Chase Shealy Reinstated

[rainbowgirl28]

The IAAF finally reviewed Chase Shealy's case, and reinstated him effective May 1st.

[USMC Vaulter]

Thats awesome.
Glad to have you 'officially' back Chase - we all know you're just gonna keep jumping higher.

[achtungpv]

Cool. The question now is which college is gonna get him?

[bjvando]

this may be a dumb question, but if the IAAF lets him compete, does that mean the NCAA will let him compete as well?...

and i'm sure there are a ton of ppl on here that know his situation better than i would, last i heard he only did 1 year of community college at cuesta. Does that mean he has to get an AA degree before he can go to a 4-yr college?

[rainbowgirl28]

this may be a dumb question, but if the IAAF lets him compete, does that mean the NCAA will let him compete as well?...

and i'm sure there are a ton of ppl on here that know his situation better than i would, last i heard he only did 1 year of community college at cuesta. Does that mean he has to get an AA degree before he can go to a 4-yr college?

The suspension has nothing to do with his collegiate eligibility, it never did.

At this point, I think he would have a hard time getting eligible in the NCAA because you have to be making a certain amount of progress toward graduation in a certain amount of time. He could probably get eligible in the NAIA, but the new rules that start next fall could count his jumping unattached against him and give him less seasons.

[Carolina Extreme]

Yes it is true. Chase has been reinstated after many, many delays by IAAF. We got a fax the other day (after we had given up on IAAF and told the attorney to stop pursuing it) saying that they finally reviewed the file (after one year and ten months of the two year suspension) and that they felt he should be reinstated early. Unfortunately, the many the high profile cases of the past two years intentional cheaters were repeatedly placed ahead of his, much delaying the reinstatement process. You can probably feel my frustration. Even as frustrated as I have been, I can't imagine what Chase has been feeling.

Chase is just happy to have it behind him now, so that he can move on. As you can probably guess, he doesn't want to talk about it or be asked about it. He and I are very grateful for the support of the vault community during this difficult time and we can only hope that no one else has to go through the hell he has been through. You guys have been extremely supportive and a blessing to us.

To answer a couple of your questions:

1. The suspension only prevented him from competing in USATF, USOC and IAAF meets. It did not pertain to collegiate/invitationals that were not tied to USATF, USOC or IAAF.

2. He went to Cuesta spring '04 which is when his collegiate clock started. As a 18 yr old at Cuesta, he jumped 17' 7" for the top JUCO jump nationally and the top USA "Junior" vault which was also #6 on the World Junior list. He needs to finish JUCO prior to competing NCAA. Since Cuesta he has taken courses at a two year school here and has been competing "Unattached" or with our club "Carolina Extreme" in collegiate/invitational (NCAA) meets.

3. As far as his plans, after all he has been through, he wants to do things his own way. Which means he is not doing things according to the NCAA clock. He is jumping in NCAA/invitational meets anyway (most collegiate meets are invitationals). As both his father and an NCAA coach, I would love to have him at South Carolina. He is competing in many of the same meets. And he would look great in our uniform. But NCAA is not the only route.

[giolanaro]

What was he suspened for?

[Carolina Extreme]

He was suspended for taking the banned substance Amphetemine, which is also called Speed. Amphetemine is in Adderol which is taken for ADHD/ADD. Any amount in your system results in an automatic two year suspension regardless of the reason for taking. So what acts as "Speed" in one persons body acts to slow down others and help them to focus.

A number of emerging elite "Junior" athletes have tested positive for the ADHD/ADD meds Adderol and Ritalin. Justin Gatlin was one of them. He tested positive at USA Juniors several years back. It took them a little over a year to get him reinstated. Bottom line: Be very careful of anything medicimal you put into your body. Especially as young athletes because you haven't gone through the drug awareness and testing on the college or elite level yet. High school and NCAA allow the two meds above because you are considered students first. With IAAF you are athletes first. What you don't know can get you punished severly.

There is no need for us to go into greater detail here. Perhaps Becca can post the links to the two other topics where we discussed this in great detail in late 2003.