Two weeks ago a letter surfaced on the internet, dumped there by person or persons unknown. Almost 2,500 words long, it was addressed to “Benedict Arnold, aka the Great Betrayer”. The contents of the letter suggested the author was the former Trinidadian sprinter, Ato Boldon, and the intended recipient his former coach, John Smith.

Boldon has not confirmed that he wrote the letter but has privately hinted he was responsible for it. Up to now, he has not publicly denied writing the letter. Smith has neither confirmed nor denied receiving the letter. As it appeared on the internet, the letter has the ring of authenticity. It is informed and contains a level of detail that strongly indicates the author was inside the John Smith group of athletes.

Some background is necessary. John Smith has been one of the foremost athletic coaches in the US and is particularly known for his work with sprinters such as Boldon and the Olympic 100m gold medallist and four-time world champion, Maurice Greene. There has always been suspicion about Smith’s methods. Almost 20 years ago, Ben Johnson’s former coach, Charlie Francis, claimed Smith told him he was using the anabolic steroid, Dianabol.

Boldon retired in 2004 and Greene called it a day earlier this year. Smith hasn’t had much success with his athletes over the past two or three seasons. Two weeks ago, the New York Times broke the story that in a case against the athletics coach Trevor Graham [accused of lying to federal investigators], the prosecution would produce a witness, Angel Guillermo Heredia, who would name many top athletes he supplied with drugs. Greene is one of the athletes fingered by Heredia and there is incriminating documentation.

This created a problem for Greene, who was recently appointed as an IAAF ambassador, and his former coach Smith, who has repeatedly insisted that athletes under his care do not use drugs. A day or so after the New York Times story, the letter believed to have been written by Boldon appeared on the internet.

The letter accuses Smith of betraying Boldon by conspiring with Greene in the latter’s alleged use of performance-en-hancing drugs. Much of the emotional power of the letter comes from the author’s anger and his sense of having been wronged. He accuses Smith of doping his competition while smiling to his face and preaching a “we are clean” gospel. We are talking about the two athletes who finished first and second in the Olympic 100m final in Sydney and though numbed and inured to shock after years of drug revelations, this story takes us to a new depth.

The fascination is not that Greene might have been doping and that evidence may exist which proves he did. No, the more interesting story concerns Boldon and the possibility that he might have been clean. The letter claims that he was and the indignation, the sense of hurt conveyed in the letter, is powerful. What if he was clean?

How much better does that make his world championship 100m victory at Athens in 1997, his silver medal at the Sydney Olympics and his 28 sub-10-second runs in the 100m? While the evidence strongly suggests Boldon wrote the letter, and one can easily be persuaded by the apparent honesty of the sentiments, questions need to be asked.

Could Boldon have trained with Greene and not known he was using performance-enhanc-ing drugs? Possibly. Could he have trained with a coach who was double-crossing him and not suspected a thing? Again, he possibly could. But could Ato Boldon have run the times he ran and not been doped? That’s harder. Could he have clocked 9.86sec clean? In 2001, he tested positive for ephedrine but put that down to taking an over-the-counter remedy for a cold. Though ephedrine was a banned substance at the time, his explanation was accepted and he was not suspended.

The greatest doubt about Boldon comes from the manner in which his letter found its way into the public domain. Feeling as cheated as he did, why has he not come forward and openly told his story? Why allow it to appear, unsigned, unconfirmed, on the internet? If he believes so passionately in the wrong he has suffered, why not fully explain what he believes happened?

Has he offered himself as a witness to those chasing the dopers and their suppliers? Has he offered help to the investigators who have come up with evidence against Greene? “I already know not just what the paper says but way, way more,” the letter-writer said.

There is another take on this story and as cynical as it is, it should not be dismissed. Ato Boldon now lives in the US and is a respected television commentator on athletics. Ordinarily that isn’t a big role in the pantheon of US sports broadcasting but in an Olympic year, it becomes important. Greene will be accused of wrongdoing in a US court next month and the cynical view is that Boldon, to protect his career in television, has put out his letter to achieve that purpose.

There is no evidence that he was involved with Heredia and he is entitled to say that he knew nothing of Greene’s relationship with the supplier. From this, can we conclude he was clean all through his career? That would be some jump. Greene has yet to tell his side of a very murky story and until he does all judgments about Ato Boldon should be reserved.

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