You can't make this stuff up. Kenyan runner Rita Jeptoo's estranged husband, Noah Busienei, produced a letter dated April 2013 from his lawyer to Jeptoo threatening to reveal her doping, which he alleged had been happening since September 2011, to Athletics Kenya and WADA unless she paid him off. The two were going through some nasty legal proceedings in 2013.
Apparently the blackmail was not effective, but Busienei has seen fit to make public his own malfeasance to shed light on Jeptoo's past, now that she's failed the first of two tests for EPO. Busienei alleges Jeptoo received tablets and colored water from her Italian coach, Claudio Berardelli.
Berardelli is employed by Rosa Associati, the sports management company of Frederico Rosa, Jeptoo's agent. Rosa started representing Jeptoo in 2011, following a two-year maternity break from running.
Jeptoo embarked on marathons in 2004 and, up until her 2009 maternity leave, posted times between 2:24 and 2:32, with most falling in the high 2:20s. Her first marathon post-maternity, in October 2011, was accomplished in 2:25:44. A year later, she improved on that time by more than three minutes, clocking a 2:22:04 in Chicago. Again, at the 2013 Chicago Marathon, she improved by more than two minutes to 2:19:57. Jeptoo won the 2013 Boston Marathon in 2:26:25, and set her personal best in this year's Boston Marathon of 2:18:57, the seventh fastest all-time.
Silent fallen star, vociferous agent, blackmailing estranged husband, tablets and colored water (?!)—the plot thickens.