Hunter denies taking banned steroid

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 26, 2000

SYDNEY, Australia -- American shot putter C.J. Hunter, husband of 100-meter gold medalist Marion Jones, denied Monday taking the banned steroid nandrolone and said he doesn't know how he could have had four positive drug tests for the substance.

"Nobody on the planet could say that I don't love my wife and I don't love my kids," Hunter said at a news conference Jones attended. "I have never in my life, nor would I ever, do anything to jeopardize their opinion of me. ... I don't know what has happened, but I promise I will find out."

International Olympic Committee and international track officials Sunday confirmed a Sydney Daily Telegraph report that Hunter, the 1999 world champion, tested positive for nandrolone and testosterone at a meet in Norway in July. Monday, IOC drug chief Prince Alexandre de Merode said Hunter tested positive for nandrolone at three other out-of-competition tests as well and that international and American track officials knew but never reported the results.

All the tests showed Hunter with levels of nandrolone 1,000 times the allowable amount.

Messages left for officials of the IAAF, track's world governing body, and the U.S. federation were not returned. The agencies have defended themselves against previous allegations that they covered up drug cases.

Hunter, who made the Olympic team but withdrew this month citing knee surgery, entered the news conference with Jones at his side. She spoke first, saying: "As you all know, this has been a very difficult last couple of days for C.J., and I am here pretty much to show my complete support for my husband. ... I have full and complete respect, and believe the legal system will do what it needs to do to clear his name."

Jones, who is trying to win four more gold medals at the Games, then kissed her husband and left.

Also accompanying Hunter was attorney Johnnie Cochran, best known for his successful defense of O.J. Simpson in his murder trial, and Victor Conte, a nutritionist and executive director of Balco Labs in San Francisco.

Hunter, who broke down several times during the news conference, said Cochran would represent him as he fights the allegations, but Cochran said he was there only "as a family friend."

Conte said he believed the appearance of nandrolone in Hunter's system could have been caused by an iron supplement the shot putter was taking.

Hunter said Jones is not taking any supplements.

R.C. Krammerer, former assistant director of the Olympics Analytical Lab at UCLA, spoke by phone on Hunter's behalf, saying: "The data that we have at this point says C.J. could not possibly have used the anabolic steroid nandrolone."

Hunter said he learned of the result of the Norway test from the Daily Telegraph story and television reports. That's when he told Jones, he said. He said he told her, "I don't know what happened, and I'm sorry. She knows I would never do anything to hurt her."

Hunter said he found out about the other test results Monday.

The IAAF, track's world governing body, said it referred Hunter's Norway result to the U.S. federation. The national federation, citing its policies, acknowledged it received a report but declined to name the athlete involved.

Hunter, who said this was going to be his last year of competition, said he will stay in Sydney to support his wife.

"If anyone thinks I'm going to walk around with my head down, they're wrong," he said.

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