Gatlin shrugs off derision

It didn't take long for Justin Gatlin's name to get dragged into the doping drama swirling at the Olympics.

Same old, same old.

The sprinter considered the best threat to usurp Usain Bolt in Sunday's 100m final told Associated Press he's not paying attention to what people are saying about him, and is not concerned with those who think he doesn't belong here.

"At the end of the day, I've served my time," the 34-year-old Gatlin said on Wednesday. "I've dealt with that punishment. I've moved forward."

Not everyone else has.

Gatlin, who won gold in the 100m at the 2004 Athens Games, has twice been caught using banned substances. The first was for amphetamines, though arbitrators determined he didn't use them for doping but to treat attention deficit disorder. The second came for excessive testosterone in 2006 and resulted in a four-year ban.

His name almost always comes up in the debate over how past dopers should be treated. In Rio, it surfaced in the wake of American swimmer Lilly King's finger-wagging display toward Yulia Efimova, the Russian who was allowed to compete after a last-minute appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Like Gatlin, Efimova has served a doping ban but was reinstated.

But in refusing to bar the entire Russian team from the Olympics after investigations detailed state-sponsored doping in the country, the IOC put in a special caveat: Any Russian previously banned for doping was not welcome.

That rule was overturned by the CAS, which had made similar decisions in previous cases, saying athletes can't be punished twice for the same offense.

King's criticism of Efimova - and her icy stares toward the Russian before the two squared off in the pool - instantly made King a voice in support of clean athletes everywhere.

The dispute led to King, and many others, being asked if it was fair that Gatlin was competing.

"Do I think people who have been caught doping should be on the team? They shouldn't. It is unfortunate we have to see that," King said.

(China Daily 08/12/2016 page5)