Steroid Nation

Doping in track is alive and well: Five Brazilian track athletes named as drug cheats

A number of Brazilian track athletes will receive an early exit from the world championships in Germany, reported as doping suspects.  To the AP:

Brazilian officials say five athletes preparing for the upcoming world track and field championships in Germany have failed doping tests.

The Brazilian athletics confederation says Bruno Lins Tenorio de Barros, Jorge Celio da Rocha Sena, Josiane da Silva Tito, Luciana Franca and Lucimara Silvestre presented "adverse results" in out-of-competition tests conducted by the confederation on June 15.

The athletes, who were already in Germany for this month's competition, requested their B samples be tested and are returning to Brazil to present their defence.

Three of the five athletes were at the Beijing Olympics last year - Barros helped Brazil finish fourth in the 4x100 metre relay, Silvestre competed in the women's heptathlon and Tito was in the women's 4x400 relay.

A number of Beijing 2008 Olympians included in this group.  One would not expect them to have suddenly become dopers in the past year...if you catch our drift.

The photos of Franca and Tito appear a bit strange....androgen influence?

2007 Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca drops positive urine for CERA EPO

The New York Times reports that 2007 Gyro de Italia champion Danilo Di Luco tested positive for CERA EPO during this year's race (surprise).

CERA EPO is Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator (CERA) as form of Erythropoietin (EPO).  The kidney naturally produces the hormone EPO, which stimulates red blood cell proliferation.  CERA is a larger molecule that is not eliminated by the kidneys as easily as 'regular' EPO, t his making it a longer acting up-regulator of RBC production.

The attraction of doping athletes for CERA appears to be the thought that a new molecule would slip through the detection process...doping control....giving the athlete a PED boost.  Athletes will try to get by with cheating as long as they think the cheating is undetectable.

The Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca, the 2007 Giro d’Italia champion, tested positive for the blood booster CERA twice at the Giro d’Italia in May, the International Cycling Union said in a statement on Wednesday.

Di Luca, the runner-up at the Giro, is the leader of the LPR Brakes-Farnese Vini team, a squad that was not invited to participate in the Tour de France. At the Giro, Di Luca finished 41 seconds behind Denis Menchov.

The cycling union said it provisionally suspended Di Luca, 33, after a Paris laboratory found traces of CERA in his blood.

“These adverse findings were a direct result of a targeted test program conducted on Mr. Di Luca using information from his biological passports blood profile, previous test results and his race schedule,” the cycling union said.

Neither of Di Luca’s backup blood samples has been tested for traces of CERA, an anemia-fighting substance that is a new generation of the drug EPO, which is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Both EPO and CERA stimulate bone marrow to produce more oxygen-carrying red blood cells, but CERA is longer lasting and requires fewer injections.

Antidoping rules say Di Luca has the right to have both samples retested in his presence or in the presence of a representative.

He will remain provisionally suspended until the Italian Cycling Federation holds a hearing to determine whether Di Luca had violated antidoping rules.

This year’s Tour, which ends Sunday in Paris, has not had any positive doping tests.

2009 Kentucky Derby first in history to check for steroids post-race

Last year Big Brown juiced before he won the Kentucky Derby.  This year, if a horse uses the same drug as Brown (Winny, stanozolol), he gone. Post race steroids testing will be administered to the top 4 finishers for the first time in Derby history. To the Press-Enterprise

The biggest change at this year's Kentucky Derby won't be noticed by any fan or disrupt the routine of any horse. In fact, its only evidence will be sealed and stored in a padlocked refrigerator minutes after the race.

For the first time, the signature American thoroughbred race is screening for anabolic steroids -- a quiet step that industry officials are hoping will help the sport's image.

"Our existence depends on public confidence," longtime breeder Arthur Hancock said. "If we lose that, we lose our livelihood. Its extremely important we get this mess cleaned up."

Last year's Derby winner, Big Brown, was on steroids at the time of his victory -- a fact known only because trainer Rick Dutrow acknowledged he injected the horse with the then-legal steroid stanozolol.

If this year's winner tests positive for more than a trace amount of stanozolol, the horse will be disqualified and the trainer subjected to a lengthy suspension.

The race gained some excitement this morning with the favorite scratched.

Russian biathlon athletes suspected of doping

M and C reports a couple Russian biathlon athletes tested positive for doping at a recent meet.

Two Russian biathletes who tested positive at the recent national championships

were named by Russian news agency RIA Novosti Tuesday as Andrey Prokunin und Veronika Timofeyeva.

The agency cited confidential sources for its report but there was no comment from the Russian biathlon federation.

A-samples of the two skiers tested positive for the blood-booster EPO, it was reported. Follow-up B-samples will be returned next week.

Russian biathletes Ekaterina Iourieva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitri Yaroshenko were tested positive for the same drug at the biathlon World Cup season-opener in Ostersund, Sweden, last December.

The trio were identified as drug cheats after the examination of their B-samples ahead of February's world championships

in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Prokunin, 30, was a member of the Russian relay team which finished fourth at the 2001 world championships. Timofeyeva, 27, was second at the 2003 Universiade in Tarvisio, Italy.

Both have rejected the doping allegations, RIA Novosti reported.

Lance Armstrong accused of violating anti-doping protocol

Although it's is a tempest in a teapot in a way, the charge does hold importance.  The AP says a French doping agency accuses Lance Armstrong of breaking protocol when an agent paid a visit to the multiple Tour de France winner last month.

Armstrong blew off the anti-doping physician for a time, showering etc. while the tester waited.  The tests (urine, blood, hair) turned up negative, which is the teapot part.   However as any enterprising athlete knows a 20-30 minute break can enable all kids of shenanigans to thwart dope testing...and this is well practiced among professional cyclists.

Lance haters will pile on; Lance defenders will scream in anguish.  The rest of us will likely stay nauseated.

France's anti-doping agency says seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong violated its rules and that it could punish him.

French doctors say they tested Armstrong's hair, urine and blood March 17. They say they found no traces of drugs.

However, the agency, known as AFLD, said in a statement Thursday that a doctor charged with testing Armstrong last month claimed Armstrong "did not respect the obligation to remain under the direct and permanent observation" of the tester.

The AFLD says it is can impose sanctions on the American rider, but didn't indicate what they would be.

Armstrong is in training to ride in this year's Tour.

Somethings getting hairy with Lance Armstrong: Report sent to WADA and UCI

The Hartford Courant says WADA and UCI received a report on Lance Armstrong's recent haircut.
A hair sample? That's what France is banking on in its report to the International Cycling Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

A sample of Lance Armstrong's hair, taken during an out-of-competition test in Beaulieu-sur-Mer in southern France, was sent to be analyzed. Testing of hair samples is allowed under French law, but is not recognized by WADA or the UCI.

French Doping Agency chief Pierre Bordry declined to disclose details of the report. "I sent [the report] in order to get an opinion on the matter. I am not making any judgments," Bordry said.

Armstrong said it was the first time he had to provide a hair sample. He said the test "butchered" his haircut.

Cycling Weekly says the report discusses Armstrong's behavior.  Gee, that's news.

The French Anti-Doping Authority (AFLD) has filed a report on Lance Armstrong's behaviour during a recent out-of-competition drug test. Both the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have received the report.

The exact nature of the report has not been revealed, but it is likely that Armstrong was not happy to have an impromptu haircut.

The seven-times Tour de France champion was visited in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, on Tuesday, March 17, whilst training for July's Tour de France. AFLD inspectors requested the usual blood and urine samples, and also removed a sample of hair for analysis.

"Yet another 'surprise' anti-doping control," wrote Armstrong on his Twitter site a day later. "This one from the French authorities. Urine, blood, and hair! Classic..."

Armstrong had to get his hair cut short after the sample was taken as the testers had left it "butchered".

No wonder Armstrong wanted his own unique Catlin-testing protocol.  That would retain his flamboyant hairstyle, seen at the left (um, pretty droll).

Catching up with steroid and PED stories

1.  Bike Radar reviews biological passports.

2.  Ex-Olympian ran steroids smuggling scheme...David Jenkins.  Evening News, Edinburgh.

3.  Get your steroids at a Dominican pharmacy, it's easy.  Newsday.

4.  Former 'roider in New York blames his cardiac problems on past steroids use.  Metrowest Daily News.

Lance Armstrong breaks collarbone in Spanish pile-up. All those dope tests wasted?

The Philly Daily News says Lance Armstrong suffered a broken clavicle (collarbone) in a pile-up at a race in Spain yesterday.

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong crashed during a pileup in the first stage of the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon cycling race in Spain and suffered a broken collarbone.

Armstrong will need surgery, leading to questions about whether he'll be able to contend for an eighth title in July.

"I'm alive!" he wrote on his Twitter feed. "Broken [right] clavicle. Hurts like hell for now. Surgery in a couple of days. Thanks for all the well wishes."

Armstrong will fly back to the United States to have surgery.

Astana team leader Johan Bruyneel said on his Twitter feed there were no complications in the break, and suggested Armstrong could be riding soon.

In London, The Times thinks Armstrong's exit might be good for pro cycling:

 Until last weekend, when the real business of Armstrong as an elite cyclist and Tour contender began, everything had gone to plan. There had been much glad-handing around the world, some showboating in a couple of lesser races in Australia and California, the now-traditional casual put-downs of anti-doping campaigners and a little sledging towards his major rival — on this occasion, his own Astana team-mate, Alberto Contador...

