Collins receives 8-year suspension

DENVER -- Sprinter Michelle Collins was suspended for eight years for a doping violation linked to the BALCO scandal and will forfeit results that include 2003 indoor world and U.S. titles in the 200 meters.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Friday that a three-member panel of the American Arbitration Association concluded Collins, 33, used various performance-enhancing substances that allegedly were provided by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Though Collins never tested positive for banned substances, the appeals panel concluded she used the drugs for several years.

"She engaged in a pattern of doping involving multiple drugs over a substantial period of time, during which she engaged and succeeded in many competitions," the ruling said. "The steroids she took, such as THG, and the complex and coordinated timing of her doping were designed, even more than the usual doping offenses, not to be detected."

USADA based its case on patterns observed from blood and urine tests Collins had in recent years, along with documents seized from BALCO by federal prosecutors and statements made by BALCO officials.

Among the documents reviewed in the arbitration were e-mails Collins sent to BALCO owner Victor Conte, including one in which she asked whether she could use a testosterone gel with a cream she already had.

"Do not use the testosterone gel," Conte responded. "It will cause a positive result by elevating the (testosterone/epitestosterone) ratio. ... You are already getting what you need from the cream, which will not elevate the ratio and you know why."

The arbitrators' ruling said Collins did not contest the authenticity of the messages, but her attorney argued in the appeal that there was no evidence to prove she had sent them.

Collins' attorney, Brian Getz, was in court Friday and did not immediately return a message left at his office.

The arbitrators said while USADA did not test for EPO in 2003, Collins submitted to blood testing by independent laboratories through BALCO -- and those tests showed elevated levels of red blood cells in early February 2003, a month before the world indoor championships.

Dr. Michael Sawka, who analyzed the blood tests, said he had not seen such high levels -- even in Army soldiers in a doping experiment following rigorous high-altitude exercise, which would be expected to raise red blood cell levels.

Patterns of testosterone and epitestosterone levels found in lab testing could be explained only by illegal use of BALCO's cream, the ruling said. It also said USADA proved her use of the steroid THG through unusually low counts of HDL, or the "good" cholesterol.

Collins' defense relied on the fact that no single test showed doping, but the arbitrators said all the tests together demonstrated a pattern of doping.

It was the first case decided by arbitrators concerning an athlete involved in the BALCO scandal in which there had not been a positive drug test.

With Collins stripped of her 2003 U.S. indoor title in the 200, USA Track & Field named runner-up Allyson Felix the new champion. Muriel Hurtis of France will inherit the world indoor title for 2003.

"It is sad for everyone in the sport when an athlete makes the decision to cheat," said USA Track & Field chief executive Craig Masback. "Being able to give clean athletes their rightful national titles is a vital part of our fight against doping."

Conte and three other men connected to BALCO have pleaded innocent to distributing performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes.