Paris (AFP)

Christian Coleman reached the top of the world sprint at lightning speed, but the 24-year-old American also lost no time to see his image damaged by suspicion of doping, a plaster of which he will have more struggling to get rid of that his opponents on the track.

Because the 100 m world champion is a repeat offender. After escaping in extremis from a sanction in 2019 for three localization defects in less than a year (finally reduced to two by the American Anti-Doping Agency), he was again caught by the patrol for having missed a control on 9 December and risks up to two years of suspension, which could cause him to miss the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Whatever the outcome of the procedure launched by the Athletics Integrity Unit (IAU), Coleman's reputation is already heavily damaged and a halo of doubt surrounds his meteoric trajectory and the consecration obtained at the Doha Worlds last year. The first Olympic sport was looking for a star and a successor to His Majesty Usain Bolt with a spotless CV? In the end, he was only entitled to the perfect antithesis of the charismatic Jamaican.

Everything opposes the two men. Where the slender Bolt (1.95 m) wore his broad smile and liked contact with fans, the daring Coleman (1.75 m) always preferred to adopt the posture of the big arm, tight jaw and black gaze, n not hesitating to stare at his opponents.

- "That will never happen" -

If Bolt was talkative and tactile, the Coleman dragster is quiet and sparks little. A character inherited from childhood: his relatives did not forget that he had been elected to the student council of his primary school without making the slightest speech ...

Coleman however knows how to do violence to defend his honor. After the announcement of his three location faults in 2019, he had not hesitated to settle his accounts with the American Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) in less diplomatic terms.

"It is a shame for Usada that this case has been made public and that they are asking the athletes to follow rules they do not understand themselves. This organization is supposed to protect the athletes, but I feel today as a victim. I work hard, I drink water and work even harder the next day. That way I was never tested positive and it will never happen, "he said bravely. .

He adopted the same approach again on Wednesday, accusing the IAU of having in some way caused the failed test in December.

- Methodical progress -

"Do not tell me that I have + missed a check + if you sneak in front of my door without my knowledge," he wrote on Twitter, assuring that "there is no record that anyone has come". his home.

Coleman's story, however, had ideally started. Vice-champion of the world in 2017 in London at only 21 years old, the former student in sports management of the University of Tennessee, who dabbled in the long jump and long hesitated to opt for American football, experienced a uneventful journey to his recent missteps, with a methodical progression until his crowning in Qatar.

Coleman seemed programmed to rule the sprint. In 2018, he won his first title on the international scene on the 60 m of the Indoor Worlds in Birmingham, a few days after having deprived his compatriot Maurice Greene of the world distance record (6 sec 34), and nothing more does not seem able to stop its ascent.

The World Championships in Doha then serve as the apotheosis for the American, who has become the 6th performer in history (9 sec 76) after a breathtaking performance in the final. But his misadventures with anti-doping will have ruined everything, forcing him now to drag behind him the heavy ball of suspicion.

© 2020 AFP