Steroid Nation

Chief executive of USA Track & Field exhorts President Bush not to pardon Marion Jones

Marion Jones, tacked away snuggly  in a Texas federal prison, wrote to President Bush asking for a pardon.  The head of the track federation who witnessed her drug-cheating drew up a counter-proposal: DON'T.

Doug Logan -- cheif executive of US Track and Field -- wrote an open letter to President Bush exhorting him not to wipe off Marion Jones's fast sins.  The New York Times elaborates:

“Our country has long turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of our heroes,” Doug Logan wrote in an open letter to President Bush. Logan was named chief executive of the sport’s national governing body last week. “If you have athletic talent or money or fame, the law is applied much differently than if you are slow or poor or an average American trying to get by. At the same time, all sports have for far too long given the benefit of the doubt to its heroes who seem too good to be true, even when common sense indicates they are not.

“To reduce Ms. Jones’s sentence or pardon her would send a horrible message to young people who idolized her, reinforcing the notion that you can cheat and be entitled to get away with it. A pardon would also send the wrong message to the international community. Few things are more globally respected than the Olympic Games, and to pardon one of the biggest frauds perpetuated on the Olympic movement would be nothing less than thumbing our collective noses at the world.”

Jones, as we all recall, vehemently denied use of PEDs even to the point of a defamation suit against BALCO executive Victor Conte, whose ring distributed steroids to Jones.  Jones was also involved in fraud with her partner drug-cheat Tim Montgomery.

Jones is among about 2,300 offenders seeking pardons and commutations during the final months of President Bush’s term in office. Her lawyer, Henry J. DePippo, did not respond to a request for comment.

The letter sent by Logan was a striking departure from the often-timid remarks made by leaders of various Olympic sports federations. It reflected the anger that many antidoping officials felt after Jones called into question the legitimacy of drug-testing procedures before acknowledging that she had taken illicit substances.

Will the President pardon an Olympian who used weapons of mass enhancement?

Carl W. Tobias, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Richmond School of Law and who has tracked President Bush’s pardons, said the chances that Jones would receive a pardon appeared “pretty long and may be getting longer,” in light of Logan’s letter.

Tobias said that Bush had been “extremely stingy” in granting pardons, compared with other recent presidents, and that Jones’s high profile could work against her.

“I just think she would somehow be perceived as getting some slack because of who she was,” Tobias said.

“So much attention is trained on her, and maybe that makes it more difficult than if she were someone who is less well known.”

D (dope) Day for UK's Dwain Chambers

Today, the UK's premier sprinter Dwain Chambers learns whether his appeal to the country's Olympic committee will allow the tainted sprinter to compete at Beijing in 2008.

Chambers case is particularly disturbing.  Chambers worked with tainted coach Remi Korchemny who obtained drugs from BALCO.  Chambers did not just use a little nandrolone from supplements; he doped with the cream, and the clear (anabolic steroids) HGH, insulin, and modafinil.

Chambers legal case stems from the BOA (British Olympic Association) lifetime ban for drug-cheats.  Chambers contends this is restraint of trade (interesting; couldn't any common criminal in prison claim this?).  The BOA fears a protracted battle.

A formidable array of opponents line up against the disgraced sprinter.  The Telegraph for instance.  A long list of UK Olympic athletes including Chambers sprinting foe Craig Pickering, oppose the sprinter's Olympic dreams.  Famous UK track coach Frank Dick also opposes the sprinter.

Chambers is seeking a temporary injunction against the British Olympic Association's rule that prevents athletes who have committed a serious doping offence from representing Team GB at future Games. As Chambers becomes the first athlete to challenge the BOA rule in court Jo Pavey, Martyn Rooney and Goldie Sayers, three leading British track and field athletes, have joined the large contingent supporting the 16-year-old bylaw.

Two weeks ago, when the British Athletes' Commission revealed more than 100 members had signed its petition to keep the bylaw, only Craig Pickering, the sprinter, and 800 metres runner Becky Lyne were among Chambers' contemporaries to have put pen to paper. But since then Beijing-bound Pavey, the Commonwealth 5,000m silver medallist, the 400m runner Rooney and javelin thrower Sayers have said yes to the bylaw remaining in place. Helen Clitheroe, Andrew Steele and Will Sharman are among others who have signed the petition along with the former Olympic champions Sally Gunnell and David Hemery.

The Times Online discusses the Chambers legal challenge:

Dwain Chambers will sit in Court 76 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today and await a verdict that could define his career or end it. If the sprinter is successful in gaining an historic injunction temporarily lifting his Olympic ban, he will be added to Great Britain’s modest list of medal contenders for the Games in Beijing. If he fails then, subject to an appeal, he may have nowhere left to run.