...For his detractors — and there are many both in Europe and in America — the prospect of the multi-millionaire packing up his train set and heading back to Texas will be a huge relief. While publicity accompanies his every move, and a key part of the raison d’etre for his comeback is his global cancer campaign, suspicion also shadows him at every turn of the pedals.

The platform of transparency and openness with which he trumpeted his return has quietly been forgotten, while Don Caitlin’s unimpeachable testing programme — that Armstrong insisted would go ahead — was poorly thought through and never got off the ground. Arm in a sling as he flies home to Texas, he will now be desperate to prevent his racing comeback following the same fate.

Pro wrestler Abismo Negro found dead in Mexican river; Blame goes to steroids

Authorities found (now) ex-pro wrestling legend Abismo Negro ("The Black Abyss") floating down a Mexican river on Sunday.  The story/explanation sounds bizarre.  To Wrestling-Edge:

Andrés Alejandro Palomeque González, better known as Abismo Negro in AAA, was found dead in a river in Mexico yesterday. The lucha wrestler was 37.

No definite cause of death has been determined as of yet, nor has foul play been ruled out.

According to a bus driver who was transporting González and other passengers to Mexico City, González became agitated, almost panicked and demanded to be let off the bus despite it being 1:30 in the morning. After leaving the bus, González found himself lost on the dark hillside, confirmed by a text message he sent to his wife. After receiving the text, his wife contacted local wrestling promoter Vicente Martinez, who organized a search party.

Yesterday morning, González was found floating face down in the river. There has been talk that he may have gotten stuck in mud and was unable to free himself. The body was removed from the river and positively identified as Gonzalez. The local coroner confirmed that the anxiety attack led to the events of his death. He also noted that anabolic steroids being taken by Gonzalez at the time could have caused his anxiety attack.

The steroids/anxiety attack explanation sounds hokey.  Indeed Gonzalez may have taken steroids (appears to go with the pro wrestling profession).  However 'anxiety attack' caused by anabolic steroids leading to confusion and death might be pushing it.

The wrestler might have suffered a heart attack or a stroke, leading to confusion.  Very common.  That confusion could have led to more panic and disorientation.  Or it all could be foul play.

Considering the general cocktail of anabolic drugs pro wrestlers ingest - AASs, HGH, insulin, thyroid hormones, it is a wonder their heart makes it past 40.  Oh yeah, it often doesn't.

Early in his career, González went under the ring name Winners, a masked male dancer, who teamed with former WCW wrestler Super Calo during the early glory days of the AAA promotion. At the TripleMania II-A show in April 1994, Winners formed a trio with Rey Misterio and Rey Misterio, Jr. The following year, he lost his mask in a feud with Calo.

González changed his appearance in 1997 and became Abismo Negro in 1997. He wrestled at the 1997 Royal Rumble in San Antonio at the Alamo Dome by taking part in a "Free-For-All" pre-show match alongside Heavy Metal and Histeria. His team lost to Octagón, Blue Demon, Jr. and Tinieblas Jr. He also made two appearances on Raw in March of that year.

In 2004, Abismo Negro appeared in TNA by taking part in the World X Cup Tournament for Team Mexico.

German scientists claim lab test detects gene doping

The next big trend in doping will be gene doping...the implantation of genes to develop strength, endurance, coordination, or stamina.  If this process isn't already on the steroid black market, it appears to be a major future challenge, as the technique is undetectable.  Or thought to be undetectable; a German lab says it developed a process to detect gene doping.  From Deutche World:

German researchers say they have successfully developed a test to detect instances of gene doping. As doping in the sports world becomes more sophisticated, genetic engineering is seen as the next major threat.

The test traces a special substance, known as GW1516, which artificially increases the volume of so-called endurance muscles and enzymes that gain energy from fat. 

"For the first time, a substance for gene doping has been traced through mass spectrometry," the German Sports University Cologne (DSHS) said of the procedure, which was announced this week.

Mario Thevis, a researcher who helped develop the test, said it was ready for use.

Russian cross-country skier Matveyeva upended for doping

A Russian cross-country skier, Natalia Matveyeva (far right), ran afoul of the doping authorities.  She is a cross country skier of some consequence.  To the Canadian Press:

Russian cross-country skier Natalia Matveyeva has been suspended for doping, Russian news site Allsport reported Sunday.

The 22-year-old Matveyeva reportedly tested positive for EPO during a World Cup meet in January in Whistler, B.C.

Russian sprint team coach Tatyana Revina, who called the result a mistake, said a Russian expert who works with the team would be in Montreal when the "B sample" result is revealed Monday.

"We do not use doping technology in our work and there have been no doping ingredients in the preparations we use," Allsport quoted Revina as saying.

Russian cross-country officials could not be reached for comment.

French hair tests allegedly show 1 in 5 soccer players with evidence of steroids

A release from the AFLD -- the French doping control agency -- says that most of the positive tests show DHEA.  However, the hair samples hold no legal power in France.  Which makes it weird Lance Armstrong submitted to hair analysis.

Random tests on the hair of professional French football players, has revealed that there is frequent use of illegal, muscle-building steroids in the French game.

Of the footballers tested, results proved that one in five showed signs of having used banned steroids – mostly the anti-ageing hormone DHEA. Drug tests on hair samples have no legal basis in French law and are not implemented by sports governing bodies but the French anti-drugs agency believes that its "hair opinion poll" points to a submerged culture of drug-taking in football.

Pierre Bordry, the president of the Agence Française de Lutte contre le Dopage (AFLD) said: "Here is the proof that doping is not just something that happens in cycling."

Of the 32 professional footballers playing in the French First and Second divisions who were tested, out of 138 sportsmen, seven showed clear signs of having used steroids. The 21.8 per cent "hit" rate was the highest in any sport tested.

The anti-doping agency confirmed that it has no plans to reveal the names of the players who tested positive or to pass individual results to clubs or sports bodies.

Lance Armstrong losing hair over doping tests

Lance Armstrong submitted to a French doping test yesterday, which involved a hair sample.  Lance's latest close shave resulted in hair loos.  From Cycling Weekly:

Lance Armstrong has been given a free haircut by the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) during an out-of-competition test.

The seven-times Tour de France champion was visited in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, on Tuesday for his 24th out-of-competition test since announcing his comeback from retirement last year. Inspectors requested the usual blood and urine samples, and also removed a sample of hair for analysis.

"Yet another 'surprise' anti-doping control," wrote Armstrong on his Twitter site. "This one from the French authorities. Urine, blood, and hair! Classic..."

"So I'm clear - never complaining about these tests. Def part of the job. Feel targeted? Of course. But anything to prove I'm clean. Onward."

So brave. So bold.  And such short hair: apparently he needed a haircut to cover up the sampled areas.

Although this is the first time Armstrong has had hair removed for testing, obtaining a hair sample is not unusual in the fight against doping. Hair contains residual traces of substances ingested by the body - and they are retained in hair until that portion is cut. Therefore hair can be used to test for longer-term use of banned substances. However, it's not a completely fool-proof method as bleaching hair can destroy the markers left in it by certain substances.

Armstrong was working out in France, preparing for the 2009 Tour de France.

Why no positive for 'boli' (primobolan) in MLB testing for A-Rod?

Newsday wonders why Alex Rodriquez who admitted to using primobolan for at least 3 years, did not test positive for the anabolic steroid?

The MLB and MLB Players Association agreed to the 'screening' test in 2003.  As we know Sports Illustrated found credible information that A-Rod was among those players who tested positive.  However, according to the Mitchell Report, no MLB player tipped the scales with primobolan.

On Feb. 17, Alex Rodriguez held a news conference at the Yankees' spring training complex in Tampa intending to set the record straight about his steroid use, which had been reported by Sports Illustrated the previous week.

Nearly a month later, many of the questions raised by the original story have been answered...

If A-Rod really was taking Primobolan from 2001 to 2003, why didn't he test positive for that specific drug during the random survey in 2003? There may be a perfectly innocent explanation. Baseball needs to provide it...

...according to a breakdown of the drugs the players tested positive for in the 2003 survey released along with the Mitchell Report, not a single player tested positive for Primobolan.

According to the breakdown that was made public, 73 players tested positive for nandrolone, a hardcore oil-based injectable steroid also known as Deca-Durabolin; 26 for stanozolol, also known as Winstrol; eight for elevated levels of testosterone; five for boldenone, also known as Equipoise; three for methandrostenolone, or Dianabol, and one for clenbuterol, technically not a steroid at all but a bronchodilator used by athletes to cut fat.

Interetesting that no player tested positive for primobolan.  Also interesting that only 8 players tested positive for 'elevated testosterone'  Do we have any information that MLB looked at T:E ratios?  Onlny 8 positive for the most popular PED?

Consider A-Rod himself: Does this cast credibility on his story... or the man responsible for the testing?

Right now, baseball does its own in-house testing, by a lab contracted to work for Major League Baseball, and all results are evaluated by one man, Dr. Bryan Smith, who of course is paid by Major League Baseball.

(Dr. Smith also is the man who signed off on 106 therapeutic exemptions for players diagnosed with ADD, allowing them to use drugs such as Ritalin, a powerful stimulant, without penalty.)

This is not to impugn the integrity of any of those entities or individuals, simply to ask how much more reliable the data coming from them would be if the testing were administered by an entity entirely independent of the people it is testing.

MMA fighter Shamrock gets unlucky: tests positive for steroids

It will not be a happy St. Patrick's Day for MMA fighter Ken Shamrock.  He tested positive for a couple anabolic steroids after a recent fight.

Veteran MMA fighter Ken Shamrock has tested positive for anabolic steroids, the California State Athletic Commission said Wednesday.

