Marvin Bracy-Williams dreamed of ranking in the pantheon of elite male US sprinters alongside Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene. He’s quick – 9.85sec for 100m – but his problem was he could only ever finish second: silver at the world indoors in 2014, silver at the world championships in 2022.
When he didn’t even make the USA team for the 2023 world championships he realized that, at 29, he was losing the most important contest of all, the race against time.
According to Monzavous “Rae” Edwards, a former elite sprinter and now gym owner in Dallas, Bracy-Williams’ frustrations would lead him to question whether the quest for 100m gold really does reward old-fashioned, honest hard work.
Edwards claimed Bracy-Williams told him: “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done the right way … My entire life I’ve always been looked at as second best. I’ve never been given respect. Dog, there ain’t know way these boys are that much better than me.”
With that nagging thought in autumn 2023, the lives of both Edwards and Bracy-Williams were about to take an alarming and unexpected turn that would ultimately lead to anti-doping investigators turning up at their respective doors.
“We were having a conversation that had nothing to do about that [doping],” Edwards told the Guardian. “[But] everyone in track and field knows that I know who the person was supplying these people. When me and Marv were on the phone I cracked a joke. I was like: ‘I’ll get it, man.’ He was laughing like: ‘Give it to me, dog!’ It was literally a joke at first and next thing I know, it’s no longer a joke. By which I mean Marvin was like: ‘I’m going to try it.’ I take the responsibility for it … because it was a joke that I put in his head and I also gave him the loaded weapon…”
Edwards was the man with the contact number to a female dealer who worked for an alleged steroid kingpin, Paul Askew, who has subsequently been charged in Ocala, Florida, with conspiracy to influence major international sport competition through doping. Askew has yet to enter a plea and is due to appear in court on 18 February.
“Marv didn’t want to take drugs,” says Edwards, “Marv took drugs because he felt like he had to. The thing that I don’t like about our sport is that if you don’t take it, you don’t make it. When you have people who are taking it and you know they’re making it, then you’re almost leaving Marv without an option.”
Yet while Bracy-Williams’ conclusion in Edwards’ view – that he needed to take steroids to compete seriously over 100m – was unremarkable, what happened next was unexpected. Not just that Bracy-Williams would test positive for testosterone in February 2024 but that someone in his inner circle betrayed him. The US Anti-Doping Agency confirmed: “After receiving credible information from a whistleblower in early 2024, Usada immediately opened an investigation which included collecting a targeted out-of-competition urine sample from Bracy-Williams.”
Usada knew exactly when to test him to get its man based on informant information. “The only thing that got Marv caught is because Marv told [an associate about his doping]. They came and tested Marv the very next day [after taking testosterone]. Of course his levels were high,” said Edwards.
In return for a reduced sentence, Bracy-Williams then agreed to cooperate with Usada to crack open the drug-dealing network that is thought to sustain many US sprinters. But he proved an unsuitable stooge, incurring another doping sanction even as he was providing Usada with assistance, this time missing three tests in a stipulated one-year period. The deal was off and last November, Usada announced that Bracy-Williams was banned for 45 months.
But the rumor mill in US sprinting, with insiders clearly snitching on each other, continues to turn and threatens to bring US sprinting dominance down, with no one quite sure who has said what to whom.
Edwards has named an insider whom Bracy-Williams claims to be the informant who tipped off Usada, though without corroborating evidence. “Marvin believed that [name redacted] was the one who told Usada what he was doing,” said Edwards.
Rival sprinters will also want to know which names Bracy-Williams gave to authorities before his deal was pulled while Edwards is also threatening to talk.
“I was gathering all this information [and] when I get enough information, I’m going to burn the whole of track and field down,” Edwards claims.
The 12 months before his downfall in 2024 had been a season of change for Bracy-Williams. It wasn’t just that fateful decision to take banned drugs; he had also switched coaches to train with the USA’s most-controversial and successful sprint coach, Dennis Mitchell, recently named Nike Coach of the Year by US Track and Field.
Mitchell certainly gets results. He coached Melissa Jefferson-Wooden to 100m and 200m gold at last year’s world championships and guided drug cheat and 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin to his 2017 world championship gold medal.
Mitchell himself tested positive for testosterone in 1998 during his own sprint career, famously claiming the elevated levels were due to having sex four times with his wife the night before. He was banned for two years. He later testified under oath that his former coach Trevor Graham had injected him with banned human growth hormone. Gatlin was also banned for eight years, later reduced to four, after testing positive for testosterone while training under Graham in 2006 before switching to train with Mitchell when Graham received a life ban.
While US Track and Field may be ready to laud Mitchell, the signs are that in the febrile atmosphere of recriminations in the sprint world, other leading lights are not so forgiving.
Gabby Thomas, the Harvard graduate who was a triple gold medallist at the 2024 Olympics including individual gold over 200m, recently revealed that she had been “so naive” about her sport and wrote: “Doping coaches should be banned for life from coaching in the sport. Whether you were banned while competing as an athlete or caught distributing as a coach (for some, both). I don’t care ... If you train under a coach who is known for doping (once, twice, or even three times for some) you are complicit. That’s my stance.”
Edwards is more candid about Mitchell. “You can’t just remove the cloud,” he says. “You failed [a dope test], you had athletes who failed … So you can’t just turn a blind eye to the image that Dennis has brought up [that Mitchell is a doper].”
Mitchell’s lawyer Ryan J Stevens said: “Coach Mitchell is a different man than he was nearly 30 years ago. He’s committed to clean sport and strict compliance with anti-doping rules. He had absolutely no involvement in Mr. Bracy-Williams’ personal choices that resulted in his sanction. Coach Mitchell insists on transparency, accountability, and integrity in every aspect of his coaching.”
The 2028 LA Olympics is now just over two years away and is expected to be an all-American triumph. But in the blue riband sprints event, where USA dominates, there may be more recriminations than gold medals as athlete turns on athlete.
Edwards’ final thought is a chilling one for the drug testers. “I don’t think Marv’s situation has scared any coach or any athlete. I think Marv’s situation pretty much told the ones that are doing it we just got to be more careful.”
The Guardian has contacted the Enhanced Games to put Edwards’ comments to Bracy-Williams but he has yet to respond.