Jonathan Crystal, QC, will argue that the BOA bylaw banning convicted dopers for life is “an unreasonable restraint of trade”. The irony is that Chambers’s trade has been restrained by Euromeetings, an umbrella group of leading promoters who decided last year not to issue invitations to drugs cheats. Chambers has been able to run only at low-level meetings this year and remains excluded from the grand-prix circuit.

Crystal will say that it is unfair that the sprinter has served a two-year doping ban, in accordance with the rules of the IAAF, the sport’s world governing body, but still has an Olympic ban. He will state that other countries do not have such a bylaw and a number of former offenders will be competing in Beijing. Robert Englehart, QC, for the BOA, will ask why it has taken Chambers four years to present his case.

However the Birmingham Post offers a spirited defense of Chambers:

To describe the issue as difficult does not even begin to untangle the many threads that have become so twisted. The High Court will decide on the legal position, whether Chambers can go to Beijing, but there is no one to arbitrate the moral case. Should he be allowed?

The answer to that depends on an individual’s beliefs about the what is good for athletics and what is good for Dwain Chambers the person.

Clearly as a human being Chambers knows he has done wrong and is contrite but more importantly clean of the seven banned substances he once used to cheat himself, his friends and his rivals.

There may be a physiological legacy of the drugs he has taken and some mental benefits having experienced certain high pressure situations he might not otherwise have reached. Both are valid concerns but as things stand neither can be proved - or disproved.

What we are left with, therefore, is a series of related issues each of which seem to point towards Chambers being allowed to run in Beijing.

There is apprehension about the message it would send out, a fear that other, younger athletes would look at his case and deduce that a two-year ban is a small sacrifice to pay for a shot at an Olympic gold medal.

That theory breaks down because if they serve a ban they will have been caught and will have been stripped of their medal.

The Telegraph calls Chambers regimen of drugs (he admits to) "The Magnificant Seven"  Chambers drug cocktail is typical VIcto Conte PED use.

Dwain Chambers took the following seven drugs, according to Victor Conte, of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), who supplied him:

• Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG): Once undetectable, this is the designer steroid, nicknamed "the clear", that Chambers tested positive for in 2003.
• Testosterone cream: Used in winter to work alongside THG.
• Erythropoietin (EPO): Boosts the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells and once thought to be used solely in stamina-based sports.
• Human Growth Hormone: By injection and used during the winter to aid recovery from heavy weight sessions.
• Insulin: Another one used during heavy winter training and used in conjunction with dextrose, whey protein and creatine.
• Modafinil: The American sprinter and drug-cheat Kelli White tried to get away with this stimulant as a treatment for narcolepsy. One tablet is taken an hour before competition.
• undefined: Used to accelerate the metabolic rate before races. Two tablets taken one hour before competition.

Trevor Graham receives the ban of a lifetime.

Trevor Graham, the man with the dope plan, the man with the binge on a syringe, received a lifetime ban from track activities from the USTAF, the USADA, and the IAAF.  Graham fits into the BALCO puzzle of drug cheats.

Graham, the once leader at Sprint Capital USA, not only led sprinters like Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery down the dope and steroid path, he mailed Victor Conte's syringe with THG (the clear) to the USADA as a tip-off (that sure didn't buy him mercy).  Graham also testified at the BALCO grand jury, only not so truthfully; for his testimony he received a perjury conviction.  Today's lifetime ban appears very harsh.  (here the NY Times says a 2 year ban was considered for Graham in 2006)

To IHT:

Athletics coach Trevor Graham received a lifetime ban from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Tuesday for his role in helping his athletes obtain performance-enhancing drugs.

Graham has been banned from participating in any event sanctioned by the U.S. Olympic Committee, the IAAF, USA Track and Field or any other group that participates in the World Anti-Doping Agency program.

He was convicted in May of one count of lying to U.S. government investigators about his relationship to an admitted steroids dealer. He's still awaiting sentencing and has asked a judge to toss out his conviction.

Graham already was banned from all USOC-sponsored facilities and had essentially become a pariah in his sport, connected with too many athletes involved in doping — including Marion Jones and former 100-meter world-record holders Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery.

The USADA lectured Graham on stiff penalties and deterrence.  Why then are 3 ex-dopers on the USA Olympics team?  Just asking.

"While drug use by athletes is a serious wrong to be addressed with stiff penalties, involvement in doping by a coach is even more reprehensible and must be dealt with through the most severe of all sanctions," USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement. "It is truly disgraceful when a coach uses his position to assist athletes under his care in doping."

