Boldon in  "controversy"

I have taken full responsibility for this revelation. It's embarrassed me somewhat, and I'm sure it has disappointed some of my fans. Let's  be clear on what ephedrine is, however. This is not a steroid, and it's not a hormone. I maintain my stand against drugs in track and field, and I welcome being tested, as I have been for 10 years.  The media in some instances has made this revelation out to be the "doping offence" they were looking for all along since I happen to belong to the world's greatest track and field organization, HSI.  There's one problem.  My taking a cold medicine and it being found in my system is not a doping offence, a sentiment echoed by the IAAF in their release of this. So why reveal it then? On that issue I'm clear. I don't think this should have been hidden, I think the rules need to be changed. Too often we see athletes being lumped into the 'doping offence' category for something like this when in fact they are guilty of trying to get themselves well. As a fan wrote to me, "How can the world expect you to be almost super-human on the track and yet you can't even take the remedies us regular humans take if we get sick? 

Ask pro track athletes and they will tell you.  We aren't worried about if someone is in the race on NYQUIL or some product like that, as was my case. We're a lot more concerned with the folks who are on the steroids and hormones that are a true aid. Focus efforts fully on those substances, not people on over the counter medications.  The media, not with this case but with countless others, is running with the ephedrine issue so quickly you'd swear it was a relay. It was the same way with creatine - stories sensationalizing the substance and its effects as though it was some sort of power pellet, while in fact it is a naturally occurring substance in foods like red meat.  When a number of American football players died due to heat exhaustion this summer, immediately the finger was pointed at the ephedrine which showed up in their systems in their autopsies. I contend that most people on whom you'd perform a post-mortem right now would have it in their systems, so prevalent is it in many products and remedies.  Their conclusion is illogical.  For every article found about how ephedrine is a killer, you find 10 on the fact that when taken normally is effective and safe. If it is a killer, get the entire world's population off of it since it's shortening human life span! Of course those aforementioned autopsies revealed that the cause of death was heat exhaustion and not ephedrine.

In closing let me say that at the end of the day, I love track and field. Most folks know that. I am therefore not disappointed for myself, as it's pretty hard to have a guilt complex about testing positive for cough syrup at a Relay meet in April, but I feel badly for what my case has represented to the sport - another drug positive which adds to the high number we've had this year. For that I sincerely apologize and ask for every track fan's forgiveness.