Antonio Pettigrew, a member of the gold medal winning US 4 X 400m relay team, has admitted that he used performance enhancing drugs during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Pettigrew admitted use of performance enhancers and this admission could mean that the gold medals won by other relay team members, Alvin and Calvin Harrison, are in jeopardy.

From Foxsports.com.au:

Pettigrew testified that Graham encouraged him in 1997 to inject human growth hormone and the oxygen-boosting drug EPO, which are both banned in track.

Soon after, Pettigrew said, he began buying the drugs from Angel “Memo” Heredia, an admitted steroids dealer from Laredo, Texas.

Once he began taking the banned substances, Pettigrew said he was able to run 400 metres in under 43 seconds for the first time.

“I was running incredible times as I was preparing for track meets,” Pettigrew said during 30 minutes of testimony.

“I was able to recover faster.”

Pettigrew initially lied to federal investigators and denied doping when they first talked to him in February 2005. But he finally confessed to cheating when confronted with documents in October 2006 strongly suggesting drug buys from Heredia.

The doping admission came during a testimony in the trial of Trevor Graham, the former coach of Pettigrew, who is accused of hiding the truth before federal authorities investigating doping in sports.