Sprinter Justin Gatlin received an eight-year ban from track and field Tuesday, avoiding a lifetime penalty in exchange for his cooperation with doping authorities and because an earlier positive drug test was deemed an honest mistake.
He will forfeit the world record he tied in May, when he ran the 100 meters in 9.77 seconds. At age 24, the lengthy ban is less than the maximum penalty, but could still knock Gatlin out of competition the rest of his life.
Gatlin tested positive in April for testosterone or other steroids, five years after his first positive test, which was for medicine to control attention-deficit disorder. Since that first test, Gatlin has positioned himself as a champion of drug-free competition in a sport dogged by scandal.
Bottom line... Don't do drugs
