Dwain the main man.......

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It was the year when Dwain Chambers completed his tortured journey from “suicide bridge” to the brink of redemption. “It was like hanging on to a gust of wind,” is how he described trying to beat Usain Bolt in the 100 metres final at the World Championships. “Then I saw the clock and started laughing.”




There has been little to laugh about in recent times for Chambers, a man whose doping past means he is routinely termed a disgrace, pariah and cheat.



However, he is nearing the end of a remarkable year in which, handicapped by a ban from all leading meetings, he secured a gold medal, shattered a European record and came sixth in the fastest race of all time. Now, after recuperating from an injury effectively caused by Bolt, he says he is “grateful and humble”, and wants more. “I’m in love with my sport again,” he said.



Chambers, 31, has put any thoughts of retirement on hold and is aiming for gold medals at the World Indoor and European Championships next year. Like the Olympics, he is banned from the Commonwealth Games, but there will be no more legal challenges, just an acceptance of his lot and an empathy with other fallen heroes.



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He has watched the media furore surrounding Tiger Woods’s domestic issues with interest. While not equating their problems, he knows what it is like when the tide turns and opprobrium ensues.



“We are all human beings and what defines us as humans is how we pick ourselves up from our mistakes,” he said. “It’s a personal affair that should be dealt with behind closed doors because it involves his family. He’s made a mistake and I hope he can resolve it.”



Meanwhile, Marion Jones is trying to come back from a jail term for lying to investigators over her drug use. The woman whose “drive for five” at the Sydney Olympics was, literally, fuel-injected, wants a basketball career in the Women’s NBA, mirroring Chambers’s ill-fated attempt to gain a rugby league contract with Castleford Tigers last year. “If the basketball federation think she’s been honest enough and are prepared to give her a second chance then all I can do is wish her the best of luck,” he said.



“I hope she can re-establish herself. And I hope she sends out the message that the road we both went down was never the right one.”



Victor Conte, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative founder and president, who provided drugs for both, said he opened Chambers’s eyes when he first met him. “He came to me and was like, ‘So this is what Marion Jones does?’” Having revealed this year that he once contemplated suicide when he drove beneath an infamous bridge in Archway, North London, it is understandable that Chambers would back an outsider.



His journey towards acceptance has been tough, comprising a failed High Court attempt to get his Olympic ban overturned, being picked for Great Britain while knowing the selection panel was unanimously opposed to him, and having Lord Coe, Britain’s most influential athletics icon, say he would hold his nose when watching him run.



“I’ve learnt that in life, success and failure come hand in hand, so treat those impostors the same,” he said. “I don’t get as mad as I used to. I’m having to re-educate myself in the sport, but it’s more fun than it’s ever been. I feel a lot, lot happier now. I can walk into an environment with my team-mates and people are not pointing the finger.



“There is not that animosity now. Most people have chosen to let it go. I’ve had a lot of support from Charles van Commenee [the head coach of UK Athletics] and the team. They’re people I hold in high regard and they are not throwing punches.”



Chambers has had a good year. He broke the European record on the way to the indoor 60 metres title in Turin in March. He missed out on the sub-10sec run he craved but reached the final of the 100 metres at the World Championships. However, Euromeetings, an umbrella body of promoters, has maintained its stance against booking those convicted of serious drug offences, and the inaugural Diamond League is also off limits.



“There’s no point crying over spilt milk,” Chambers said. “There’s no point chasing wild dreams and I’m just focusing on myself and encouraging others.”



The others include the younger members of the Britain team as well as those at his academy, which is designed to find future Olympic stars. “More youngsters in the GB team are looking up to me, seeing my struggle and wondering how I did it,” he said. “I want to drum it into their heads that drugs aren’t an option and will only hurt them and their sport.”



The sport is on a high thanks to Bolt. Chambers trained with the triple world and Olympic champion in 2006 in Jamaica and admitted: “I knew he was going to be special but never in my life expected him to be this good [at the 100 metres]. He always talked about running the 100 but Mr [Glen] Mills, his coach, wouldn’t let him. He’s just shown what was brewing inside his system.”



It was the sight of Bolt disappearing in 9.58sec in the World Championships in Berlin that led to Chambers’s injury. “I tore my left calf in the last 40 metres of the final,” he said. “I was in the fastest race in history, clinging to his coat-tails, and that was the result on my body. I remember seeing him at 60 metres, thinking, ‘He’s gone’, and, in that moment, my concentration went. I tied up because I tried to run his race.”



