RALEIGH, North Carolina, (Reuters) – Suspended U.S.  Olympic relay gold medallist Crystal Cox has denied using  performance-enhancing drugs.

“I can sit and preach I am innocent and have never used  steroids but proving my innocence was difficult without the  money or the resources, going against a goliath like the United  States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA),” said the 2004 4×400 metres  relay alternate whose four-year ban has put the team’s gold in  jeopardy.

USADA announced Cox’s suspension on Friday, saying her  results since 2001 had been disqualified because of the use of  prohibited anabolic agents and hormones between 2001 and 2004.

“I fought as long as I could and tearfully signed the  sanction … but knowing in my heart and every fibre of my being  I was innocent,” said Cox in an email to family and friends that  was first reported on the Fayetteville Observer’s website  (www.fayobserver.

com).

“If I did not sign the sanction, being banned (for life)  from track and field would damage me more than the public  scrutiny I am receiving now.”

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart defended his agency’s  handling of the case and said Cox could have gone to an  independent decision-making body rather than accept the  four-year suspension.

“She acknowledged her use of anabolic agents in violation of  the rules,” Tygart told Reuters in a telephone interview yesterday. “We have a signed document.

DUE PROCESS
“It (the ban) is unfortunate but she had full due process,  was represented by counsel and had every opportunity to go to an  independent group of people that would ultimately decide her  sanction.”

The suspension could mean all members of the U.S. 4×400  team, including Cox who ran in a preliminary round and finalists  Monique Henderson, Monique Hennagan, Sanya Richards and Deedee  Trotter, lose their medals.

Traditionally, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has  stripped national relay teams of medals when a team member,  including alternates, has been suspended for, or admitted to,  doping.

“The IOC is looking into the file and considering setting up  a disciplinary commission,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)  officials are also expected to discuss Cox’s suspension at their  next council meeting in March.

The doping case is the sprinter’s second. In 2002 she tested  positive for the prohibited substance ephedrine and was given a  public warning by USADA and disqualified from her race.

“Every drug test administered thereafter … has come back  negative, without a trace or a blemish,” Cox said.