American sprinter Kelli White has accepted a two-year drug ban that will keep her out of the Athens Olympics, the San Jose Mercury News reported yesterday.
The ban was to be announced Wednesday by the US Anti-Doping Agency, two unidentified sources familiar with the case told the newspaper.
USADA spokesman Rich Wanninger declined to comment on the report Tuesday night. White's agent, Robert Wagner, said he had no knowledge of a possible ban.
White's coach, Remi Korchemny, was one of four men indicted earlier this year on charges of illegally distributing steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to elite professional athletes after an investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
Greg Anderson, the personal trainer for baseball slugger Barry Bonds; BALCO founder Victor Conte; and the lab's vice president, James Valente, also were indicted. All have pleaded innocent.
Earlier this month, the Senate released evidence a committee collected on banned performance-enhancing drug use among athletes to Olympic officials and anti-drug monitors.
Arizona senator John McCain has pledged that the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee he chairs would use the documents to make sure the US team is drug-free for the Athens Games this summer.
Anti-doping officials confronted White with schedules of use for banned performance-enhancing drugs and other evidence leading her to accept the ban, one source told the Mercury News.
Korchemny told the paper that White would not run in a race in Mexico City this weekend because of a knee injury and might not have been able to compete at July's Olympic trials anyway.
"She can't accelerate," he said. "It is impossible to run on that knee and constantly experience pain."
White faces the loss of two world championship gold medals because of modafinil use. She also tested positive for modafinil at the national championships in June, when she swept the 100m and 200m.
White said she was prescribed modafinil for a sleeping disorder.
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