LaTasha Jenkins cleared to compete

Two-time world track medalist LaTasha Jenkins is free to compete again. And the sprinter now has officially become the first athlete to beat the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on a doping charge.

Jenkins’ case ended when the World Anti-Doping Agency dropped its appeal of the arbitrators’ decision clearing her of a steroid positive, the Chicago Tribune has learned.

“I am happy and relieved that this process of a year and nine months is over,” Jenkins, 30, said in a statement. “I intend to resume my athletic career when circumstances permit. I’m confident my reputation has been restored, and I want to move on with my life.”

The outcome should enhance the reputation of the three-year-old Valparaiso University Sports Law Clinic, which defended Jenkins. The length of time that passed before the case was resolved will raise questions about the system being unfair to athletes. Other cases have dragged on similarly, including that of Olympic 100-meter gold medalist Justin Gatlin, still pending two years after his positive test.

Jenkins was banned from competition during the appeals process, a ban that may effectively have ended her career. Jenkins, 2001 world indoor (silver) and outdoor (bronze) medalist in the 200 meters, tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in July 2006. USADA charged her with a doping violation, and Jenkins appealed.

A three-member arbitration panel ruled last December the testing of her sample, given at a meet in Belgium, was not done in accordance with WADA rules that require tests be run by two different technicians. That broke USADA’s perfect record in front of arbitration panels, which was 35-0 according to the best available statistics.

To the question of Jenkins’ appearing to have won on a technicality, Valparaiso Sports Law Clinic director Michael Straubel had said, “[The arbitrators] set aside the test results because they were not based on reliable lab results.”

WADA filed an appeal of that decision Feb. 19 with the Court of Arbitration for Sport but informed the court April 14 it was dropping the appeal.

“Having carefully reviewed the scientific data of this case, which includes material not available to us from the initial hearing, WADA has reached the conclusion that the adverse analytical findings [positive test result] cannot lead to a sanction,” Swiss attorney Francois Kaiser wrote CAS on behalf of WADA.

Jenkins had returned to track competition in 2006 after reportedly retiring in 2003. In 2004, she began working with coach Trevor Graham, scheduled to go on trial next month on charges of lying to federal authorities in the BALCO doping scandal investigation.

At least 11 athletes whom Graham had coached, including Gatlin, Marion Jones and former 100-meter world record-holder Tim Montgomery, have been found guilty of doping.

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.