Massage therapist back in spotlight.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

Once again, Eugene massage therapist Chris Whetstine is adamantly denying any involvement in the failed drug test of sprinter Justin Gatlin last year.

Gatlin, facing an eight-year ban from the sport of track and field, told The Washington Post that he would contend, in a non-public arbitration hearing Monday and today in Atlanta, that Whetstine might have rubbed testosterone cream into his legs after a race at the Kansas Relays in April 2006.

Monday, Whetstine responded with a posting on LetsRun.com, a Web site that focuses on track and field and road racing.

"So he (Gatlin) is going to try and finger me for his positive drug test after all," Whetstine wrote. "This is complete and utter rubbish. Why would I sabotage the best job I ever had? And besides, I offered myself for polygraph testing to Gatlin's investigators, the federal government and USADA (the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) from the very beginning.

"They could have ruled me out if they had truly wanted to."

Reached via e-mail, Whetstine had no further comment. His attorney, Eugene lawyer Richard Roseta, said he expects Whetstine to testify via telephone in the Gatlin hearing today.

"I assume they'll ask him what it was he used when he massaged Gatlin on a regular basis, and he will probably tell them," Roseta said. "He will deny there was anything abnormal used and that there was anything that had any banned substance used, which has been consistent with what he has been saying all along."

Roseta said Whetstine had planned to attend the hearing, but had a recurrence of severe headaches last week and was advised by his doctor not to travel. Roseta said Whetstine has "fairly significant" head injuries stemming from an altercation with Nike employee Llewellyn Starks at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Indianapolis in June 2006.

Last month, Whetstine filed a lawsuit seeking almost $4 million in damages from Starks and Nike in Lane County Circuit Court, stating that his injuries - to the face, head and hands - have required multiple surgeries and left him unable to work.

Gatlin, who shares the world record in the 100 meters at 9.77 seconds, is the defending Olympic champion at that distance. He faces an eight-year ban instead of the standard two-year penalty for a positive steroid test because this is his second offense; his first doping violation, when he was a 19-year-old University of Tennessee athlete, stemmed from a stimulant found in medication for attention-deficit disorder that Gatlin had been taking since childhood.

In an agreement with USADA, Gatlin accepted the positive test result for testosterone while maintaining he didn't know how the substance got into his system. He retained the right to seek to have the term of his ban reduced because of mitigating circumstances; hence this week's arbitration hearing.

Shortly after the test result became public last year, Gatlin's former coach, Trevor Graham, suggested that Whetstine rubbed a testosterone-laced cream on Gatlin's legs at the Kansas Relays, triggering the positive test.

The Washington Post wrote that Gatlin "plans to tell the arbitration panel that tension between himself and Whetstine early in 2006 could have provided a possible motive for the alleged sabotage." The tension stemmed from work-related issues and a dispute over a bonus, The Post said.

Whetstine, who worked for Nike on a contract basis, had been assigned by the company to Gatlin, then its greatest track and field star. Over the years, Whetstine has worked with some of the nation's top athletes, including sprinter Marion Jones and golfer Ben Crane. He was the lead massage therapist for the Pre Classic for almost 10 years before being injured last June.