Banned sprinter Montgomery decides to retire

Disgraced sprinter Tim Montgomery says he's done.

The former 100-meter world record holder has retired, rather than waiting out a two-year suspension and returning under a cloud of suspicion.

"I don't want to be looked upon as a cheat," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.

Although he did not test positive for drugs, Montgomery was banned for doping based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of BALCO, a San Francisco-area lab that served many high-profile athletes.

"It's like getting a whipping for something you know you didn't do," Montgomery said.

Montgomery, 30, maintains he never knowingly took steroids or any other banned substances and worries about his legacy.

"That's the main concern because I don't know what to tell my kids," Montgomery said. "I don't know what to tell my mother and father, even though they say they love me and don't worry about it."

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency sought a four-year ban, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport cut the time in half in a ruling issued this week.

All of Montgomery's performances were wiped off the books as of March 31, 2001 -- that includes the since-broken world record of 9.78 seconds he set in Paris in September 2002.