When Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas came second at the recent track and field World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, she tried her best to be diplomatic: “I am an equal-opportunity doping hater,” she said. “If you are actively doping in sport, I do take issue with that. I’m not saying any names, no names are mentioned. But if you look at yourself and you think that’s what you’re doing, then so be it.”
Thomas then went out of her way to congratulate her compatriot Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who finished ahead of her that day, aware of the territory into which she was straying.
Last year, Thomas posted on Instagram that “doping coaches should be banned for life from coaching in the sport.” Dennis Mitchell, who is one of the world’s leading sprint coaches, oversees Jefferson-Wooden’s training but had a long history of doping while he was competing. Most notably, he tested positive for testosterone in 1998, claiming the elevated levels were due to having sex four times with his wife the night before. He was cleared by USA Track & Field, but not by the IAAF and was banned for two years. He later testified under oath that his former coach Trevor Graham had injected him with banned human growth hormone. (Graham denied the allegations.)
Thomas and Jefferson-Wooden will probably represent Team USA at next year’s world championships, and then potentially compete to be the homegrown star of the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. In that scenario, let’s just say that relay practice could be awkward.
Indeed, there is a brewing toxicity in the sprint world that may eventually rival the Ben Johnson-Carl Lewis clash at the 1988 Olympics, with the legally significant caveat that no one involved has failed any drugs tests nor is there any evidence they have taken drugs nor has anyone been officially accused of taking drugs. But the rumors, suspicions and bad blood are simmering just as they were in the two years running up to the Johnson-Lewis clash.
Throw into the mix that Jefferson-Wooden could soon smash the most controversial world record on the track – Florence Griffith Joyner’s 38-year-old 10.49sec 100m mark – and women’s sprinting is likely to be more talked about than at any time since that extraordinary Flo-Jo era.
Jefferson-Wooden is already the fourth-fastest women of all time – she ran the 100m in 10.61sec at the 2025 world championships in Tokyo. Last month in Budapest, she won the 100m at 10.62sec. But the two other athletes in front of her, other than Griffith Joyner, were aided by substantial (yet legitimate) tailwinds. Jefferson-Wooden, meanwhile, ran into a 0.2m/sec headwind in Budapest, meaning she could have come close to breaking Griffith Joyner’s iconic world record with a favorable tailwind. That would be a landmark achievement: there is widespread skepticism that the 1988 Olympic champion was clean. Griffith Joyner, who also still holds the 200m world record, died of epileptic fit at the age of 38. She never failed a drug test but her training partner Darrell Robinson said in a paid interview with German magazine Stern in 1989 that he had sold Griffith Joyner banned human growth hormone. Griffith Joyner vehemently denied the accusation and never failed a drugs test.
It wasn’t just Jefferson-Wooden who ran off with the prize money – she won $300,000 after claiming the 100m-200m double – in Budapest. Kenny Bednarek, another Mitchell-trained athlete, also took home $300,000 after winning the men’s 100m and 200m.
The issue for both of these athletes is not only that their coach, Mitchell, took drugs in his career. He has also been unfortunate in the company he has at times kept as a coach. His greatest success was guiding Justin Gatlin to world championship 100m gold in 2017 but that achievement was tainted by the fact that the Olympic gold medalist had served two previous doping suspensions, one for four years for testing positive for testosterone. Elite sprinting is a tight world of interconnectivity: Gatlin was banned while training under Graham, Mitchell’s own drug cheat coach in his competitive days. When Graham was banned for life as coach, Gatlin switched to train under Mitchell. (Gatlin has denied ever taking PEDs.)
In 2017 Mitchell and athletics agent Robert Wagner were filmed offering to supply testosterone and human growth hormone to a fake actor in an undercover operation conducted by the Daily Telegraph. Mitchell insisted afterwards that none of his athletes had ever taken drugs while Wagner said that they were playing along with the actors, who were pitching a film project. But Gatlin cut ties with Wagner and sacked Mitchell as coach.
More recently, the 2022 world 100m silver medalist Marvin Bracy-Williams tested positive for testosterone shortly after he joined Mitchell’s group and was eventually banned for 45 months. The United States Anti-Doping Agency confirmed at the time that it had been tipped off about Bracy-Williams’s drug taking and sources with knowledge of the case say the inside information came from within the Mitchell training group.
Mitchell’s lawyer, Ryan J Stevens, has told the Guardian that “Coach Mitchell is a different man than he was nearly 30 years ago. He’s committed to clean sport and strict compliance with anti-doping rules. He had absolutely no involvement in Mr Bracy-Williams’ personal choices that resulted in his sanction. Coach Mitchell insists on transparency, accountability, and integrity in every aspect of his coaching.”
The Guardian has contacted Jefferson-Wooden for comment.