Shamrock, who last competed for WarGods on Feb. 13 in Fresno, Calif., tested positive for 19-Norandrosterone, 19-Noretiocholanolone and stanozolol.

The commission said Shamrock, who has the right to appeal, had been  fined US$2,500 and suspended for a year, through  Feb. 1, 2010.

Shamrock (27-13-2) defeated Ross (The Grizzly) Clifton via submission one minute into the WarGods fight. Prior to that he had lost eight of his last 10 bouts, dating back to August 2000.

Green beer and beefy muscles for Patty's Day!

European researchers call for new standards in anabolic steroid/ testosterone testing

Everyone knows the current tests for anabolic steroids remain imperfect.  The tests either key on the testosterone/epitestosterone ratio (positive if testosterone is the doping agent) or measurements of the actual anabolic steroid itself.  Now European researchers report current metabolic/dope testing may be flawed along racial lines.

New steroid doping tests are needed for testing athletes, because current tests ignore important ethnic differences in hormone activity, researchers contend.

Testosterone and other hormones that increase testosterone levels are among the illegal performance-enhancing products most widely used in sports, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency. Evidence of this kind of cheating is determine by the testosterone/epitestosterone ratio (T:E ratio) in urine. The universal threshold is set above four and confirmed by gas chromatography, a type of chemical analysis.

But the current test is inadequate, according to the authors of a new study that tested soccer players of different ethnicities after they deliberately added steroids to their urine samples. The players, ages 18 to 36, included 57 blacks, 32 Asians, 32 Hispanics and 50 whites.

The researchers used gas chromatography to analyze the urine samples and took into account a variation in a gene known to account for different test results between white and Asian men. The gene, UGT2B17, affects metabolism, including the rate at which testosterone is passed out of the body into the urine.

The gene variation was found in 81 percent of the Asian players, 22 percent of the blacks, 10 percent of the whites and 7 percent of the Hispanic players. Based on the findings, the researcher recalibrated the thresholds for each ethnic group and suggested the following T:E ratios: 3.8 for Asian men, 5.6 for black men, 5.7 for white men and 5.8 for Hispanic men.

The study was released online and was expected to be published in a future print issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Dwain Chambers names track athletes, coaches, and contradictions in new book

The AP discusses UK sprinter Dwain Chambers's new book as more of the text is revealed.  Not surprisingly Chambers names more track athletes who used BALCO for doping including Kelli White.
British sprinter Dwain Chambers names several doping-tainted American athletes in his autobiography chronicling his use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Sprinters Kelli White, Chryste Gaines and Alvin Harrison, all of whom were busted for doping and served suspensions, are all mentioned when Chambers recounts his ties with BALCO founder Victor Conte.

"He kept telling me to talk to the other athletes, talk to my coach Remi (Korchemny), Chryste Gaines and Kelli, Alvin Harrison to name a few. I told him I would," Chambers writes in the book "Race Against Me: My Story...

"In time I became fully aware of Victor's role and his purpose in recruiting the best athletes in the world," Chambers writes. "Victor was a pharmacologist with a living to make."

Chambers says he started taking THG, also known as "The Clear," and other drugs such as HGH and EPO, in 2002 after meeting Conte in the United States while training.

"As time went on, I became more and more familiar with associating certain athletes with certain drugs. ... I made Kelli White my main confidante and the attraction grew by the day," writes Chambers, who says he dated White for more than a year.

White won the 100 and 200-meter races at the 2003 world championships in Paris, but both her medals were stripped after she tested positive for modafinil

Chambers, who admitted using 300 combinations of illegal PEDs assumes a strange and paradoxiacally moral attitude toward illict drug doping:

Although Chambers says both he and White "agreed that we hated having to cheat to win," he later says he didn't know THG was on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances.

"If THG was on there I was out of America on the very next flight and Victor Conte was history!" Chambers writes, but then later in the book adds, "I printed the list off. It ran to nearly eight pages. I went over it three times and found no reference at all to THG. Victor was right: it wasn't on the banned list."

"In my own mind, I wasn't cheating."

In earlier excerpts from the book printed in the Daily Mail, Chambers says he was a "walking junkie" and took "more than 300 different concoctions" of performance-enhancing drugs that cost him $30,000 a year.

"It wasn't a problem. I was earning big money at the time," Chambers writes.

White (photo right) who to her credit confessed to all the doping, is an example of how the drugs produce an incredible physique.  Once again, consider all records in the 'steroids era' to be at risk of PED taint. 

Chambers also hits the syringe on the head in the last statement.."The money..."

Also note the irony of calling Conte a 'pharmacologist'.

UK Sprinter Dwain Chambers lays out chilling inside look at track doping via BALCO

Carrying excerpts before the mid-March publication of Dwain Chambers new book "Race Against Me", The Daily Mail shows the chilling (and expensive) world of big time track doping.  Chambers admits to more than 300 drug cocktails from BALCO (and other sources).  To Earth Times:

London - Disgraced British sprinter Dwain Chambers admits in his forthcoming autobiography "Race Against Me" that he took a concoction of over 300 performance-enhancing drugs. In an installment published in Tuesday's Daily Mail ahead of next Monday's release, Chambers, who served a two-year ban after being found guilty of doping offences in 2003, said he had paid out 30,000 dollars a year for doping substances.

"I wasn't just on THG, EPO and HGH, but testosterone to help with sleep and reduce cholesterol," he said. "On Christmas Day (in 2002), as I sat in the bathroom with 'The Clear' (THG), I realized I had been taking drugs - more than 300 different concoctions - for 12 months.

During that time, Chambers says he passed 10 doping tests as well as winning the 100-metre gold medal at the 2002 European Championships. However, his times hadn't improved that dramatically and he was also often troubled by stomach cramps.

"When I was clean, my personal best was 9.97 seconds. A year on, after the sleepless nights, the anxiety, the pain of the cramps, the blood draws to make sure I wouldn't suffer a stroke, or worse, the inconsistent races and the disappointment of missing events, my PB (personal best) was 9.87 seconds," he wrote.

Some of the drugs: The clear (THG), testosterone, insulin, HGH . Provigil, T4, and EPO.  Dangerous...Yes.  Effective...apparently.  Chambers says his time went for a PB of 9.97 to 9.87, nice gains.  The cost, you can see above the price.

The discussions?  This discussing with Tim Montgomery about Conte and BALCO:

I  (Chambers)should have seen the danger signals when Montgomery snarled at me one day: ‘Yo, Dwain! You wit that n***** Conte? Don’t go anywhere near that c********r. Let me tell you, Chambers, he’s bad news.’

I was unnerved, but he didn’t elaborate. I didn’t know there was a huge row brewing between Montgomery and Conte. Tim had probably taken a well-educated guess that I was clean and didn’t want me dragged down. I just wish he had been more constructive, instead of hurling obscenities in the direction of Victor.

And a discussion with Conte:

Conte had convinced me that a new drug meant I could train harder and more often. He called it The Clear (THG) and The Cream.

‘Is it illegal?’ I asked.

‘It’s undetectable.’

‘Is it banned?’

‘The Clear is not on the prohibited list and neither will cause a positive test.’

‘Isn’t that cheating?

‘They’re cheating you, Dwain. You’re a talented athlete and you’re not competing on a level playing field. Most of the top sprinters are on steroids. Every time you race you’re at a disadvantage.’

Ah, rationalizations...

Anti-Steroid, anti-doping crusader and IRS agent Jeff Novitzky under the spotlight

ABC News posts a story on the journey of IRS agent Jeff Novitzky, who once tried out for Lute Olson at Arizona basketball, as he crusades against steroids and  doping and some say too zealously Barry Bonds.

The story starts in a California courtroom where Novitzky participated in the BALCO trial of Victor Conte.  And it will continue in the same courtroom:

Sometime in the next few months, Jeff Novitzky will walk back into the same 10th floor courtroom, raise his right hand and swear to tell the truth in the case of the United States v. Barry Lamar Bonds. He will say that Bonds lied in that same courthouse five years ago when he told the grand jury he never knowingly took steroids. And then he'll wait for the jury to decide if baseball's home run king was telling the truth.

But no matter what the jury decides -- and face it, most of us have already made up our minds about Bonds -- it is clear that the detective and his gun has replaced the scientist and his test tube. What isn't clear is whether Jeff Novitzky is part of the solution -- or if he's now the bigger part of the problem. 

Novitzky's early life was highlighted by the Olson connection:

There is nothing about Novitzky's life before Balco that suggests a man destined to direct the biggest investigation in sports history. Or one who would crave or abuse power. He grew up the son of a Bay Area hoops coach, a basketball and track star who still owns the San Mateo County high jump record of 7 feet. Coming out of high school in 1985, he tried out for Lute Olson's Arizona University basketball team. When he fell short, Novitzky returned home to play backup forward and teammate to his big brother at San Jose State.

His athletic career over, Novitzky got a degree in accounting and took a job in San Jose with the IRS's criminal division, a select group of agents who use tax laws and their guns to bust up all sorts of criminal operations.

After the jump we examine more of the extended story on Novitzky...

Dope and steroid testing comes down hard on Jamaica

The Globe carries a story documenting the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAFF) hard come down on Jamaica during the past year's dope testing.

The International Association of Athletics Federations is delighted to see Jamaica's athletes doing fast times — as long as they're not doing it on banned drugs.

The little Caribbean nation was listed yesterday as one of the five most tested nations in IAAF figures for out-of-competition testing released yesterday by the federation's head office in Monte Carlo.