Graham was nailed with these offenses:

• Tampering with or attempting to tamper with any part of doping control.
• Possession of prohibited substances and methods.
• Trafficking in any prohibited substance or prohibited method.
• Administration or attempted administration of a prohibited substance or prohibited method to any athlete or assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, covering up or any other type of complicity involving an anti-doping rules violation or any attempted violation.

Most of the BALCO athletes moved on after the scandal, and many were found guilty of other legal offenses too, including the imprisoned Marion Jones.

Few of Graham's former athletes are still in athletics. Montgomery, who was banned for life, was sentenced in May to nearly four years in prison for his role in a New York-based check-kiting conspiracy and pleaded guilty July 3 to distributing heroin. Gatlin is serving a four-year doping ban, and Jones is serving a six-month prison sentence for lying to U.S. government investigators about a check-fraud scam and her doping.

The most notable survivor is Shawn Crawford, the defending Olympic 200-meter champion. Crawford will run the 200 in Beijing and now trains with Bob Kersee, who also coaches sprinter Allyson Felix.

Though Crawford wasn't ever involved in the doping scandal, his name came up because Graham was a key player.

Daily Steroids Dose

1.  More on Roger Clemens's legal problems. The good news is that Clemens would be a first time offender. (SI)

2.  MMA fighter Alexandre "Pequeno" Nogueira tests positive for steroids.  (MMA Fighting.com)

3.  Jason Giambi's new image: the mustache...next a Corvette.  (The Missoulian)

4.  New Mexico security guard is a felon with weapons, 'roids, and a Whizzinator. (KOB)

5.   Hard not to be cynical when watching extraordinary athletic performances these days post-pharmacology.  (LA Times)

6.   Dwain Chambers seeks injunction to run in Olympics.  (Times Online)

Does Dara Torres suffer from a double standard of doping scrutiny?

Interesting column from the normally logical Gwen Knapp today.  She wonders why a 40 year-old male like Barry Bonds received a free pass when he belted a home run every time he spit, meanwhile a successful 41 year-old female swimmer -- Dara Torres --  comes under the intense scrutiny of the doping-suspicions crowd. (Torres simply delivered a baby at age ~39, then records 5% faster times in her postpartum swimming years than she did in her college competitions; maybe she cut down on that college drinking).

We are going to suffer from the fallout after we deliver our opinion, however it is obvious where this is going: a double standard of men receiving the pass and women receiving grief.  Knapp might have added in the double standard between Euro and African genes -- some say African-American athletes suffer discrimination and thus are accused of doping more often than Euro athletes.  We can't keep up with all the double standards...

A 41-year-old woman did the impossible. Dara Torres swam faster than she ever did before, making her fifth Olympic team. As a result, she faced questions about doping, suspicions she fully expected and completely deserved.

But when Barry Bonds, at age 37, suddenly went from a great hitter to a supernatural one, increasing his home run output by nearly 50 percent, the media didn't put him on the defensive about steroids. It would take a lot more than 73 home runs in a single season to make that happen.

When Lance Armstrong returned from cancer treatment and transformed himself from a cyclist who barely could get through a Tour de France into the imperial master of the event, no American reporter dared challenge the authenticity of his accomplishment.

We've come a long way since the BALCO investigation schooled us on performance-enhancing drugs. But how far have we really come? Olympians are still held to higher standards than better-known jocks, and women somehow keep paying higher prices for doping awareness than their male peers.

A great deal of water flowed under the doping bridge since Barry Bonds lit up the night with steroid-fueled home runs in 2001.  BALCO. Operation Puerto.  The Mitchell Report. The Carolina Panther Superbowl Scandal.  More Tour de France scandals involving luminaries like Floyd Landis.  Of all these various doping and steroid scandals, only several women trickled out of the predominantly male scandals: Marion Jones, Chryste Gaines,  and cyclist Tammy Thomas to name several of BALCO fame.  Jones and Thomas exacerbated part of their plights: the simple doping truth would have saved their souls and actually their careers.  (And why is BALCO-linked swimmer Amy Van Dyken less notorious than Jones or Thomas?  Gender bias?)

Point is that the sporting public is much much more aware of steroids and HGH and insulin and modafinil now than in 1998 when McGwire and Sosa set personal bests in home run totals, not in the 50 freestyle.

Performance alone rarely triggers widespread suspicion in the media, but it sufficed for accusations against Torres and, 20 years ago, Florence Griffith-Joyner. The same scrutiny does not apply to men until they have a failed test on their record, federal investigators on their tails or a member of their entourage under indictment.

