Ex-Asu Star Sues Iaaf

Former Arizona State University heptathlete Gea Johnson has filed a $12 million lawsuit against the International Amateur Athletic Federation in an effort to overturn a four-year drug suspension.

U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll granted the 27-year-old Johnson a 10-day preliminary injunction on Monday that allows her to compete this weekend in California to reach the qualifying standard for this summer’s Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Johnson, who won the NCAA heptathlon title at Arizona State in 1990, was banned in December 1994 after she tested positive for synthetic steroids. Those results came from an “off-competition” test conducted at her Phoenix home.

Johnson maintains she has “never, never used steroids” and that a flawed testing procedure allowed the sample to be mishandled.