NEW DELHI — Sprint king Usain Bolt has praised efforts by athletics chiefs to clamp down on doping in the build-up to August’s Olympic Games, saying that “most athletes are clean.”
In an interview in Thursday’s Times of India, the Jamaican was confident of adding to his bulging medal collection in Rio and shrugged off the vow by one of his main rivals, the American Justin Gatlin, to win gold.
Gatlin is being allowed to compete in Rio despite having served two doping bans while Bolt could also find himself up against former world champion Tyson Gay who was suspended for doping in 2013.
The decision to bar Russian athletes from the Rio games for their country’s state-sponsored doping has underlined the scale of the problem facing the sport but Bolt said he believed the battle against the cheats was being won.
“I believe the majority of athletes are clean and athletics is doing a good job at catching the ones who aren’t,” Bolt told the newspaper.
“The sport has to continue to fight the cheats.”
Bolt has himself been caught up in a doping controversy recently after teammate Nesta Carter reportedly tested positive for a banned stimulant during their gold-winning relay run at the 2008 games in Beijing.
The 29-year-old Bolt is eyeing history at Rio where he will attempt to become the first man ever to win gold in the 100, 200 and 4x100m events in three straight Olympics.
“I have my goals and will try to achieve those goals in Rio. My main aim is winning three more Olympic gold medals. I can still run very fast,” said Bolt.
“I never listen to what people say before a race. I focus on myself and know that if I am fit and healthy in Rio, I will be hard for anyone to beat.”
Gatlin shrugs off slow start to 2016
It remains to be seen whether a legitimate 100m challenger to Usain Bolt will emerge from the US Olympics trials as injuries and mediocre results have hampered the men’s sprint team this season.
Former Athens Olympic gold medalist Justin Gatlin has yet to break 9.90 in a wind legal race this season after a barnstorming 2015, when he won silver at the Beijing World Championships. Trayvon Bromell, who picked up the bronze in Beijing, is a question mark due to an Achilles injury.
Gatlin, 34, said Wednesday that his slow start is part of a bigger plan.
“I basically have to run two championships in one year, so I wanted to start slower this year so I can prepare myself for that,” he said in Eugene, Oregon, where he is getting ready to compete in the trials beginning Friday.
Sprinters Tyson Gay, Marvin Bracy and Mike Rodgers also have a chance at reaching Rio as the top three finishers in each event qualify for the Brazil Games, August 5-21.
The controversial Gatlin remains unapologetic after serving two doping bans that have some officials and athletes questioning how the American is still allowed to compete in light of the added scrutiny directed at Russian athletes because of suspicions about that country’s anti-doping program.
Gatlin has never admitted to doping, saying that a 2006 failed test was the result of a massage therapist’s rubbing testosterone cream on his legs. He also tested positive in 2001 for an amphetamine. He served a four-year ban, returning to the scene in 2010.
Alexander Zhukov, Russia’s Olympic committee president, took a swipe at Gatlin and Gay during a recent Olympic summit in Switzerland, questioning the fairness of letting them compete in Rio de Janeiro while some Russian athletes who have never tested positive might not.
Like Gatlin, former world champion Gay was suspended for doping in 2013.
More than 100 athletes will qualify for the Rio Games by the end of the US trials on July 10. The American track and field team is traditionally the biggest by size across all sports.
In 2012, the USA topped the medal table with nine gold among 28 total medals.