Jamaican athletes, led by the world-record 100- and 200-metre times of sprinter Usain Bolt, dominated the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with 11 medals — six of them gold — in distances of a lap of less. Bolt, who set or shared in four world records last season and won a series of races in Europe, was one of the most tested athletes in the world.

More on dope testing Jamaican athletes after the jump...

A-Rod extras: Does this ever stop?

Like Roger Clemens before him, R-Rod might learn that being in the media spotlight is not good.  All kinds of stories coming out:

The Winnipeg Free Press tries to wrap things up on A-Rod.

 Say what you will about Alex Rodriguez -- call him A-Roid or A-Fraud -- but what the Yankees slugger has been doing since his hands were caught in the steroid jar promises to be a fascinating experiment of human sociology.

The Baltimore Sun says MLB is interested in A-Rod's buddies including Angel Presinal.

Primobolan in not OTC (over-the-counter) says the Dominican Republican via the Miami Hertald.

An official in the Dominican Republic is disputing one of Alex Rodriguez's statements in his news conference Tuesday, ESPN Deportes reported Friday.

Rodriguez said earlier this week in Tampa that he and his cousin, Yuri Sucart, purchased an over-the-counter drug, which he identified as ''boli,'' from a pharmacy in the Dominican Republic between 2001 and 2003. But Primobolan, one of the drugs that Rodriguez reportedly tested positive for, is not available for legal purchase with a prescription in the Dominican Republic, ESPN Deportes said. The network quoted Pia Veras, who oversees the agency that regulates pharmaceutical drugs in the Dominican Republic.

''What Alex Rodriguez stated in the press conference doesn't make sense,'' Veras said. ``It is important for us to clarify that such substance has not been registered, and is not currently registered for legal sale in Dominican pharmacies -- not now, and the same applies for the years 2001 to 2003.''

San Francisco judge bars positive steroid drug tests in Barry Bonds trial

Judge Susan Illston barred federal prosecutors from introducing 3 positive blood tests in Barry Bonds perjury trial to begin later this year.  The AP reports this story.  (New York Times story here)

Evidence in court must adhere to rules unique to courtrooms, and good for that.  However, the judge cannot banish those positive tests from the minds of baseball fans and Hall of Fame voters, where Barry Bonds really lives...tainted forever.  (BTW Bonds is looking pretty old in the photo)

A federal judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors cannot show jurors three positive steroid tests and other key evidence in the slugger's trial next month.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said the urine samples that tested positive for steroids are inadmissible because prosecutors cannot prove conclusively that they belong to Bonds. The judge also barred prosecutors from showing jurors so-called doping calendars that Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, allegedly maintained for the slugger.

The judge said prosecutors need direct testimony from Anderson to introduce such evidence. Anderson's attorney said the trainer will refuse to testify at Bonds' trial even though he is likely to be sent to prison on contempt of court charges.

However the judge did not bar us from continuing the story after the jump...

Alex Rodriguez faces media during spring training in Tampa; To make donation to Taylor Hooton anti-steroid Foundation

A-Rod opened spring training today with a press conference where he discussed steroid use.  He also announced that he will make a donation to the Taylor Hooton Foundation in Plano Texas.

Reports indicate A-Rod admitted to taking an over-the-counter preparation that contains anabolic steroids.   Although he just now admitted to injections  (the two are very different).

Listening to the press conference A-Rod dodged a question about 'cheating', but he blamed steroid use on being 'young and stupid'.  A-Rod identified his cousin as the supplier of the drug, transported from the Dominican Republic to the United States.

A-Rod is now invoking God, as putting him in a forum where 'I can be heard'.

A-Rod is talking about the steroids being 'over-the-counter' and 'amateur'.  Interesting, in that veterinary anabolic steroids must be 'over-the-counter' in the Dominican.  A-Rod comments that he didn't even know the drugs were steroids.  "I was 24 or 25" (as a note 24 or 25 year-olds graduate from law school and medical school; We would not characterize them as 'young and stupid')

A-Rod refers to 'bolie' which has to be Primobolan, a typical anabolic steroid.  What are the (suspected) effects of anabolic steroids: increased muscle mass, increased power, in proved injury repair, and perhaps improved vigor.  Remember, no study has ever looked at the effects (short or long term) of anabolic steroids in gifted professional athletes.

Paul Kimmage's Lance Armstrong 'cancer' comments in context

Here are ex-cyclist/current journalist Paul Kimmage's writings (thanks to CyclingFansAnonymous), the words Lance Armstrong choose to inflame and impute.  The remarks almost sound prophetic when the Amgen press conference is reviewed.

To be fair, Armstrong has never officially tested positive for a PED, yada yada yada.  Kimmage could be completely insane with his charges., however almost every ending of the Tour de France appears to be very reminiscent of the ending of Ben Johnson's 1988 Olympic win: the finalists almost all doped.

I will add this and personalize the issue.  Both my parent died from cancer.  I doubt that either would be insulted using a cancer metaphor to illustrate a controversial issue.  However, the issue that would inflame both would be cheating.  Cheating and dishonesty at any level would be condemned in memorable vocal displays.

So here it is, the Kimmage invective.  Armstrong would do well to answer each charge in measured facts, if he wishes to promote his innocence, not insults to the author.

Were the 'cancer' comments over the top?

"My reaction...the enthusiasm that I had built up about the sport in the last couple of years has been all but completely wiped out in the last couple of hours.

Let’s turn the clock back to Armstrong’s last apparition in the sport. The Tour de France 2005. He’s standing on the podium. And he makes this big impassioned speech. Which is basically saying ‘The last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics, the skeptics: I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry you can’t dream big. I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles.’ That was 2005, his last ride in the the Tour de France. And the people flanking him on that podium were Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich. And a month after that race ended the French newspaper L’Equipe reported that in his first winning Tour de France, in 1999, Armstrong had tested positive for EPO. Six separate samples taken during that race revealed positive tests for EPO.

Continued after the jump...

Lance Armstrong goes off on journalist at the Amgen Tour of California press conference

A former pro cyclist, and now journalist for the London Times felt the full wrath of Lance Armstrong during a press conference preceding the Amgen Tour of California.  Paul Kimmage was bold enough to ask about Armstrong's support of two 'dopers' (Floyd Landis and Irwin Basso).  Armstrong let loose with a tirade against  Kimmage for writing a piece calling him 'the cancer' of cycling, clearly a metaphor for the alleged use of Armstrong's PEDs leading to his multiple Tour de France wins.

Kimmage apparently has violated the la cosa nostra code of omerta within the cycling doping fraternity by 'spitting in the soup'.  That brought him vitriol from multiple outposts of cycling.  Perhaps his metaphor was not appropriate in discussing Armstrong (should he have used 'venereal disease', which would also make everyone uncomfortable;  maybe 'common cold').

Armstrong told Kimmage he "wasn't worth the chair he was sitting on".  Nice comments from a guy who is a purported humanitarian.  Although Armstrong took umbrage at the 'cancer'  metaphor, he needed to understand the comments were a metaphor only.  The journalist was not endorsing cancer.  The journalist was not promoting cancer.  The journalist in the past used cancer as a metaphor and was not using it in his question.

Armstrong wimped out by saying 'Floyd doesn't believe he is guilty' (and has any doper ever believed he is guilty; forget that international courts found Landis red-handed guilty), then added some other illogical verbiage.  Here is a report from The Examiner (complete with video):

Last night, I sat in the second row of the Amgen Tour of California Press Conference. I listened to and asked questions of cycling greats like Basso, Fiere, Cavendish, Hamilton, Leipheimer, Vande Velde, Brooke Miller (winner of last year’s women’s race)and Lance Himself. Everything was going as press conferency as usual...

Lance asked the gentleman his name. The man answered, “Paul Kimmage.” I render a guess Paul may have legally changed it by now. Kimmage, a former pro cyclist from the ‘80s and author of doping expose Rough Ride, is known for exposing the use of drugs in cycling. This is good! The problem? He thinks Lance’s general popularity has made the scandal of doping “disappear”. This is bad! This, however, is even worse: When Lance began his comeback, Kimmage said, in a September interview, “Well he [Lance] is the cancer in this sport. And for four years this sport has been in remission. And now the cancer's back." Kimmage literally called Lance Armstrong “a cancer.” Lance responded in what I can only describe as verbal chemotherapy. And an awesomely high dosage at that.

And Armstrong's response:

"I am here to fight this disease. I am here so I don't have to deal with it, you don't have to deal with it, none of us have to deal with it, my children don't have to deal with it. Yet you said I am the cancer. And the cancer is out of remission. So it goes without saying, no, we aren't going to sit down and do an interview."

“You [pointing at Kimmage] are not worth the chair you’re sitting on.”

The problem here was that Kimmage didn't judge the crowd in the room.  He essentially went into the Roman forum and asked the Cesar if Rome, indeed doesn't suck...not a good idea.

Armstrong, feeling all righteously indignant, and riding for his 'cause' (although the comeback is more about Lance the personality than Lance the cancer fighter) unleashed an unprofessional and undignified tirade on the journalist, clearly veering from the topic and the question.  Methinks he protested too much.

A more professional response would have been to coolly kept on-topic.

Pro cycling will never rid itself of doping (and it has proven that competitors will drug cheat with disturbing regularity at every opportunity) while the cycling mafia controls the enterprise (and rooms like this).

Cycling fans and various groupies will adorn Armstrong with attention.  Pro cycling will ignore doping, to the determent of the fairness of the sport.  Denial is a powerful force.  Death and disability from doping is powerful too.

Remember, doping kills -- just like cancer.

