Justin Gatlin is a famous short-distance runner. The sprinter has 4 victories in the world track and field championships in the list of achievements, as well as Olympic gold, which he managed to win in 2004. Justin Gatlin, whose photo is presented in the material, is one of the five best runners in the world at distances of 100 and 200 meters.
early years
Justin Gatlin was born in New York on February 10, 1982. He paid attention to various sports from an early age. He showed particular attraction to running athletics disciplines. Even before reaching adulthood, the ability of a guy was noticed by professional trainers who helped him to fully reveal his own talents.
Pretty soon, Justin Gatlin began to win victory in student competitions, and then participate in sprint competitions at the national level. Gatlin's real success came in 2003, when he managed to win his first gold award at the indoor athletics world championship. The following season, Justin was invited to the American team and immediately became the Olympic champion in the 100 meter race. This was followed by silver in the relay, as well as a bronze prize in two hundred meters.
At the World Championships in Helsinki, which was held in 2005, Justin Gatlin was once again honored after winning the races at distances of 100 and 200 meters. Already in the next season at a track and field athletics competition in Qatar, a young sprinter established a world achievement in the hundred-meter race. The American athlete managed to run the distance in a record time of 9.76 seconds. However, five days later, functionaries from the International Athletic Federation decided to strip Gatlin of being the fastest person on the planet. The reason for this was the rounding of the athlete's result from 9.766 to 9.77, which corresponded to another indicator that the Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell already had on his account .
Doping scandal
In 2006, Justin Gatlin came under a mass check of athletes about taking illegal drugs. The runner’s doping test gave a positive result. As a result, the sprinter received a rather severe punishment in the form of suspension from participation in competitions for 8 years. Soon, however, Justin Gatlin managed to compromise with the Athletics Federation, reducing the period of disqualification to 4 years. However, this did not allow him to retain the champion title, which the athlete was deprived of immediately after the scandal.
It is worth noting that such a severe punishment seemed quite justified in relation to Gatlin. After all, at the start of his sports career in 2001, Justin was already caught taking illegal drugs, in particular amphetamines.
Forced career break
The period after the disqualification turned out to be extremely difficult for Gatlin. The athlete was in excellent shape and was ready to break all records at the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Long before the start of the competition, the sprinter decided to appeal the decision of the anti-doping commission, hoping to shorten the period of suspension from the competition. However, Justin's efforts to change his own position were not taken seriously by the top sports leadership. Therefore, he never managed to attend the Olympics in China.
After futile attempts to return to the big sport, Justin Gatlin was depressed for several years. As the athlete himself later admitted, he no longer had anything to dream about. During this difficult period of time, he stopped training, sobbed at night and repeatedly thought about suicide, realizing the whole hopelessness of the situation.
Return to the big sport
Having survived not the most pleasant moments in life, he still managed to reduce the period of disqualification. Gatlin was lucky to be on the treadmill again in 2010.
The athlete was overweight, felt biased by the public and had rather obscure prospects. Already the first starts showed that Justin is far from the record holder he looked at the beginning of his career. The athlete not only did not run out of 10 seconds at a hundred meters, but also for a long time could not get closer to the indicated indicator. However, Gatlin was determined to progress. For this, the sprinter went on a strict diet, and Ralph Mann, a recognized expert in the field of biomechanics, who was part of the headquarters of the medical corps of the United States national athletics team, helped him recover his form.
Thanks to the development of a special training program, with recording races on a high-speed video camera and subsequent error analysis, over the years, Gatlin’s indicators only began to improve. At the Olympic Games in 2012, the sprinter showed the third result, and the 2013 World Cup in Moscow brought a silver award to his piggy bank. In 2015, Justin Gatlin set a personal record by running a hundred-meter race in 9.74 seconds. Thus, in athletics, in addition to the already recognized world sports star Usain Bolt, another potential champion appeared. However, in August 2016, Gatlin became only the silver medalist of the Olympic Games in Rio at a distance of 100 meters, losing to Lightning Bolt.
Finally
Today, 34-year-old Justin Gatlin continues to take part in the world's largest athletics competitions. As the athlete himself notes, he fully answered for past mistakes, served his sentence and is ready to move forward. After returning to the big sport, the sprinter was not once convicted of taking illegal drugs, despite numerous doping tests.