adios
10-17-2003, 02:00 PM
Don't know what to think. The implication to me is that it casts a suspicion regarding Barry Bonds use of steroids. Implications now but no proof in my mind.
Investigation finds doping conspiracy in sports, officials say (http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20031017-9999_1n17drugs.html)
Investigation finds doping conspiracy in sports, officials say
By Mark Zeigler
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 17, 2003
U.S. anti-doping officials yesterday offered details for the first time of an operation they are publicly calling the largest sports drug bust in history and privately saying could involve some of the biggest names in Olympic and U.S. professional team sports.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which handles drug testing of American athletes for Olympic sports, announced that a number of track and field athletes have failed urine tests for a previously undetectable anabolic steroid. Agency officials would not identify which athletes or how many had tested positive, saying protocol precluded them from releasing names, most likely until December.
"What we have uncovered appears to be intentional doping of the worst sort," agency head Terry Madden said in a statement. "This is a far cry from athletes' accidentally testing positive as the result of taking contaminated nutritional supplements. This is a conspiracy involving chemists, coaches and certain athletes using what they developed to be 'undetectable' designer steroids to defraud their fellow competitors and the American and world public."
In a subsequent teleconference with national media, Madden added, "I know of no other drug bust that is larger than this, involving the number of athletes we have involved."
The investigation appears to have two primary prongs – the drug tests by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of track and field athletes for the steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), and an ongoing federal probe of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a Burlingame laboratory run by nutritionist Victor Conte.
Yesterday, Madden linked the two when he said he is "fairly certain" the source of the steroid was Conte and that the agency contacted the Department of Justice earlier this year about its findings. Sports federations ban the use of anabolic steroids because they promote muscle growth; federal law classifies them as a controlled substance, much like cocaine or heroin.
A task force headed by the Internal Revenue Service raided Conte's Balco lab on Sept. 3, and there have been published reports that the case will soon go before a federal grand jury in San Francisco. Federal agents also searched the home of Greg Anderson, the personal trainer for San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who is a Conte client.
Law enforcement officials have refused to comment, and all documents pertaining to the case remain sealed by the court.
Conte has not granted interviews since the Balco raid, but he e-mailed a statement to several newspapers yesterday:
"In my opinion, this is about jealous coaches and athletes that all have a history of promoting and using performance-enhancing agents being 'completely hypocritical' in their actions," the e-mail read. "As many will soon find out, the world of track and field is a 'very dirty business,' and this goes far beyond the coaches and athletes."
Conte, 53, founded Balco Labs in 1984 and steadily built a client list that, according to the company's Web site, includes some of the top names in sports – track stars such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, baseball's Bonds, dozens of NFL players, entire NBA teams and pro body builders. He is known for analyzing an athlete's blood for its vitamin and mineral content, then making dietary and nutritional recommendations to maximize performance.
At the 2000 Olympics, Conte came to the defense of U.S. shot putter C.J. Hunter, at the time Jones' husband, after he was barred from the Games for failing several urine tests for a banned steroid. Jones has since divorced Hunter, but it is unclear whether she severed ties with Conte, as well.
More recently, Conte made headlines for his connection to U.S. sprinter Kelli White, who tested positive for a banned stimulant at the World Championships this past August and likely will be stripped of her titles in the 100 and 200 meters. White said she was given modafinil to treat narcolepsy by Dr. Brian Goldman, who has worked closely with Conte and Balco.
Yesterday, Madden said testers re-analyzed urine samples taken at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in June and found "several" positives for modafinil. He would not say if one of them belonged to White.
Conte might be best-known for developing ZMA, a hot-selling zinc and magnesium supplement he once called "the only all-natural product that has been clinically proven to increase anabolic hormone levels as well as strength and power in athletes." Yesterday's announcement raises questions of whether Conte was providing his clients with something else.
Madden said in early June that his agency received a phone call from a "high-profile track and field coach" who claimed that U.S. and international athletes were using an undetectable steroid. The coach, Madden said, later mailed his agency a syringe containing the alleged substance.
The agency sent it to the UCLA lab of anti-doping specialist Dr. Don Catlin, who determined that the substance was indeed a form of steroids and subsequently developed a test for it.
The agency then had Catlin's lab retest all 350 urine samples from the U.S. Track and Field Championships, along with about 100 other out-of-competition tests that Madden specially ordered from July 25 to Sept. 1.
According to yesterday's U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announcement, "several" of those tests came back positive for THG and the athletes involved have been notified.
The next step is for the B sample – tests are routinely split in two and tested twice – to be examined in the presence of the athletes, followed by a review board to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed with a doping offense. Should those athletes be found guilty, they would face two-year competition bans and miss the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece.
To beat drug tests, some athletes are believed to use what are called designer steroids – essentially a known steroid that is chemically altered so that it possesses the same muscle-building properties but is undetectable to testing machinery.
THG is a cross between gestrinone and trenbolone, two steroids that appear on international lists of banned substances. Madden said athletes placed "two or three drops" under their tongue and that the muscle-building effects could last more than a month while its chemical fingerprint remained in the urine for less than a week.
