After admitting her steroid use, Olympian Crystal Cox made a different statement in an email sent to friends and family members. She said that she never used steroids but her association with other athletes and trainers involved in steroids may be the factor why she was given a 4-year suspension. The US anti Doping Agency did not only give the 4 year ban but at the same time stripping off Cox with her medals from 2001 to 2004. It was the period where she allegedly used performance enhancing drugs. This will include the medal she won in the 2004 Athens Olympics in the 1,600-meter relay

In the published article of Earl Vaughan Jr. of fayobserver.com, Cox said that the current penalty she faces is the result of guilt by association. She insists that she never used anabolic steroids but confirms in her email that she was caught with a banned substance in 2002. Ephedrine was found in her system after taking the non-prescription antihistamine Benadryl. She stressed that she was already given warning for that offense and disqualified from the event that she won.

Crystal Cox wrote that words cannot express the devastation she have been going through since the news broke, and not because she knows in her heart that she’s innocent, but because in some way, shape or form, each and every one have been affected by this issue. She said that she was approached by USADA few months ago about her alleged steroid use.

“Many athletes before me were engulfed in the BALCO scandal,” she said. “Their coach and my former coach were associated with each other, to some extent. Because of that, the court of arbitration has come to the conclusion that I, too, was involved with the many track and field doping scandals,” added Cox.

Based on the account of Cox, the US anti-doping representatives contacted her lawyer and gave her two options, its either a 4 year ban or a lifetime ban if she will not sign the sanction. “I fought as long as I could, and tearfully signed the sanction, accepting the four-year ban, but knowing in my heart and every fiber of my being I was innocent.” Cox considers the lifetime ban as a worst consequence that’s why she gave in to the 4 year sanction.

She concluded in her email how she loves the sport and thank those people who have given her support and believe in her. “I have grown up in the sport,” she said. “It has been good to me, and I hope one day to become a phenomenal coach to help and inspire other athletes to reach and follow their dreams. Thank you, and I hope that in time, the world will see and the truth will prevail,” Cox said.

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