Transcript of Gammons-A-Rod interview: Alex Rodriguez dodges all the soft balls Gammons throws

The transcript of the Peter Gammons - Alex Rodriguez interview at ESPN is found here.  A-Rod spewed several notable comments, most of which were crafted to avoid giving out information.  If examined you will find that A-Rod essentially said nothing about PED use, or steroid use, or the situation, and Gammons let him by with the skimming:

1. The A-Rod confession, which went something like this:

When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me, and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day.

Back then, it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive. And I wanted to prove to everyone that, you know, I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time. And I did take a banned substance. You know, for that I'm very sorry and deeply regretful.

... The culture back then, and Major League Baseball overall, was very -- I just feel that, you know, I'm just sorry. I'm sorry for that time. I'm sorry to my fans. I'm sorry for my fans in Texas. It wasn't until then that I ever thought about a substance of any kind, and since then, I've proved to myself and to everyone that I don't need any of that.

    2.  No admission of what he took as a steroid or PED, or who was his dealer:

And to be quite honest, I don't know exactly what substance I was guilty of using...

Again, at the time, you know, you have nutritionists, you have doctors, you have trainers. That's the right question today: Where did you get it? We're in the era of BALCO ... Back then, it was just about what.

There's many things that you can take that are banned substances. I mean, there's things that have been removed from GNC today that would trigger a positive test.

I'm not sure exactly what substance I used. But whatever it is, I feel terribly about it.

So A-Rod, an intelligent, dedicated professional athlete doesn't know what PED he took, how he took it, and who gave the drugs to him, or doesn't remember?  Does anyone believe this?  Would an intelligent reader take a pill, or inject a substance recommended by (apparently) an apparition without knowing the effects or side-effects?

Rodriguez knows substances banned from GNC that cause positive doping tests, however he doesn't recall what doping drug he injected?  Unbelievable.  And yet A-Rod will be widely praised for 'coming clean',  The only thing that happened was a reporter investigated the positive MLB urine tests to expose A-Rod.  He still isn't fessing up to what drugs he used.

Read the entire interview.  A-Rod appears to have a selective demented memory.  He doesn't remember anything about his PED use.  He didn't even know he tested positive (despite the MLBPA claiming they notified positive tests):

Again, at the time of that culture, there was no illegal or legal. It was just -- you have to understand the time. To take you back there, again, people were taking a number of different things, from GNC, to whatever.

To be quite honest with you, the first time that I knew I had failed a test 100 percent was when the lady from Sports Illustrated [Selena Roberts] came into my gym just a few days ago and told me, "You have failed a test."

A-Rod cites GNC, which is laughable.  The people pushing steroids don't work at GNC.  Some -- like - are dead.  Others like Victor Conte are convicted felons.

How did A-Rod respond when faced with a outline lie -- a denial of PED/steroid use -- he espoused how he feels good about 'telling the truth'.  A-Rod skirted every probing question Gammons popped to him...and Gammons let him by with the skating.

PETER GAMMONS: Now, you mentioned the Katie Couric interview. You were asked if you ever used steroids, human growth hormones or other performance-enhancing substances. You said no, flat-out no. In your mind, that wasn't a lie?
ALEX RODRIGUEZ: At the time, Peter, I wasn't even being truthful with myself. How am I going to be truthful with Katie or CBS? Today, I'm here to tell the truth, and I feel good about that. I think my fans deserve that. I'm ready to put everything behind me and go play baseball. You know, we have a great team this year. I couldn't be more excited about the guys that we've brought in, Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett ... It's an important time in my life to turn the page and focus on what's next.

A-Rod appeared to save his vitriol for Selenna Roberts who broke the story.  Shoot the messenger.  A-Rod who lied to an NBC reporter (I cannot bring myself to write the words 'Katie Couric'), who cannot actually put the facts out there, is no impugning a reporter who broke the story...fascinating and nauseating:

...this lady from Sports Illustrated, Selena Roberts, is trying to throw things out there that in high school I tried steroids. I mean, that's the biggest bunch of baloney I've ever heard in my life.

I mean, what makes me upset is that Sports Illustrated pays this lady, Selena Roberts, to stalk me. This lady has been thrown out of my apartment in New York City. This lady has five days ago just been thrown out of the University of Miami police for trespassing. And four days ago she tried to break into my house where my girls are up there sleeping, and got cited by the Miami Beach police. I have the paper here. This lady is coming out with all these allegations, all these lies because she's writing an article for Sports Illustrated and she's coming out with a book in May.

Really respectable journalists are following this lady off the cliff and following her lead. And that, to me, is unfortunate.

The biggest bunch of baloney is A-Rods dodge of his steroid and PED use.

A-Rod -- Alex Rodriguez -- admits to A-Roiding

Baseball slugging icon Alex Rodriguez, aka A-Rod, admitted today he gained some of his extraordinary power from A-Roiding.  A-Rod's admissions add one more piece of evidence to the baseball power era known as The Steroid Era, when sluggers went 'roid wild, toppling gravity with immense feats of power hitting.  It will also be known as an era when the top MLB talent simply cheated the game, the fans, and in the end themselves.

Some say events occur in threes; A-Rods confession coincides with Barry Bonds's BALCO/steroid legal battles firing up again this year, and Mark McGwire's brother pulling open the curtain on his juiced slugging career. The vintage sluggers of just 5-15 years ago now appear to have cheated past sluggers like the Babe with a ptoent mix of anabolic PEDs like testosterone, nandrolone, HGH, and other more exotic drugs.

A-Rod admitted in an interview with Peter Gammons (was this staged?) to roiding (blast magazine):

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003.

ESPN is reporting that Rodriguez, in an exclusive interview with Peter Gammons, has admitted to allegations that surfaced in a recent Sports Illustrated report online.

“I felt an enormous amount of pressure,” Rodriguez told Gammons. “Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth, you know, being one of the greatest players of all time, and I did take a banned substance.”

Rodriguez did appear apologetic in talking to Gammons.

Reports indicated A-Rod tested positive for testosterone and primobolan.  His 3 year run from 2001 to 2003 included 52, 57, and 47 home runs.  And who says anabolic steroids don't benefit sluggers?

The drug Rodriguez allegedly tested positive for, Primobolan, is less detectable than many other steroids because its markers stay in the body for less time than other drugs. It is also expensive, costing about $500 per week, SI reported.

Rodriguez called the time a “loosey goosy” era, saying he didn’t “know exactly what substance” he “was guilty of using.”

Rodriguez hit 47 home runs in 2003, good enough for his third consecutive home run title.

A-Rod A-Bomb! Slugger Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003

Baseball nuclear Armageddon exploded at Sports Illustrated today when the magazine/web site dropped an A-Bomb on R-Rod.  The website reports that Yankee slugger Alex Rodriquez tested positive in 2003 for two steroids: testosterone and primobolan (not legal in the US).

As background, A-Rod delivered fantastic 2001-2-3 seasons for the Texas Rangers.  The steroid slugging era was chugging on full-steam with accusations flying everywhere.  The MLB Players Association agreed to PED testing with the MLB;  if a certain percent of players tested positive, then a full blow elaborate PED testing system would be set up for MLB players.  As we all know now, the minimum criteria (5%) of positive tests was met which meant steroid testing for steroid sluggers.

Steroid testing started in spring training 2003, and apparently continued throughout the year.  Wonder when A-Rod dropped his positive urine?  Wonder how long Rodriguez juiced?

In 2001 for the Ranger A-Rod put up monstrous numbers: 52, 135, .318.  A-Rod's 2002 was even better:  57, 142, .300.  Slugging was .622 and .623 respectively. 

In 2003, A-Rod launched a 47, 118, .298 year, which was good for the MVP, even though the numbers were down from previous years.  Considering A-Rod's positive tests, one wonders why production decreased in 2003.  To Sports Illustrated:

In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated.

Rodriguez's name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball's '03 survey testing, SI's sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. "You'll have to talk to the union," said Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, "I'm not saying anything."

Test results were obtained when federal agents raided CDT labs as part of the BALCO investigation.

Though MLB's drug policy has expressly prohibited the use of steroids without a valid prescription since 1991, there were no penalties for a positive test in 2003. The results of that year's survey testing of 1,198 players were meant to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner's office and the players association. Rodriguez's testing information was found, however, after federal agents, armed with search warrants, seized the '03 test results from Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., one of two labs used by MLB in connection with that year's survey testing. The seizure took place in April 2004 as part of the government's investigation into 10 major league players linked to the BALCO scandal -- though Rodriguez himself has never been connected to BALCO.

The testing procedure itself appears to be corrupt:

Because more than 5% of big leaguers had tested positive in 2003, baseball instituted a mandatory random-testing program, with penalties, in '04. According to the 2007 Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball, in September 2004, Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players' union, violated an agreement with MLB by tipping off a player (not named in the report) about an upcoming, supposedly unannounced drug test. Three major league players who spoke to SI said that Rodriguez was also tipped by Orza in early September 2004 that he would be tested later that month. Rodriguez declined to respond on Thursday when asked about the warning Orza provided him.

An incredibly embarrassing situation exists in baseball now as corruption dogs the top sluggers and record holders.

Baseball's career and single season home run record holder, Barry Bonds, will be on trial soon for lying about his steroid use. The man pegged as having the best chance to overtake Bonds was A-Rod, who now appears to be a big time juicer.  Mark McGwire, who broke Roger Maris's single season HR record was exposed last month as a huge 'roider.

Baseball, like track, needs to dump the records of the lost steroids and PEDs decades.  Most performance records from the steroid decades appear to be tainted.

