Justin Gatlin had been riding on the ultimate high until, one day, that bubble burst. A carpet was pulled from under his feet. 2004. Gatlin exited the Athens Olympics with a complete collection of medals. A gold, a silver, and a bronze. Do you think this was good? Well, the next year, he looked like a man on a mission. Sweeping both the 100m and 200m events at the 2005 Worlds, Gatlin became only the second man to achieve the sprint double in the history of these track and field champs. But only when he was climbing that ladder, a rung broke. 2006 saw him fall flat on his face!
Well, the first half of 2006 was mind-blowingly good. At the IAAF Super Grand Prix Meeting in Doha, Gatlin ran a world record 100m time in 9.77 seconds. But soon, a notice was flashed on his face. He had failed a test for a prohibited substance in 2006. 2001 deja vu? Well, only this time, it was way more serious. Action was taken, and as a result, he was banned from track and field for four years, only becoming eligible to run in 2010. But what all did he go through in the meantime?
Now, in 2025, nearly 2 decades later, he’s revealing it all! On April 12, on the “Meet The Mitchells” podcast on YouTube, Justin Gatlin got real about this. He called the post-ban era the darkest chapter of his life. Track and field was snatched away from him. And so, in the meantime, Justin Gatlin had to channel his creative gene. And his survival instinct. “I started trying to go into modeling and trying to find other things because you know, like as an athlete, you dive into your craft 100%. You don’t give it to anything else, you know.”
So this was the time for some wild experimentation, too. In fact, Justin Gatlin confessed he nearly tried adapting to a whole different sport. “So I played a little football. I was in mini camp with the Buccaneers NFL.” But all these attempts to re-adapt to a different life only brought him closer to realising, “I was like man, I love what I love. I love track & field.”
No wonder that Justin Gatlin confessed that once he came back from the ban, he had regained a whole new perspective on track and field. A whole new love for it. Also, he not only came out of the phase as a wiser athlete but felt this dire urge to run everything. To turn on his beast mode like his life depended on it. And the result? Oh boy, the post-ban Gatlin was a whole new being!
Justin Gatlin’s second shot at track and field
Life seldom gives second chances. Fortunately, Justin Gatlin got one. Though many had thought the ban would be the end of Gatlin’s career, he came back in 2010, not taking a single race for granted now. Straight away with his arrival, he got his feet wet by winning his comeback 100m race at the Bigbank Kuldliiga meet in 10.24 seconds in 2010. But his eyes were on the upcoming London Olympics, knowing what Bolt had done in his absence at Beijing. He tried, but all he could do was get a bronze in the 100m men’s finals, where he was allegedly booed by the crowd.
Yet, his dominance was starting to show. None, we repeat, none of the contemporary track and field athletes could beat him at either 100m or 200m between 2013 and 2015. In fact, the latter was the year when he set or equalled lifetime bests in both the sprint distances and became a serious threat to dethrone Usain Bolt, who had risen in his absence. So yes, Justin Gatlin did get a second chance despite nearly wanting to exit the sport! But did he make good use of it?
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