After three months out, his calf has healed and he has started training again. Still condemned to running in low-profile races until the major championships, he says it has taken time to digest a dramatic year and get himself mentally right.



The tattoo on his back says “Deal Wid Da Matta” and references past problems, but the man, himself, is looking ahead. “The past is the past,” he said, “but the future’s bright.”



Back in the fast lane

6 Dwain Chambers’s place in 100 metres final at World Championships in August.

12 Men who ran faster than him this year.

0 Europeans who ran faster this year.

6.42 Seconds it took to become third-fastest 60 metres runner in history in March.

1,500 Pounds made in six months in 2008. Now he says: “I get different rewards — by getting the trust of the public and putting something back into the sport.”

49 Months since his drugs ban ended.

4 British sprinters to have dipped under 10sec — Chambers, Linford Christie, Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis.

Dwain ~ Give the man a break I say

Chambers’ run to rugby league could be tackled

Mar 31 2008 by Our Correspondent, Western Mail

AFTER failing in his bid to return to Britain’s Olympic athletics team in the wake of a lifetime ban, drugs cheat Dwain Chambers has been cleared to join rugby league club Castleford Tigers by the sport’s governing agency and the UK’s anti-doping agency.
The controversial athlete’s proposed sporting switch has already attracted criticism from legends of the 13-man code. Former Great Britain star Alex Murphy said Chambers wouldn’t necessarily find a warm welcome.
“You can’t learn to be a rugby league player overnight and our sport doesn’t need the barrage of bad publicity it is going to get if the lad signs for Castleford.”
The shamed sprinter may also find the prospect of being pursued by 17-stone rugby league prop forwards will make him run faster than any amount of illegal steroids.
Whether it will be in the direction of the try line with the ball in his hand, however, is another question.

OH COME ON! He's done his time . Give the man a break. He's trying to earn a living.

I'd prefer to sit and have a beer with Dwain than the scumbag exCEO of Northern Rock any day!

Now there's a real cheat!

Yes or No to Dwain Chambers.......

Should we support Dwain Chambers in a Great Britain vest?

Wednesday February 13, 2008

The Guardian

Yes: Simeon Williamson, British sprinter and rival for a place in the national squad
The current rules say that if you've served your time, which Dwain has, that you should be allowed to come back. And that's what he has done so I don't have a problem with that.
But I do think that the rules should be changed so if you get caught in future you should be banned for the rest of your life because you are a drugs cheat. That does not apply to Dwain, though, because he has served his ban under the current rules so we should get off his back. But the rules should be tightened in the future - going forward I don't think people should be given a second chance.


It is not like Dwain is getting off lightly with things, though, because as things stand he will also miss the Olympics for the rest of his career and that is the biggest thing in an athlete's life. The world s are the next biggest competition after the Olympics but they are not as special. I think it is right that he should not be allowed to run at the Olympics again.
Dwain did not set a good example to other athletes but at least he admitted what he did, which half the other athletes who are banned for drugs off ences never do. I don't think it is true that Dwain has damaged the reputation of British athletics because there are other drugs cheats out there, like the shot-putter Carl Myerscough and there wasn't such a big thing about him.
He served a two-year ban a few years ago but he was at Sheffield for the trials for the world indoors team and he has been selected for the championships. There has been no suggestion that his presence has damaged our reputation. I think people are looking a little at the man rather than the issue here because Dwain has a bit of a reputation.
Dwain is one of our best medal chances. He is joint fifth in the world in the 60 metres at the moment so he has a real chance of success. We should be grateful we have got someone like him. He is a talented sprinter who made a wrong decision at that moment in his life.
The other athletes I've spoken to are behind Dwain 100%. Obviously there are a few people out there who are against him but the ones I've spoken to are behind him.
I'll be cheering him at the worlds as part of the team like I will be for any other athlete, but if I'm there hopefully I'll be running past him when I do. I'll be one of the first people to congratulate him, if I get the gold and he gets the silver.


