Nov 7, 2006 — SALVO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Olympic 200 meters champion Shawn Crawford said on Tuesday he was no longer training with indicted coach Trevor Graham.
“All this stuff that’s going on, I just don’t want to be bombarded with it,” Crawford told Reuters in a telephone interview from Raleigh, North Carolina, where he worked with Graham for the past three seasons.
“I’m doing my own thing now and getting my workouts from my dad,” added the 28-year-old Crawford, who in addition to the 200 meters gold medal won a silver medal in the 4x100 meters relay and took fourth in the 100 meters at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
He said he had not spoken to Graham recently.
Graham, who has coached some of the world’s top sprinters, was indicted last week by a U.S. grand jury on three counts of making false statements (edit).
He is charged with lying to federal agents (edit).
Graham is due to be arraigned in San Francisco on November 16 and could face as much a five years in prison for each count if found guilty as well as a fine of $750,000.
His attorney has said Graham is not guilty.
Graham also is under investigation by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and USADA, and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has banned him from using its facilities.
“All this stuff came up with Justin, Trevor…all the stuff, that just helped boost my decision that I needed to go back to doing what me and my dad did,” Crawford said.
smart ass. but seriously. even the most misguided parent/child-coach/athelte combo(not saying shawn and his dad is) has to know that isn’t gonna work forever… in most cases.
if crawford wants to contend in bejing. its gonna be under someone else.
why not crawford seems like a 1 in several million freak in terms of natrual gifts. I was thinking John Smith but Charlie would certaintly be a great fit. If someone of that high of a profile made the jump to Charlie permentantly one can only hope they wouldn’t be blacklisted.
Yes, it isn’t going to happen again anytime soon. But thats good for us because Charlie has time to post on this site so it benefits everyone indirectly anyway.
its a shame really. will that mean other coaches wont follow how trevor trains his poeple? maybe? if so, then expect less top performers for a little while, at least till soembody fills his void. Or has that already happened with assafa’s coach? But it would have been better with two or three big top coaches producing many stars, competing against each other. HSI, Asafa group, Jeramy W’s group. Any other main groups?
Yes, but if was allowed to keep coaching, more poeple would have axcesss to top coaches themself’s. NOw trever will have to become a Charlie. not allowed to coach top athletes. Perhaps that might be good? then he can work on the grass roots, like charlie is doing?
Actually - when you think of it - no sprinter has seriously challanged for top honours since Seoul that Charlie hasn’t either directly influenced them or their coach …