The latest round of accusation and denial about use of performance-enhancin g drugs by U.S. track stars has been touched off by an article in the West German magazine, Stern.
In the magazine, which goes on sale Thursday, U.S. athlete Darrell Robinson implicates Florence Griffith Joyner; her former coach, Bob Kersee;
Carl Lewis and his coach, Tom Tellez of the University of Houston; and several other U.S. Olympians, including Kim Gallagher and Stanley Floyd.
Robinson, once a top U.S. quarter-miler, says he sold human growth hormone to Griffith Joyner, received steroids from Kersee, watched Lewis get an injection of what ”might have been testosterone” and saw Tellez dispense ”blue pills . . . that looked like dianabol.”
The use of steroids, testosterone and HGH is forbidden by national and international sports federations and the International Olympic Committee.
”I can`t wait to see Darrell face-to-face,” Griffith Joyner said via telephone Wednesday.
Griffith Joyner`s manager, Gordon Baskin, called Robinson a ”habitual liar” and labeled the story as ”fabricated, slanderous and deceitful.”
”In no way will we back off a suit,” Baskin said.
In the story, Robinson says that Griffith Joyner asked him about both steroids and the price of HGH during a practice session on UCLA`s track in early 1988. Robinson, who admits to having sold such substances, says he told Griffith Joyner that HGH was ”$2,000 for 10 c.c.”
A few days later, Robinson says, Griffith Joyner came to him with
”twenty $100 bills” and told him, ”if you want to make $1 million, you`ve got to invest some thousands.” Robinson says he delivered the HGH to Griffith Joyner soon after that.
”I never asked Darrell about any kind of steroids or HGH,” said Griffith Joyner, winner of three gold and one silver medal at the 1988 Olympics.
”I can`t figure out why he would say things like that. I`ve always heard he told lies, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. The money had to be good for him to tell a story like that.”
Robinson, 25, reportedly was paid $25,000 by Stern for the story, headlined, ”The Stuff Medals Are Made Of.”
Kersee and Lewis could not be reached for comment.