"This is a very sophisticated designer steroid created by a very sophisticated chemist," Madden said.
Investigation finds doping conspiracy in sports, officials say (http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20031017-9999_1n17drugs.html)
Investigation finds doping conspiracy in sports, officials say
By Mark Zeigler
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 17, 2003
U.S. anti-doping officials yesterday offered details for the first time of an operation they are publicly calling the largest sports drug bust in history and privately saying could involve some of the biggest names in Olympic and U.S. professional team sports.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which handles drug testing of American athletes for Olympic sports, announced that a number of track and field athletes have failed urine tests for a previously undetectable anabolic steroid. Agency officials would not identify which athletes or how many had tested positive, saying protocol precluded them from releasing names, most likely until December.
"What we have uncovered appears to be intentional doping of the worst sort," agency head Terry Madden said in a statement. "This is a far cry from athletes' accidentally testing positive as the result of taking contaminated nutritional supplements. This is a conspiracy involving chemists, coaches and certain athletes using what they developed to be 'undetectable' designer steroids to defraud their fellow competitors and the American and world public."
In a subsequent teleconference with national media, Madden added, "I know of no other drug bust that is larger than this, involving the number of athletes we have involved."
The investigation appears to have two primary prongs – the drug tests by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of track and field athletes for the steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), and an ongoing federal probe of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a Burlingame laboratory run by nutritionist Victor Conte.
Yesterday, Madden linked the two when he said he is "fairly certain" the source of the steroid was Conte and that the agency contacted the Department of Justice earlier this year about its findings. Sports federations ban the use of anabolic steroids because they promote muscle growth; federal law classifies them as a controlled substance, much like cocaine or heroin.
A task force headed by the Internal Revenue Service raided Conte's Balco lab on Sept. 3, and there have been published reports that the case will soon go before a federal grand jury in San Francisco. Federal agents also searched the home of Greg Anderson, the personal trainer for San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who is a Conte client.
Law enforcement officials have refused to comment, and all documents pertaining to the case remain sealed by the court.
Conte has not granted interviews since the Balco raid, but he e-mailed a statement to several newspapers yesterday:
"In my opinion, this is about jealous coaches and athletes that all have a history of promoting and using performance-enhancing agents being 'completely hypocritical' in their actions," the e-mail read. "As many will soon find out, the world of track and field is a 'very dirty business,' and this goes far beyond the coaches and athletes."
Conte, 53, founded Balco Labs in 1984 and steadily built a client list that, according to the company's Web site, includes some of the top names in sports – track stars such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, baseball's Bonds, dozens of NFL players, entire NBA teams and pro body builders. He is known for analyzing an athlete's blood for its vitamin and mineral content, then making dietary and nutritional recommendations to maximize performance.
At the 2000 Olympics, Conte came to the defense of U.S. shot putter C.J. Hunter, at the time Jones' husband, after he was barred from the Games for failing several urine tests for a banned steroid. Jones has since divorced Hunter, but it is unclear whether she severed ties with Conte, as well.
More recently, Conte made headlines for his connection to U.S. sprinter Kelli White, who tested positive for a banned stimulant at the World Championships this past August and likely will be stripped of her titles in the 100 and 200 meters. White said she was given modafinil to treat narcolepsy by Dr. Brian Goldman, who has worked closely with Conte and Balco.
Yesterday, Madden said testers re-analyzed urine samples taken at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in June and found "several" positives for modafinil. He would not say if one of them belonged to White.
Conte might be best-known for developing ZMA, a hot-selling zinc and magnesium supplement he once called "the only all-natural product that has been clinically proven to increase anabolic hormone levels as well as strength and power in athletes." Yesterday's announcement raises questions of whether Conte was providing his clients with something else.
Madden said in early June that his agency received a phone call from a "high-profile track and field coach" who claimed that U.S. and international athletes were using an undetectable steroid. The coach, Madden said, later mailed his agency a syringe containing the alleged substance.
The agency sent it to the UCLA lab of anti-doping specialist Dr. Don Catlin, who determined that the substance was indeed a form of steroids and subsequently developed a test for it.
The agency then had Catlin's lab retest all 350 urine samples from the U.S. Track and Field Championships, along with about 100 other out-of-competition tests that Madden specially ordered from July 25 to Sept. 1.
According to yesterday's U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announcement, "several" of those tests came back positive for THG and the athletes involved have been notified.
The next step is for the B sample – tests are routinely split in two and tested twice – to be examined in the presence of the athletes, followed by a review board to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed with a doping offense. Should those athletes be found guilty, they would face two-year competition bans and miss the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece.
To beat drug tests, some athletes are believed to use what are called designer steroids – essentially a known steroid that is chemically altered so that it possesses the same muscle-building properties but is undetectable to testing machinery.
THG is a cross between gestrinone and trenbolone, two steroids that appear on international lists of banned substances. Madden said athletes placed "two or three drops" under their tongue and that the muscle-building effects could last more than a month while its chemical fingerprint remained in the urine for less than a week.
"This is a very sophisticated designer steroid created by a very sophisticated chemist," Madden said.