New developments in the Bonds perjury case: The Feds ramp up for the trial

The ramp up to the Barry Bonds BALCO perjury trial took off this week.  Yesterday Federal Judge Susan Illston released court documents (found here for the adventurous).

The AP complied the positive urine tests Bonds dropped over the years.  The first three will be contested  because the tests were taken while Bonds was allegedly doped up by BALCO, and thus did not have positive chain of custody.   Bonds shows himself to be an accomplished doper: steroids, amphetamines, and (if Game of Shadows be believed), HGH, insulin, and clomid.  The LA Times also counts 3 positive tests for anabolic steroids.

The court documents unsealed by a federal judge Wednesday in the government's criminal case against Barry Bonds included the results of 26 blood and urine tests. Prosecutors contend five are positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Three of the results were seized from BALCO and did not include Bonds' name; the government said it determined they belonged to Bonds through a Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative log. The other two were taken by Major League Baseball. One later was retested by the government, which is when it came up positive.

_ Nov. 28, 2000: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone and nandrolone

_ Feb. 5, 2001: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone

_ Feb. 19, 2001: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone and nandrolone

_ June 4, 2003: MLB urine test positive for THG, clomiphene, exogenous testosterone

_ July 7, 2006: MLB urine test positive for D-amphetamine

The Smoking Gun posted images of Bonds's alleged doping calender...or someone who was a BALCO client with initials BB.  Perhaps that would be Bruce Banner, The Hulk.

Gwen Knapp, of the San Francisco Examiner, argues that the various dirty urines produced by Bonds should not be introduced in court as evidence.  She cites confidentiality and personal rights as reasons why. We are not quite sure of the legal grounds of that argument. 

It's alarming that Major League Baseball drug tests on Barry Bonds from 2003 and 2006 could be used as evidence in his federal perjury and obstruction of justice trial. Results of both were released Wednesday, and Judge Susan Illston will rule Thursday on their admissibility.

If she allows them, the validity of all sports drug testing should be called into question. Players' unions and agents should call for the immediate suspension of all drug screening, and Olympic athletes should consider their own rebellion.

The very act of urinating into a cup to satisfy terms of employment straddles the line between an ugly necessity and a civil-liberties violation. But in sports, the benefits of drug testing - creating a disincentive for athletes to pump hormones, speed and blood thickeners into their bodies - outweigh the detriments.

The US Government does not sign confidentiality reciprocal agreements with Major League Baseball.  The Govt in pursuit of evidence in the commission of a crime also can obtain other records, including your bank and phone records.  Medical confidentiality is given but not in the case of a crime investigation (unless the records are psychiatric).  Therefore Knapp's argument appears to be a canard.

As we have argued, the responsibility for protection of confidentiality lies with the lab and with the MLB.  If those organizations want complete confidentiality they would have had either a weaver signed with the Govt, or blinded the test results.

Sports Illustrated claims that Greg Anderson, Bonds's ex-trainer will be key to the prosecution.  Anderson is an unwilling witness, however is deep into this mess.  An Anderson conversation goes like this:

The most important document may be the transcript of a recorded conversation between Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and Bonds' former business partner and longtime friend, Steve Hoskins. Assuming the transcript reflects an accurately recorded conversation -- which Bonds' counsel will question, given that Hoskins, rather than a recording specialist, taped it -- Anderson tells Hoskins that he injected Bonds with substances that sound very much like steroids. Here is a particularly telling excerpt from that conversation:

Anderson: [E]verything I've been doing at this point is undetectable.

Hoskins: Right.

Anderson: See, the stuff that I have . . . we created it. And you can't, you can't buy it anywhere. You can't get it anywhere else. But, you can take it the day of and pee.

Hoskins: Uh-huh.

Anderson: And it comes up with nothing.

Hoskins: Isn't that the same [expletive] that Marion Jones and them were using?

Anderson: Yeah same stuff, the same stuff that worked at the Olympics.

Interesting.  Anderson's conversation implicate Bonds in this widespread sports fraud conspiracy.  Whatever a person's attitude toward the use of PEDs in sports, the subversion of the normal rules and workings of the sports leagues and Olympics should give pause.

Biathalon union (IBU) boss claims new blood doping drug used by Russian biathletes

The president of the International Biathlon Union, Anders Besseberg, says that 3 Russian biathletes tested positive for a blood doping agent, which he claims is a new drug, not EPO.  To the Khaleej Times:

Three Russian biathletes alleged to have failed dope tests were using a completely new performance enhancer, local media here reported the president of the sport’s ruling body as saying Wednesday.

So far the names of the three athletes have not been revealed because the results from the analysis of their B samples have yet to be released.

International Biathlon Union (IBU) president Anders Besseberg is reported as saying the trio had not been caught using EPO (erythropoietin), the banned blood booster which has been popular with endurance athletes.

‘We’re not talking about EPO. This is a completely new medication,’ the Russian media quoted Besseberg as saying.

‘I consider this a serious breakthrough in our fight against doping.’

What drug contaminated the athletes, as reported by Besseberg?  Could it be the newer CERA EPO?

Besseberg stressed that the names of the alleged dope cheats would not be revealed before their B samples were tested.

However Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, citing unofficial sources, on Wednesday named Ekaterina Iourieva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Yaroshenko as the athletes who tested positive.

Iourieva leads the women’s overall World Cup standings having claimed her second win of the season on January 25 in the mass-start event in Antholz, Italy.

Earlier this week the IBU informed the Russian Biathlon Union of the failed tests by two women and one man on December 5 last year at a World Cup event at Ostersund, Sweden.

Other reports last month said that Russian biathlete Ivan Cherezov tested positive for high levels of hemoglobin -- which indicates blood doping.  However, Russian news agency Tass skewered reports of Russian biathletes using blood doping.

Suspicious double helix found on Roger Clemens's syringe

The Wapo reports that investigators discovered DNA at the end of a Roger Clemens syringe -- as claimed by Brian McNamee.

Federal investigators are looking into the possibility (!) that the ex-multiple Cy Young award winning pitcher used anabolic steroids and HGH, then lied to Congress about PED use last year.  The investigation -- part of the never-ending Clemens saga -- sounds serious:

Scientific tests have linked Roger Clemens's DNA to blood in syringes that a personal trainer says he used to inject the former star pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The DNA results, which are preliminary and subject to verification tests, could prove critical if prosecutors seek an indictment of Clemens on charges that he lied about the use of steroids, according to the sources.

Clemens told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last year that he has never taken performance-enhancing drugs. Testifying at the same hearing, the pitcher's former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, said he injected Clemens nearly 40 times with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.

McNamee's attorneys have said their client gave federal investigators syringes, gauze pads and other items that he claimed he used to inject Clemens. He stored the items in a FedEx box in his basement.

Are the syringes actually Clemens's paraphernalia?  Were they used for injecting steroids (could be tested).  And was the DNA, glutteal DNA, or perhaps Clemens was flossing his teeth with the needles.

The chain of custody will be critical if DNA procured from bloody steroid syringes holds up for legal proceedings.  Is this a breakfast read or not?

Clemens and his defense team have long challenged McNamee's credibility, saying the former trainer has lied about the pitcher's alleged drug use. They also have said that McNamee may have cooked up the evidence.

Yesterday, Rusty Hardin, Clemens's Houston-based defense attorney, said the DNA tests "won't matter at all."

"It will still be evidence fabricated by McNamee," Hardin said. "I would be dumbfounded if any responsible person ever found this to be reliable or credible evidence in any way."

We would expect Clemens's defense attorney to claim that the syringes would not be admitted as evidence.  Clearly bloody syringes and gauss pads collected by a trainer would be suspect evidence.  Nonetheless, not a situation that lends itself to peaceful sleep at night for the Rocket.

Feds raid home of Bonds ex-trainer Greg Anderson's mother-in-law

Federal agents found themselves busy yesterday raiding the home of Barry Bonds's ex-trainer Greg Anderson (and leaving everyone with a very wordy headline).  Anderson is accused of delivering PEDs including steroids and HGH to the slugger.  His journey included a long stint in jail while mum about Barry Bonds's drug use.  This raid indicates continued interest in Anderson's role, and perhaps unrest about the Govt case against Bonds.

Twenty federal agents raided the home of the mother-in-law of Barry Bonds' personal trainer on Wednesday.

Madeleine Gestas and her daughter Nicole Anderson, the trainer's wife, are the target of a tax investigation that the lawyer for Greg Anderson said is aimed at pressuring the trainer to testify at Bonds' upcoming trial.

Bonds, baseball's career home run leader and a seven-time MVP, has pleaded not guilty to charges he lied to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.

"Even the mafia spares the women and children," said Anderson's lawyer, Mark Geragos.

Anderson's lawyer takes blame credit for the raid:

Geragos said he believes the raid was in response to his refusal to tell prosecutors whether Anderson would testify. Geragos said he ignored a letter faxed to his Los Angeles office Monday by prosecutors that asked about Anderson's plans for the Bonds' trial.

Anderson served more than a year in prison for refusing to testify against Bonds before a federal grand jury. Geragos said that on the day after her husband was released from prison, Anderson's wife received a so-called target letter informing her that she was under investigation.

Geragos said Anderson received a government subpoena last week demanding his testimony at the March 2 trial. Geragos declined to say whether Anderson would testify. If Anderson refuses, he could be sent to prison again.

However, other forces may be in play here -- to tighten the noose around the Bonds thickened neck:

The New York Times, citing an anonymous source, reported Thursday that prosecutors have evidence that links Bonds to the use of performance-enhancing drugs other than the "cream" and the "clear" — the designer substances that have become synonymous with the Bonds case.

