Coach Ray Stewart gets lifetime ban for helping sprinters obtain drugs

Coach banned for life for drug trafficking

DENVER — Former Jamaican track star Raymond Stewart, who went on to coach banished American sprinter Jerome Young and other Olympic medalists, has been kicked out of the sport for life for obtaining performance-enhancing drugs for his athletes.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced the ban Monday, after an arbitration panel determined Stewart bought drugs from Angel Memo Heredia, whose cooperation has been used in investigations of banned coach Trevor Graham and others.

Stewart was a 100-meter specialist who appeared in four Olympics for Jamaica and won a silver medal in the 400-meter relay at the 1984 Games.

He joins Graham and Remi Korchemny as the third coach USADA has had kicked out of track for a role in helping athletes obtain and take drugs.

“Violating the sacred responsibility and standards of a coach by aiding athletes with doping is truly reprehensible,” USADA CEO Travis Tygart said.

Heredia was a whistle blower in the case against Graham and others who were found to have used drugs purchased from Heredia’s lab in Mexico City.

The arbitrators relied on evidence stating Stewart met Heredia in 1997 and the two maintained a relationship through 2006.

The evidence lists Young among those who Stewart coached. Young was on the 1,600-meter, gold-medal relay team at the 2000 Olympics but has since been banned for life for doping. Young did not run in the finals and his U.S. teammates were originally allowed to keep the gold medal, but the medal was later stripped after one of Young’s teammates, Antonio Pettigrew, admitted he doped during the Sydney Games.

Others Stewart coached, according to the evidence, included J.J. Johnson, a member of the U.S. 2003 world champion 400-meter relay team; Kenny Brokenburr, a member of America’s gold-medal, 400-meter team from the 2000 Games; and three-time Olympic medalist Beverly McDonald of Jamaica, who later married Stewart.