Oh really? Roger Clemens comes to mind.  How many dope tests did Roger Clemens fail?  The Rocket suffered more scrutiny than anyone since Bill Clinton over the past year.  Time and time again fans referred to Clemens rather mundane pitching numbers in his last years with Boston, and the sudden revitalization of the 34 year (that's right 34, not 41) at Toronto.  No doping positives there either.  Clemens doesn't even live with an endocrinologist, although wife Debbie is expert in HGH use.

Need some other names who never failed a test, yet are mentioned in doping: Brady Anderson and Luis Gonzalez come under scrutiny for storybook -- but unusually dubious -- sporting achievements.  None is admitting to cooking the books (or their looks), nor are Internet pharmacy receipts found for these males, yet the steroids-scrutiny continues on.

Is there some belief in male athletic accomplishment, perhaps its confirmation of masculinity, that does not surrender as easily to the realities of doping? Or is it simply that the most prominent women tend to be Olympians, and we expect greater purity from athletes who represent our country? Whatever the reason, men get to spin their fairy tales with less resistance.

Fairly tales with less resistance?  How about Usain Bolt, a young athlete setting the world record in the 100M?  In his 3rd or 4th 100M he was under scrutiny for doping, with nothing much known about the guy.  The Y chromosome sure didn't save his butt from the hot spotlight of doping suspicion.  Every remarkable achievement in sports henceforth will come under 'PED scrutiny'; such is modern life post-pharmacology.

(more controversy after the jump)

Daily Steroids Dose, July 4th Edition

1.  Morgan Hamm takes shot in the dark; corticosteroid shot may not be OK.  (San Fran Chronicle) (LA Times)

2.  Toronto cops in trouble for large drug ring, including steroids.  (CTV) (UPI)

3.  Former 100M world record holder and BALCO cheat Tim Montgomery pleads guilty to heroin charges.  (Sporting Life) (AP)

4.  The PGA kicks off dope testing.  (AP)

5.  Lord Coe not happy with Dwain Chambers's legal challenge.  (The Telegraph)

6.  Was Hawaiian firefighter selling Chinese steroids?  (Honolulu Advertiser)

Doping in swimming: Gary Hall vents about PEDs

The Washington Post, with other outlets, reports on HOF swimmer Gary Hall's thought about doping in swimming.  Hall displays a  pragmatic viewpoint of the topic.

Gary Hall Jr. realizes that new technology in swimsuit design will receive much of the credit for the slew of world records that have fallen -- and are likely to fall -- during this Olympic year. But the brutally frank Hall, who has spent many of his 33 years rankling those who run his sport, said Sunday he suspects the use of performance-enhancing drugs in swimming is far more rampant than most athletes and coaches admit.

Hall points out that sport in general appears inundated with drug-cheating, pushing anti-doping agencies to the limit to keep up.

Doping has existed in the sport in the past, that's true," Hall said. "Do I think it's getting worse? Yeah, I do."   Hall, the two-time defending gold medal winner in the 50-meter freestyle, is at the U.S. Olympic trials trying to make his fourth Olympic team. He said he understands that as sports such as track, baseball and weightlifting have been dragged down by drug scandals, swimming has remained largely unscathed. Though he stressed he has no direct evidence, he clearly believes that cleanliness runs only so deep.

"Unfortunately, we rely on an inadequate doping system -- doping agencies -- for the proof," Hall said. "We live in a society where you're innocent until proven guilty -- the key word being 'proven.' We don't have any way of proving people are cheating."

How is testing in the swimming world?

Hall pointed out that many athletes who have been discredited have been swept up in other scandals, such as that involving the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), rather than caught by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Athletes at the trials will be randomly tested for banned substances, and officials from USA Swimming said they believe their athletes are clean because the sport demands they be so...

Hall countered that, "I have no idea where the sport is, but to think that it doesn't exist would be foolish," particularly with more money pouring into the sport.  

Even with such strong words, Hall said he would reserve full judgment until after the eight-day event here, in which he will only swim the 50 freestyle, and sees performances with Speedo's new technologically improved suit. But he also brought up the women's teams from 1970s East Germany, long suspected of doping, who broke records that were then attributed to new swimsuits.

Was Hal ever thinking of Dara Torres?

