TAC Asks Banks for Proof of Drug-Test Rigging Allegations

In response to track star Willie Banks’ allegations in Wednesday’s editions of The Times that The Athletics Congress might rig his drug test at the Olympic trials, TAC said Thursday in Indianapolis that it would ask Banks to produce evidence of drug-test rigging.

Banks, the world record-holder in the triple jump and a vice president of TAC, had said: “There’s a distinct possibility that TAC could rig the drug testing, even though I’ve never even thought of taking drugs.”

Said Ollan Cassell, executive director of TAC: “These are serious allegations. We are asking Willie Banks to produce evidence.”

Cassell said TAC’s drug-testing methods are open to investigation, and anyone found falsifying a drug test would be “dismissed from our national staff or removed from any of our committees.”