The golden boy who fell from grace and turned to training
AN OLYMPIC gold medallist and twotime world champion, Dennis Mitchell may be best remembered for the bizarre excuse he gave when he was caught with high levels of testosterone in his blood. He tested positive in 1998 and then blamed the effects of drinking beer and having sex with his wife four times on her birthday because she “deserved a treat”.
His excuse was accepted by USA Track and Field, but not by the International Association of Athletics Federations, who banned him for two years.
Mitchell returned to action at the 2001 World Championships, where he struck gold in the 4x100m relay, before his medal was withdrawn due to dop- ing allegations surrounding teammate Tim Montgomery. Montgomery was suspended from competition for two years in 2005 for using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
In a senior career that spanned more than a decade, Mitchell, 51, won three Olympic medals and four at the World Championships.
Born in 1966 in Havelock, North Carolina, he was educated in Edgewood High School in New Jersey.
While still a scholarship student at the University of Florida, Mitchell finished fourth in the 100m at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, behind Linford Christie, Carl Lewis, and Ben Johnson. Johnson, a Canadian, would later be stripped of the title after testing positive for steroids.
The first of Mitchell’s 4x100m relay records was set at the Weltklasse Zürich in 1991, the same year in which he took bronze in the World Championships 100m, finishing just 0.01 seconds outside the world record.
In 1992 he won his first of three US National Championship 100m titles, took gold in the 4x100m at the Barcelona Olympics, and bronze in the 100m.
‘He is much soughtafter as a coach, and is known for his obsession with technique’
Mitchell won a third bronze medal at the 1993 World Championships and added a third gold in the 4x100 relay. He claimed his final Olympic medal in 1996 at Atlanta, a silver in the 4x100m. Then the drugs allegations surfaced.
After being stripped of his 2001 medal, Mitchell later testified against Trevor Graham, the coach at the heart of the Balco case, who he said had given him banned drugs and injected him with human growth hormone.
Graham was banned indefinitely for doping offences, confirmed by the US Anti-doping Agency in 2008.
Mitchell has three children with his wife, the former Olympic hurdler Damu Cherry-mitchell, who also served a two-year doping ban in 2003.
He is much sought-after as a coach, and is known for his obsession with technique. He has worked with Justin Gatlin since 2011, shortly after Gatlin’s return from a four-year doping ban.
Mitchell stepped down as USA Track and Field’s sprint relay coach in 2017, after three years dogged by conflicts of interest claims due to his relationship with Gatlin, criticism for technical disqualifications, and public outcry over his personal past transgressions. Callum Adams