A person who has reviewed the prosecution's evidence said that authorities detected anabolic steroids in urine samples linked to Bonds, according to the Times.

Pro cyclists may be caught doping with blood values, and genetic tests

Our colleague Robin Parisotto, who sits on the UCI (Cycling Union) board of doping reveals that doping charges may be levied by radical changes in pro cyclists's blood indices.  Story at The Australian.

THE first case of a cyclist being charged with doping on the evidence of his blood profile is expected to be prosecuted in the coming months, according to Australian anti-doping expert Robin Parisotto.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has been building up blood profiles of its professional cyclists by taking thousands of blood samples over the past year.

Canberra scientist Parisotto, who sits on the UCI panel overseeing the anti-doping program, said yesterday more than 30 suspicious samples had been analysed and there was enough evidence to pursue a handful of riders for doping violations.

"We are only collating the results now but I expect in the next few months the UCI will be taking action against some cyclists," Parisotto said.

Sounds like the decisions about whom to prosecute are looming.

The blood profiling is designed to identify any cyclists using banned drugs or methods which manipulate the blood to improve endurance. He said suspicious samples usually contained high haemoglobin levels, or unusually low levels (which would indicate a cyclist was extracting blood to be re-injected during competition).

"There are discussions now about which are the strongest cases to go after," Parisotto said. 

"There's only a handful they can confidently follow up. But I believe in some cases the results are fairly strong and the athlete will have a hard time explaining them."

The first cycling case will be a test for this new method of identifying drug cheats.

Parisotto said there was a smaller number of suspicious samples than he would have expected if the program had been in operation three or four years earlier.

"Now there is more of an effort being made to weed out the cheats and I think some of them are getting scared," he said.

"The risk of getting caught is becoming much greater now that they have to worry about what's in their blood."

Indices to monitor include red blood cell parameters (hemoglobin, and hematocrit), EPO, and other physiological measures, that should be very stable in an individual athlete over time.  Also, Parisotto speaks of monitoring the response of particular genes to doping drugs, a very interesting development.

Parisotto, who developed one of the first tests for the blood booster EPO in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics, is also working on the next weapon in the anti-doping war, genetic profiling.

"The technology is there now to do gene profiling on blood tests," Parisotto said.

He said any use of blood doping would show up in changes to an individual's gene activity.

The laboratories will just have to chart the abnormal changes that the drugs make to the blood and genes of the athlete.

Ex-Olympic gold medalist positive: Greek Athanasia Tsoumeleka, 20K walk athlete tested positive for EPO

Athanasia Tsoumelek -- a gold medal winner at the 2004 Athens Olympics in 20K Walking -- tested positive for EPO in a blood sample obtained prior to Beijing. This test must be a product of the IOC retest of blood samples from Beijing 2008.  To the Canadian Press:

Former Olympic champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka tested positive for the banned blood-booster erythropoietin in a retesting of a sample she provided two days before the opening of the Beijing Olympics.

Tsoumeleka, the 20-kilometre walk champion at the 2004 Athens Games, confirmed she was told that a retesting of the urine sample she gave on Aug. 6 tested positive for EPO.

But she expressed doubts about the second procedure and announced her retirement from competition, effective immediately.

"I was informed that there is a problem with a positive test for (EPO) in a sample I submitted on Aug. 6, 2008. I will not try to excuse myself, even though I have not knowingly made use of this substance," Tsoumeleka told radio station Skai. "The fact that samples are tested more than once - that is, opened not in my presence - makes me feel uneasy about the whole process.

"My unfortunate involvement . . . forces me to put an end to the high-level competitive sports I love so much and not wait to continue after the expiration of my expected punishment."

In Beijing, Tsoumeleka finished ninth in the 20-kilometre walk in a personal best of one hour 27 minutes 54 seconds. She was almost three and a half minutes behind winner Olga Kaniskina of Russia.

Tsoumeleka's positive test result was the latest affecting Greek athletes.

The Greek Olympic athletes are compiling a heinous record of Olympic doping.  Fania Halkia, several sprinters and strength athletes either were banned form Beijing or tested positive at the game.

Fani Halkia, the 2004 Olympic 400-metre hurdles champion, was dropped from the team in Beijing and expelled from the athletes' village after testing positive for the anabolic steroid methyltrienolone. Fourteen other Greeks, including 11 weightlifters, tested positive for the same substance before the Olympics.

Vassilis Sevastis, the head of Greece's athletics federation SEGAS, said he would not comment on Tsoumeleka's case and her statement.

"Greece is full of EPO ... nothing has been done to curtail doping in the past 20 years," sports doctor Stavros Hatzos told Skai radio station.

Boulder climbing stumbles on steroid testing scandal

The nascent sport of bouldering, or competition climbing, looking for an Olympic berth may suffer a doping scandal setback.  Maybe not a full-fledged BALCO or Operation Puerto imbroglio, but controversy, thank you ma'am.  Watch out if your doping or 'roiding then climbing.

To Grough (Yes, Grough) Covering the Outdoor World.

Apparently a bouldering star tipped off competitors of surprise doping tests.  The mystery plays out this way:

The high-adrenaline world of competition climbing found itself at the centre of anti-doping controversy today.

In a foretaste of future events, with the possibility of the sport featuring in the 2020 Olympics, an Irish bouldering enthusiast was criticised for tipping off would-be competitors they may be dope-tested in two upcoming events. The climbers’ representative body, the Mountaineering Council of Ireland, was also dragged into the row.

Stephen McMullan, of the Irish Bouldering League, posted an entry on the forms of climbers’ website Climing.ie which read: “I’ve been informed today that it will be highly likely that there will be representatives from the Irish Sports Council conducting anti-doping tests at the Midleton [sic] and DCU rounds of the IBL.

“All competitors will be required to sign the MCI anti-doping declaration prior to being allowed to compete.

“In all likelihood there will be urine testing, more probable for folks getting placed 1, 2, 3 but also there is the possibility of random testing.”

Mr McMullan continued: “Personally I’m still reeling at this news. I suppose we just hoped this day would never come.

“Yes, it’s completely inappropriate due to the nature of the event. However, we are insured and funded by the MCI who are in turned funded by the sports councils of NI and Rep[ublic of] Ireland and them’s the rules for competitive events.

“We don’t have a choice here. Well we do, but compliance is the least of all the evils.”

So now the powerful :-) Mountaineering Council of Ireland will investigate:

Now, according to John Mooney in the Sunday Times, the Irish Sports Council has asked the MCI to investigate the posting. The ISC, along with Sport Northern Ireland, provides funding for the league.

The competitions will take place at Middleton, County Cork on 24 January and Dublin City University on 28 February.

Bouldering, which takes place both inside and outdoors, sets climbers ‘problems’ to climb, with points scored for completing these mini-routes and a strict set of rules governing how the competitions are run.

All affiliated members of the International Federation of Sport Climbing are expected to adhere to its rules, which include anti-doping. These state that all competitions organised under the federation’s authority should comply with the anti-doping code, which bans many drugs which are present in over-the-counter medications.

Mr McMullan says that people taking insulin and anyone who has used corticosteroids recently would fall foul of the dope testing and would need a medical note from their doctor to say there was a clinical need for their use.

However, he also cautions that ‘recreational’ drugs, some of which stay in the bloodstream for some time, would show up in the tests.

Stuart Garland, the MCI’s chief executive, told the Sunday Times’ Mooney: “We asked the IBL to make sure they had the relevant paperwork, which would enable the sports council staff to carry out anti-doping tests at the competitions.

“It would appear this information may have led people to reach certain conclusions.” He added that he did not endorse Mr McMullan’s comments.

An issue would be the exportation of the game to the Olympics.  The Olympics require the rigor of WADA compliance and testing. Thus the concern about doping, and Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) for prescribed medications.

Climbing and mountaineering are recognised by the International Olympic Committee but do not yet form part of the games, though there is a strong likelihood that some form of sport climbing will feature in the 2020 Olympic Games.

The International Federation of Sport Climbing accepted the new anti-doping code in September last year.

Lance Armstrong on eve of comeback down under

Lance Armstrong will take to the race course down under in Australia tonight for a challenging warm up as he competes in the "Race Down Under" later this week. Did Armstrong set up his 'state of the art' anti-doping system?  To the Sydney Morning Herald:

LANCE ARMSTRONG concedes there are very real dangers about kicking off his comeback in a criterium such as tonight's Cancer Council Classic in Adelaide, in which the pace will reach breakneck speed on a tight inner-city circuit...

However, Armstrong is wary about the style of racing he will confront in tonight's criterium, in which the field will race 30 laps of a 1.7km circuit - for a total of 51km - around Rymill Park in Adelaide.

In recent weeks he has reiterated his need to re-adapt to the speed and flow of racing in a tightly compacted bunch, such as the 133-rider pack made up of 19 seven-man teams that will feature in Adelaide.

Asked about his first pedal strokes in international racing since winning the 2005 Tour being made in a criterium rather than a road race, he said: "It wouldn't be my first choice."

Armstrong also discussed the doping program he designed:

Armstrong also confirmed the independent anti-doping program to be run on him specifically by American expert Don Catlin was now in place. Armstrong, who has been tested in and out of competition 12 times since announcing his comeback in September - and twice in Adelaide - said Catlin's program would start at the Tour Down Under

"It's formalised," Armstrong said. "It is under way. It is the most comprehensive anti-doping plan in the history of sport. I am proud of it.

