then you figure that's the right way to go."
Graham explained the role he played in uncovering THG, which he said was introduced to him as a sort of magic potion.
"I was approached by someone who gave me this thing (THG) and I was like, I don't want to be a part of this thing, so I just turned it in," he said.
RECRUITING
"Then after the news and everything came out, then you found out the name (of the drug). They didn't just hand you this thing and you knew exactly what was going on. They were just trying to recruit you into this thing.
"The best thing for you to do is to turn it in. After I turned it in, that's when I found out the whole nine yards behind it who is involved, so all this right now is a shock to me."
The Jamaican who was recently inducted into his alma mater St. Augustine's Hall of Fame said he had no reason to encourage the use THG.
"I know my athletes run fast without it, so what do we need it for?" he asked.
Coaches can be banned and prosecuted for supporting banned substances, but according to Graham, the coach doesn't necessarily know if his athletes are on drugs.
"You are not coaching little kids; you are coaching grown-ups, and you don't know everything that goes on. You don't follow them 24 hours.
"Who can tell? You can be the greatest technician in world and you can train this person, but this person already has got his own thing going on .... he might be taking something, but you don't know. You don't follow them home, you don't monitor them 24 hours," he said.
"They might come here (his camp) for biomechanics or something else ... they could be doing some other stuff behind your back, but once you find out, what are you going to do?
"The best thing to do is to address the problem and get rid of them (the tainted athletes)."