Daily Steroids Dose

1.  Will anyone enjoy track again?  (ESPN)

2. Drug-cheat Dwain Chambers runs as low as 10.06; prepares to fight lifetime Olympic ban  (The Sun)

3.  A little older story on Brian Roberts and his faith overcoming steroids taint.  (Lancaster Online)

4.  Ex-drug suspended Torri Edwards moves closer to qualifying for the Olympics.  (SI.com)

5.  Rick Dutrow sealing his reputation as a steroid-pushing jerk.  (Daily News)

6.  On Monday, Floyd Landis (remember him) finds out if he won the 2006 Tour de France (ESPN)

The CourierMail claims 'Australian Mastermind' behind giant doping conspiracy

In a very secretive story, the Australian newspaper the CourierMail says an 'Australian mastermind' lies behind a huge conspiracy to export steroids out of China.  Story Here:

AUTHORITIES fear an Australian expatriate in China is the mastermind of an Olympic doping operation after a giant steroids shipment was intercepted.

Customs agents discovered 40kg of steroids in a shipment from China at Port Botany in Sydney, prompting a global investigation involving US drug investigators.

They have tracked the source of the drugs to an Australian-born man who is based in China.

Authorities fear he could be part of a syndicate attempting to supply substances to cheating athletes at the Beijing Olympics in August.

"He is possibly targeting the Olympics," Australian Customs national investigations manager Richard Janeczko said.

"Customs is working with international partners to establish his whereabouts in China. But given where the Games are being held it is a concern."

Talk about mysterious?  Who is this mastermind?  The Australian version of Victor Conte?

(The Australian Anti-Doping agency has been) working with Chinese anti-doping agents and the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

The record haul was intercepted in March last year at Port Botany.

The steroids were disguised in bulk canisters labelled "amino acids".

The shipment, in powder form, weighed 80kg, with 40kg of the active performance-enhancing substance.

"We believe there is a demand for this sort of stuff in Australia," Mr Janeczko said. "These quantities most likely would have been turned into tablets or capsules."

He said China was a logical source of performance-enhancing drugs because of its vast chemical industry.

"The Chinese are really being quite cooperative," he said. "Because of China's large chemical manufacturing sector, both it and India are the places you go to get this stuff."

ASADA chief executive Richard Ings said that while he could not comment, "as a matter of policy, there is a seamless sharing of information between ASADA and Customs on matters of mutual interest".

The Justin Gatlin gun fires off appeal after appeal

World class sprinter Justin Gatlin went back to court -- again -- yesterday and today in Georgia, in another attempt to obtain permission, or contrition to run at the US Olympic Trials in Oregon.  (AHN has the story)

Banned sprinter Justin Gatlin filed another appeal Wednesday following a latest decision upholding a ban preventing him from competing in the upcoming U.S. Trials.

Gatlin thru this lawyer Joseph Zarzaur filed a "motion for injunction" on Wednesday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta asking that he be allowed to compete in the 100-meter event scheduled to start Saturday in Eugene, Ore. A similar motion has also been filed with U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier in Pensacola, Fla., who on Tuesday reversed an earlier ruling allowing him to compete in the U.S. Trials this weekend despite the doping suspension.

"It is another effort to persuade the courts to allow Justin to participate in the upcoming Olympic trials pending resolution of his appeal," Zarzaur, who has urged the appeal court for a speedy disposition due to the qualifying events slated to begin Saturday, told AFP. "This is not an issue of eligibility but an issue of discrimination."

Gatlin's lawyer are saying that with the present appeal they are not challenging the authority of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in determining the spots for the national Olympic team but are only trying to ensure that the sprinter's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act be upheld.

As we noted, Gatlin's Florida appeal which first resulted in a restraining order allowing him to run at the Trial, was withdrawn Monday by the Pensacola judge.

As we go to press, the AP notes that the 11th Circuit Court denied Gatlin this appeal too.

A federal court has denied sprinter Justin Gatlin's appeal to run in the U.S. Olympic track trials this weekend.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that Gatlin has not shown he meets the "applicable standard for such an injunction."

Earlier this month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a four-year ban against Gatlin for doping violations, but the defending Olympic champion in the 100 meters went to federal court seeking to run in trials starting Saturday.

He said he had been discriminated against under the Americans with Disabilities Act because his first doping violation was for taking prescribed medication to treat attention deficit disorder.

The U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency argued that federal courts did not have jurisdiction In the case, an argument U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier agreed with Tuesday when he withdrew the temporary restraining order he had originally granted the week before.

Gatlin sought an emergency injunction from the appeals court, but was denied.

It would have been a wise idea to avoid all this legal wrangling by not doping up in the first place or listening to Coach Trevor Graham...save the Gatlin gun's firing for on-track events.