Bolt eyes long struggle against doping
World and Olympic champion Usain Bolt has said that it will take years for athletics to regain the trust of its spectators following the many doping scandals that have taken place in the sport over the years.
Bolt, who won both the 100 and 200m events at the Beijing Olympics and the world championships in Berlin last year, admitted to being affected by commonly-held suspicions against athletes of his calibre.
"It's hard for us sprinters who run clean [of drugs] when somebody pops up that's dirty. It's hard for us to go back out there and have people believe that we are running clean. There are athletes in every sport that are not doing the right thing," Bolt said when interviewed by the BBC on Tuesday.
Stunning Berlin performance prompted questions
At last year's world championships, Bolt amazed the crowd by improving his own 100 and 200m world records by 0.11 seconds ahead of the rest of the field in both finals.
His incredible finishing times – 9.58 and 19.19 seconds respectively – prompted inevitable doping suspicions against the Jamaican.
But contrary to 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin, who just returned from a four-year ban for taking unauthorized substances, Bolt has never tested postiive for doping.
And despite his clean record, Bolt said that he understands that doping suspicions will continue to surround the sport for a long time to come.
"I understand that [doping suspicions will always be there], and I've told people for years that I do. It will take years for people to regain respect for the sport. As long as we continue running clean over the years and less and less people get caught it will get better and people's respect for the sport will come back."
Earlier this month, Bolt ruled himself out of the remainder of the 2010 season with a back injury.
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