No: Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, five-time Paralympian with 16 medals including 11 golds
There should be one rule: if you test positive for drugs, that is it, you are out for life. If that was brought in across track and field, then people would know where they stand. It is why, if I was in the British team, I would not be comfortable with Dwain Chambers back. In a way, I feel sorry for Dwain with the position he is in now because people either love him or hate him.
I support UK Athletics and its chief executive, Niels de Vos, in taking the stronger stance in what he is trying to do for the sport. Dwain won by being allowed to run at the trials and you have to live with that. What is crucial now is how the sport moves forward and how it seeks to change the rules to make the ban more stringent for athletes seeking a return after a suspension for failing a drugs tests.
At the moment, Dwain is complying with what the rules say. For example, you look at someone who has come out of jail. They have served their time for their crime, but does it always mean that their sentence was the right length?
There are many reasons why athletes take drugs and there should be a stringent penalty because if not, what is the point of having all these rules?
I do not know huge specifics of Dwain's case but unlike the past with the more organised doping problems in, say, the old eastern European countries when you did something or else, the responsibility has now been put back very firmly on the athlete to be aware of what they are taking.
Equally, I do not think he should be allowed to run at the Olympic Games as the argument goes on about whether he would overturn the rule preventing him from competing. But it is not just about Dwain. No athlete who has been suspended for taking banned substances should have the opportunity to compete at the either the Olympics or the Paralympics. It is the biggest occasion in the life of a sports person, the culmination of everything, and it is how you are recognised and measured, whether you are a good or an average athlete. I would fundamentally disagree with the rules changing to allow someone who has served a drugs ban to go to the Olympics or Paralympics.
Yet, when it is about money, glamour and status, people will cheat and I can see why . Winning is addictive. If you are competing in front of 110,000 people and you are the one who everyone is cheering, it is unbelievable. I have been in that situation. It is incredibly powerful. Modern culture is about being the best but is also about celebrity and having your face in the paper.
Sport is the same. It is not just about winning your race, it is about all the other opportunities it brings you, and some of the benefits is can bring. The money is huge from sporting success but it is not what is really about. It is about achieving it the correct way and not crossing that divide.

Linford Christie's view on Dwain.........

Christie lambasts negative focus on ChambersSachin Nakrani

Saturday February 16, 2008

The Guardian


Linford Christie has expressed his anger at the focus Dwain Chambers' return to athletics has drawn, claiming it has cast a shadow over the sport and unfairly deflected attention from other British competitors currently preparing for the Beijing Olympics.
Christie, whose own career was tarnished by a two-year drugs ban, refused to criticise Chambers directly but made no secret of his annoyance with the sprinter for making recent headlines.
"We are spending the majority of our time talking about a minority of people when we should be focusing our attentions on the majority of athletes, who are out there trying their best," Christie said. "We've got Beijing coming up and the indoor championships in Valencia before that. This is a time to be positive about athletics in this county. Let's support the people who are out there training hard."


But the former Olympic champion, who won gold in the 100 metres at the 1992 Barcelona Games, also attacked Britain's current crop of sprinters for allowing Chambers to become an issue in the first place, insisting the field should be strong enough to prevent a man who was banned from the sport for two years after testing positive for the steroid THG in 2003 from winning his way into contention.

Chambers qualified for next month's World Indoor Championships after winning the 60m at the trials last Sunday and will be allowed to attend the event after an appeal by UK Athletics to stop him failed. UKA is still hoping its attempts to block the 29-year-old from competing in the UK Championships in July will be successful and is supported by the British Olympic Association which is standing firm in its refusal to allow Chambers to compete in Beijing.

In his role as technical coach for UK Athletics Christie is currently preparing the sprinter Christian Malcolm for Beijing. It is a controversial appointment given that Christie has twice tested positive for a banned substance.


At the 1988 Seoul Olympics the International Olympic Committee cleared Christie over the use of pseudoephedrine, agreeing it could have come from ginseng. Eleven years later he was found guilty of using nandrolone at an indoor meeting in Germany. Christie, who had come out of retirement for the race, claimed he accidentally took the substance as part of a nutritional supplement but the IAAF rejected the explanation and banned him for two years. He has always protested his innocence of drugs use.

The 47-year-old claimed the ongoing issue of drugs in athletics had not detracted from the sport's popularity. "People still love athletics. Look at Sheffield [where Sunday's trials were held]. It was packed. People just want to see good performances. They are not focusing on the negative. In athletics there is a belief that if you have an injury it will never heal if you think negative, but if you're positive you can heal yourself. That's what we need to do now."
Christie says Malcolm's preparations for Beijing are progressing well - he ran 6.69secs over 60m at a recent meeting in South Africa - but believes the 28-year-old 200m specialist should be under no pressure to add an Olympic medal to his two World Championship relay bronzes, a sentiment that he feels should be extended to all British athletes.

"Beijing is about youngsters getting the chance to experience the pressure of a major championship which will prepare them for London in four years' time," Christie said. "Some might make semi-finals and finals, while some others might run personal bests. That's what we should judge them on, nothing else."