Torri Edwards, runner-up in the women’s 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, has tested positive for a banned stimulant, according to sources familiar with the case.
Edwards tested positive for nikethamide at a meet earlier this season, the sources said. The testing was done by the international track federation, or IAAF.
If confirmed by a second test of her sample, which already may have been performed, the positive could disqualify Edwards from the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Neither Edwards, nor her coach, John Smith, nor her agent, Emanuel Hudson, could be reached for comment. IAAF spokesman Nick Davies also could not be reached.
Craig Masback, chief executive of USA Track & Field, declined to comment.
Edwards, coincidentally, gained the 2003 world title in the 100 meters and silver medal in the 200 when both gold medals were stripped from U.S. sprinter Kelli White after White admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Under the new World Anti-Doping Agency code, a first offense for nikethamide could bring a suspension of up to two years, unless the athlete can prove its use was inadvertent. In the latter case, the athlete would get a public warning and loss of results for the competition at which the positive test occurred.
In either case, another positive test involving a prominent U.S. athlete can only darken the cloud over track and field created by the BALCO doping scandal.
Edwards also is entered in the 200 meters, beginning Friday.
“We never get this much attention unless drugs are involved,” Edwards said last week, referring to media coverage of the scandal.
Asked if she took pleasure from gaining the medals White lost, Edwards said: “I’m happy with the fact I’m world champion, but I’m not thinking about it. I’m focused on the trials.”
“It’s not good,” said an Olympic official, requesting anonymity. “This seems to be older athletes trying to hang on longer who try to circumvent the system.”
Edwards, 27, of Los Angeles, won a 2000 Olympic bronze medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay.
According to a Unified Medical Language System Web site, nikethamide is a “central nervous system stimulant formerly used in the treatment of barbiturate overdose but is now considered to be of no value for such purposes and may be dangerous.”
