She can't outrun drug allegation

American middle-distance runner Regina Jacobs was supposed to leave her sport on top. At the remarkable age of 40, she would compete in the Athens Olympics this summer, and maybe even win a medal.

Instead -- caught in the web of the Balco investigation -- her fabled track career is in danger of ending not in Greece but in disgrace. Her positive test for the new designer steroid THG last summer could result in a two-year ban that will end her quest to make a fifth U.S. Olympic squad and effectively finish her career.

Jacobs, a Stanford graduate and Oakland resident, has maintained that she never knowingly took a performance-enhancing drug. She begins the process of attempting to clear her name April 8 when a New York City federal court hears oral arguments to Jacobs' contention that the arbitration process has a built-in bias against athletes.

Overcoming the doping charge would appear to be a long shot. Olympic sport athletes are held to a standard of ``strict liability'' -- meaning they are responsible for any banned substance found in their bodies.

Some supporters say they simply cannot see Jacobs being a drug cheat. But skeptics who were suspicious about her times improving at such an advanced age see her positive drug test as vindication.

``Once someone tests positive for one event, in my eyes, their career is dirty,'' said Deena Drossin Kastor, the U.S. record-holder in the marathon and the 10,000 meters.

Jacobs and Tom Craig, her husband and coach, have not responded to attempts for their comments. But in a Dec. 30 written statement, Jacobs said: ``I have decided to meet these unfair charges head-on in order to retain my eligibility to try out for, and compete in, the upcoming 2004 Athens Olympics.''

The clock, which Jacobs has competed against so successfully over the years, is ticking on her career.

Her stellar résumé includes 24 national titles and a place on four Olympic squads. At age 39, she became the first woman to run under four minutes in the indoor 1,500 meters. Jacobs' age-defying feats made her one of track's best-known personalities.

Brooks Johnson, her college coach at Stanford, said the person who now stands accused of using a banned substance does not mesh with the athlete he tutored.

``She had a very strong sense of what was proper and what was improper,'' he said. ``Maybe I could be accused of being in a time warp, but anything else is alien to the person I knew.''

But that personality may not have always ingratiated her with others. Johnson said Jacobs could be demanding of those around her and that ``a lot of people don't like those demands put on them.''

Raised eyebrows

Jacobs credited the second-wind portion of her career to the discovery of low levels of iron in her blood. At age 30, armed with a better diet and iron supplements, Jacobs found a consistency she previously lacked.

But there were also questions as Jacobs' times improved with age.

``Even before this, if you had asked me what athlete out there do you think is using performance-enhancing drugs, I would have said Regina Jacobs,'' said Weldon Johnson, who will compete in the 10,000 meters at the July Olympic trials. ``When athletes get together at meets, one of the big topics is: `Who do you think is on something?' Her name was a name that always came up.''

At the 2000 U.S. trials, Drossin Kastor and other female athletes put together a petition asking for the sport to be cleansed of drugs.

``And she signed the petition,'' Drossin said of Jacobs. ``She was one of the people in our minds when we were addressing this issue.''

Shortly after that, Jacobs withdrew from the 2000 Sydney Olympics because of an illness. That raised eyebrows because it just had been announced that a test for EPO -- an endurance-boosting drug -- would be ready for Sydney.

But Jacobs, who took 20 drug tests since 2001 alone, never failed one.

Until last year.

Jacobs was one of four U.S. athletes who tested positive for THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, a previously undetected steroid that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency alleged came from Balco Laboratories, a Burlingame nutritional-supplement company. Jacobs was among the athletes listed on a Web site of Balco founder Victor Conte Jr. as using his legal supplements.

Also, she and Craig appeared before the federal grand jury investigating the steroids conspiracy case that returned indictments in February against Conte, Balco executive Jim Valente, personal trainer Greg Anderson and Castro Valley track coach Remi Korchemny.

Nobody feels sorry

There hasn't been much sympathy for Jacobs from competitors and opposing coaches -- at least from those willing to talk.

Suzy Favor Hamilton, runner-up to Jacobs eight times in the 1,500 meters at the national championships, has declined to comment on her rival. But her coach, Peter Tegan, is blunt about Jacobs' positive test.

``My first reaction to the news was, `Wow, well, that would explain a lot,' '' he said.

At the USA track and field championships last June, Jacobs edged Favor Hamilton in the 1,500-meter finals at Stanford. But a urine sample after that race resulted in Jacobs' positive drug test.

In her December statement, Jacobs said officials ``seek to deny me the opportunity to compete in the upcoming Olympics on the grounds that something I have never heard of, and which was not on any list of banned substances, is supposedly somehow `related' to something on the IOC list of prohibited substances.''

She refers to the ``related substances'' portion of the international drug code. It's intended to be a catch-all that allows punishment for athletes who might be using unknown drugs that are still chemically related to banned substances.

Dr. Gary Wadler, a performance-enhancing-drug expert from New York, said tetrahydrogestrinone is a derivative of the banned steroid gestrinone.

``It's an anabolic steroid by definition,'' he said of THG. ``End of story. It's as precisely known as well as we can know anything in chemistry.''

Jacobs is in federal court because she feels that under current arbitration rules, her case won't get a fair hearing.

The process for an athlete accused of doping works this way: A three-member panel hears the case. The athlete picks one arbitrator, USADA chooses a second and the American Arbitration Association selects the third. But Jacobs' attorney, Edward G. Williams, said this draws from a limited pool of arbitrators who ``all have been vetted by the U.S. Olympic Committee or USADA.''

He notes that in 2001, arbitrators received a trip to UCLA for a presentation at the lab of Don Catlin -- who does USADA's drug testing.

Williams wants Jacobs' panel to be chosen from a wider pool of arbitrators ``so we can have the confidence of knowing that we'll have a fair hearing.''

Jacobs and Korchemny were scheduled to appear at a youth track clinic in February at Union City's James Logan High School. But amid complaints, both were uninvited.

``I guess it does make you think,'' said Logan track coach Lee Webb. ``But I've also watched Regina Jacobs for years. I've seen her sign autographs and hang out with kids. I don't understand this whole thing.''

As for how Jacobs has dealt with the controversy and if her training has been affected, it's unclear. She has done no interviews. Williams, citing attorney-client privilege, declined to answer personal questions about Jacobs.

Tegan said he isn't expecting to see Jacobs at this year's trials. But even if she is allowed to compete, Tegan wonders if Jacobs will be the same runner.

``Once you've been caught and no longer have that crutch, it probably will take away from an athlete who has done that stuff before,'' he said. ``You're making yourself vulnerable psychologically when you don't have that magic pill anymore.''