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Former US hurdler and high school athletic coach Lashinda Demus called for drug testing high school athletes. The call came amid record-breaking performances by high school athletes at multiple events this spring.
Demus made the statement in an Instagram post on Apr. 17.
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She said,
“Majority of people believe that high school athletes should be drug tested...This is me watching all the great performances and I just recall not seeing so many fast times, and I'm talking about people that could step into the professional realm and be able to compete — like I've never seen this many people do that in high school.”
Demus has a personal experience with the impact of cheating athletes who use drugs to enhance their performance. She initially won the silver medal in the London 2012 Olympics women's 400m hurdles event, finishing behind Russia's Natalya Antyukh. Antyukh’s result from the event was retroactively voided in 2022 following a re-testing of doping samples.
Demus, who has since retired, now coaches at Culver City High School in Culver City, California. Her comments came following a series of big performances by high school athletes.
Dual-sport athlete Brandon Arrington Jr., who also plays football, broke Noah Lyles’ 200m Arcadia Invitational record at the last event. He completed the race in 20.35 seconds, breaking Lyles’ existing record of 20.48 seconds.
Similarly, Tate Taylor also set a new high school Indoor 200m record at the Nike Indoor Nationals in March. He finished the race in 20.46 seconds to break a 2023 record set by Issam Asinga at the New Balance Nationals Indoor.
Looking at Lashinda Demus’ high school athletic career
Lashinda Demus was a standout athlete at Long Beach Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. She held the national high school record for the 300m hurdles until it was broken in 2017. She was also on the school's 4 × 400m relay team when it set the national record in 1998 and broke it again in 2001.
She was named the Track and Field News National Girls’ High School Athlete of the Year in 1999 and 2001.
Lashinda Demus went to the University of South Carolina, developing under legendary athletics coach Curtis Frye. She won the 2002 World Junior Championship before capturing the 400m at the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championship. She later secured two more national titles for South Carolina.
