Second guessing

Track star left wondering about rival's edge in marquee races

Favor Hamilton (right) led most of the way before she was passed by Jacobs (left) in the women's 1500m final at the 2003 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Brian Bahr/Getty Images USA Track and Field Championships 1,500 meters Year Winner Runner-up 2003 Regina Jacobs Suzy Favor Hamilton 2002 Regina Jacobs Suzy Favor Hamilton 2001 Regina Jacobs Suzy Favor Hamilton 2000 Regina Jacobs Suzy Favor Hamilton 1997 Regina Jacobs Suzy Favor Hamilton 1995 Regina Jacobs Suzy Favor Hamilton 1994 Regina Jacobs Suzy Favor Hamilton 1989 Regina Jacobs Suzy Favor Hamilton THE STEROID SCANDAL SI Writers • CNNMoney: Players' health should be priority • Donovan: Yankees in middle of storm again • Verducci: This problem won't go away • Taylor: Players should stand up to union • Layden: BALCO case puts stars at risk • Donovan: Baseball's numbers don't add up • Verducci: MLB's drug plan lacks punch • Fish: Steroid sleuth leads charge against THG • SI Special Report: Steroids in baseball • SI Flashback: Caminiti comes clean Latest News • Lawyers reiterate defense of Bonds • Report: Bonds, Giambi, Sheff got steroids • Smoltz calls for tougher drug testing • Kent: Was Babe Ruth on steroids? • BALCO lawyers say Bonds is clean

Now that the THG designer-drug mystery has been cracked and a handful of track and field athletes have been exposed as pharmaceutical champions, I'd say Suzy Favor Hamilton is right to be spitting mad about what could be confirmation of her darkest suspicions.

For years, Favor Hamilton has been wondering what her chief rival, Regina Jacobs, was up to -- if you're a non-running enthusiast, think Yankees-Red Sox. Then, last month, reports surfaced that Jacobs allegedly had tested positive for the previously undetectable steroid at last summer's U.S. championships. There Jacobs ran just off Favor Hamilton's shoulder and then sped past on the last lap to take gold in the 1,500 meters.

This strategy of surging at the end, we hear now from sports scientists, makes perfect sense for someone on the juice. In simple terms, the steroid is thought to enhance anaerobic capacities, thus making a runner less drained late in a race than a comparable athlete who isn't pharmaceutically aided.

"It is true that your anaerobic ability would be greater, meaning that the state of lactic acid would be delayed, which in itself would mean that one could have a tremendous advantage at the point in the race when everyone's resources run low,'' offered Peter Tegen, Favor Hamilton's longtime coach and women's track coach at the University of Wisconsin. "So even though I always felt that Suzy had some pretty good speed at the end, if you were to deal with something extra, such as a pharmaceutical advantage, that could be played out by waiting till the last moment [in a race] to make it count.''

We'll surely learn more as this THG mess unfolds, but if you want to put a face to the victims in this scandal it's probably best to start with Favor Hamilton -- the perky blonde who posed for her own swimsuit calendar a few years back. If the charges against Jacobs are true you could reasonably argue that Jacobs cheated Favor Hamilton out of a national title last summer. And one can only guess how many other championships drugs might have cost her.

Favor Hamilton is being smartly advised not to say a word herself until Jacobs exhausts her appeals, and everyone should be cautioned against rushing to judgment. Maybe we'll learn Jacobs is clean as the driven snow, though we suspect not. Maybe she's just a freak of nature, a 40-year-old with a strong finishing kick who seemingly gets faster with each passing year.

For now, it's hard not to dig into this feisty rivalry without feeling a twinge of disgust.

If Jacobs is dirty, and who knows for how long, she may well have robbed Favor Hamilton of huge sums of money and fame. Just do the math. Eight times Jacobs has edged out the runner-up Favor Hamilton in the 1,500 at the national championships, almost always letting her set the pace and then out-kicking Favor Hamilton late in the final lap.

This kind of repeated finish, it could be argued, puts a perennial runner-up at risk for injury. That athlete is likely to train harder, upping the workload, pushing to extremes to avoid the same result against someone enjoying a pharmaceutical enhancer.

"What is done is done, but for Suzy's peace of mind she knows, 'OK, this is a little bit of vindication. I was right all along and I know I was actually No. 1 when it came to nationals all these years,' '' says Mark Hamilton, her husband. "I can tell you one thing, the emotion she feels is anger.''

That's understandable.

For years, the running community has had its suspicions about Jacobs, though solid evidence never surfaced. Jacobs helped fuel the chatter with her curious excuses for skipping major events, either after drug testing at a U.S. championship or where sophisticated drug testing was sure to be in place -- namely the 1995 World Championships, 2000 Sydney Olympics and last year's World Cross Country Championships.

"If I were to say there weren't stories, very strong rumors, I'd be lying,'' Mark Hamilton says.

Then again, no one could deny Jacobs had Favor Hamilton's number at nationals. European meet promoters paid handsomely to draw Jacobs, the U.S. champion. Here at home, shoe giant Nike, with both runners under contract, wrote a fatter check to the champion than to the runner-up.

"Certainly, Nike has used that against Suzy in negotiations,'' Hamilton says.

OK, Nike simply negotiated off the hard facts. Favor Hamilton has won only three 1,500-meter titles at the U.S. championships -- all when Jacobs wasn't in the race. Give her 11 national titles to go with her cover-girl looks and today she might rival Mia Hamm for commercial time and endorsements.

There's no telling the sum of lost money we're talking about. Just in Nike bonuses, alone, it's $150,000.

What we're also looking at here is an athlete's reputation and the opportunity to excel. Nobody knows how many athletes have their performance enhanced by drugs. And no one knows how many athletes have been cheated out of medals by those who do use drugs.

We may never know whether any of Jacobs' championships are tied to THG or some other steroid. But what would be the impact of even one tainted race?  "Horrible would not be strong enough." says Tegen. "That is why many clean athletes in the world are so adamant about wanting to pursue this particular topic. And for many, of course, it would mean that a lot was taken away from them.''

Unfortunately, there's no way of getting it back.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com.