"If anybody has any questions about any performance this year it can hopefully answer some of those questions, but we are under way.

Sound like there were logistic problems:

"It was slightly complicated because there are a lot of people involved and obviously a lot of other agencies involved.

"Outside Don Catlin there has been 12 other anti-doping controls out of competition.

"I would challenge anybody else to show me 12 anti-doping controls in the past few months."

He said the delay in getting the Catlin program up and running was due to "getting everybody synched up, getting everybody together".

And the strategy for the course:

"[The course] has changed a little since last year where there were a lot of turns, and times when [riders] would have been really breaking hard and accelerating out of corners," he continued. "That makes it harder when you are 50 to 60 to 70 guys back. The other ones are sprinting out of the corner when you are braking into the corner. It looks on paper to be something that you can roll around a little easier on.

"But it sort of goes full circle. I started off in the late '80s doing criteriums in the

United States. The main thing is to stay out of trouble, stay up front and avoid the drama."

Annalisa Cucinotta: Another Italian female cylist caught juicing with steroids

Looks like those Italian female cycling races are very competitive...so much so that the female riders use male anabolic hormones to gain an advantage.

Another Italian cyclist tests positive for a steroid, WWOS reports:

Italian track cyclist Annalisa Cucinotta tested positive for an anabolic steroid in December, the Gazzetta dello Sport said on Sunday.

According to the sports newspaper, the 22-year-old failed the test after a World Cup event in Cali, Colombia on December 12.

Cucinotta becomes the second Italian woman cyclist after ex-road world champion Marta Bastianelli to test for a stimulant.

Bastianelli missed the Olympic Games in Beijing in August due to her offence.

Bastianelli''s story is found here.

World Series star Phillies JC Romero says supplement caused his steroid policy troubles

To the 'Supplement Defense' again for Philadelphia Philly reliever JC Romero.  The left-hander says MLB will announce his steroid policy suspension due to taking a contaminated supplement.  To Philly.com:

An anguished J.C. Romero wanted to tell his side of the story before Major League Baseball announces his 50-game suspension on Tuesday. Once that happens, he knows, people will assume he's just another big-leaguer who had to cheat to compete.

"One thing I'm going to say, I'm a man and I'm accountable for my actions," the Phillies reliever said in a telephone interview. "If I'm guilty of something, you know what? I will face it. But I'm not guilty, and I'm not letting people that don't really know me judge me over something and accuse me of something that I didn't do."

Romero's situation is much more complicated than MLB's curt boilerplate announcement will acknowledge. He was not accused or found guilty of knowingly using a banned, performance-enhancing substance. Baseball and Romero agree that he used only an over-the-counter supplement he bought in a retail store in Cherry Hill. Romero is being suspended for 50 games and losing about $1.25 million in salary because, an abritrator ruled, he was "negligent" in not knowing what was in the supplement.

Romero bucked a trend (he says) of keeping quet about suspensions:

Most players, when suspended, release a statement acknowledging their mistake and apologizing to their teammates, their organization, baseball and the fans. In the current highly charged environment, where MLB has been embarrassed by Congress for its years-long failure to police itself, many players fear repercussions if they speak out.

Not Romero, the 33-year-old lefthanded reliever who won two World Series games for the Phillies - including the decision in the title-clinching Game 5. He feels he owes it to himself, his family and his teammates to explain how this suspension came about.

"If people are intimidated because Major League [Baseball] is a big organization, so be it," Romero said. "But they are not going to make an example of me thinking that I'm just a [dumb] Puerto Rican. It's not going to happen. It's not the way I'm built.

"For me to keep my mouth shut? That's not the right thing to do. If they want to bump me out of the game, so be it. What am I going to do, just sit back and take it? When I know in my heart I'm innocent? That doesn't fly well with me and it doesn't fly well in my house, either."

Romero claims he cleared the supplement -- 6-OXO Extreme -- with his trainer.  The story -- found after the jump -- says the supplement is FDA regulated, which we don't think is true.  4-Etioallocholen-3,6, 17-Trione is the aromatase inhibitor in the supplement.  That means it inhibits the conversion of androgenic steroids to estrogen (thus preventing Nitro's problem).

Rather than regulated, the ingredient made the FDA's warning list as an adulterated compound.  So why was a professional athlete using the supplement?  And why didn't his trainer know the supplement was poison?  And why doesn't someone pull the stuff from the shelf?  (to Wiki)

Baylor University conducted an eight-week study to determine the effects of 300 mg or 600 mg of 6-OXO in resistance-trained males. Compared to baseline, free testosterone increased by 90% for 300 mg group and 84% for 600 mg group, respectively. Also dihydrotestosterone and the ratio of free testosterone to estradiol increased significantly. ^[8][9].

In a warning letter dated July 7, 2006, the FDA argues that marketing of 4-AT (aka, 6-OXO) violates the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and as such products containing it are adulterated by legal definition.

On June 18, 2008, Health Canada issued a warning that 4-AT and 6-OXO had a health risk related to blood clotting and recommended all users immediately cease use.

Congress presses pro wrestling (WWE) on steroids and doping issues; Vince McMahon says he doesn't pee for anyone

Congress released a report on drug testing in the pro wrestling world -- which means Vince McMahon's WWE.  The results show those pro wrestlers like to get high, and sometimes juice and speed.  McMahon -- who obviously looks too good for his age -- doesn't submit to dope testing.

The Congressional report his here, and a story in the New York Daily News here.

The results look somewhat suspicious because the numbers don't add up, perhaps because of extenuating circumstances.  It looks like there were 479 tests, with 58 positives.  (That amounts to 4.2 tests per wrester).  However most positives contained marijuana.  There appear to be 9 positives for anabolic steroids (2 nandrolone, 5 testosterone, and 2 Winstrol), yest only 6 suspensions.  There were 3 other suspensions, 2 for coke, and one for a narcotic.

A bit ludicrous that only a few positive tests dribbled out considered the way the WWE wrestlers look pumped and primed, including the sleazy CEO.

Obviously the WWE did not test for HGH, insulin, EPO, and several other anabolic drugs.  And California Representative Henry Waxman continues to be interested in WWE doping issues.

Henry Waxman fired one more anti-steroid salvo as outgoing chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, shifting his focus from baseball to professional wrestling, a sport with a long history of alleged steroid and drug abuse.

In Friday's letter addressed to the director of the government's Office of National Drug Control Policy, Waxman (D-Calif.) requested that ONDCP chief John Walters "examine steroid use in professional wrestling and take appropriate steps to address this problem."

The Oversight Committee began its own investigation into pro wrestling's doping problem a year ago, interviewing sport officials and examining drug testing policies for World Wrestling Entertainment and its competitor, Total Nonstop Action.

In 2005, the Oversight Committee lambasted baseball during a congressional hearing, prompting MLB to enact stricter drug testing policies and more severe punishments for offenders. But Waxman suggested in his letter Friday that pro wrestling has a long way to go toward eradicating its doping culture, starting with the woefully inadequate drug testing programs in place.

"In the first year of WWE's testing program, which began in March 2006, 40% of wrestlers tested positive for steroids and other drugs, even after being warned in advance that they were going to be tested," wrote Waxman.

Waxman continue on his rant:

Waxman also detailed how wrestlers who test positive for performance enhancers receive light punishment and can often participate in wrestling events even after steroid violations. The committee investigation also uncovered how easily wrestlers can secure therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) - permission to take banned substances for medical reasons - so they can continue performing while using steroids. When Waxman's staff interviewed Dr. Tracy Ray, a physician contracted by WWE, Ray claimed there was "shadiness in almost every (TUE) case that I've reviewed."

Interesting how the physician for the WWE indicates corruption.  Also note the obvious dodge by Vince McMahon who run the a very corrupt operation.

"(Ray) stated that he does not examine wrestlers, discuss their medical conditions with their doctors, or conduct detailed reviews of their medical conditions before granting (TUEs)," wrote Waxman.

WWE chairman Vince McMahon comes off even less flattering in his interview. McMahon told the committee he is "not subject to the WWE substance abuse policy," even though he still performs in WWE events.

"When asked whether steroids could cause impairment and risks to wrestlers and others in the ring, Mr. McMahon indicated that he had never considered the question," Waxman wrote.

Waxman will become chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee this month. Walters could not be reached for comment. Calls left with WWE were not returned.

 

Bulgaria can manipulate urine samples too: Bulgarian track athletes suspended for doping

A trio of Bulgarian track athletes will be sitting out 2 years due to doping violation.  One is sprinter Texdzhan Naimova, who -- taking a page out of the Russian playbook -- manipulated urine samples. (To Focus)

Board of Managers of Bulgarian Track-and-Field Athletics Federation (BTFAF) decided to penalize Tezdzhan Naimova, Vantya Netova and Raya Stoynova for two years, BTFAF told Focus News Agency.

Naimova is sanctioned because of manipulating urine example in doping test. After collecting indisputable proofs about her deed BTFAF immediately initiated an inquiry including hearing to Naimova and presenting her proofs. According to regulations of International Association of Athletics Federations BTFAF ceased her competition rights on 30 September 2008. Naimova admitted her guilt and is ready to bear any sanction.

The sanction comes into force on 30 September 2008.

The others used an anabolic steroid:

Vanya Netova and Raya Stoyneva have given positive doping results on metanolon. The first athlete was tested during competitions for Europe Cup in Istanbul and the second one was tested at Balkaniada in Kastoria, Greece. Netova replaced contused Dobrinka Shalamanova in 3000 m of hurdle-race and Stoynova took part in 400 m of hurdle-race instead of tsvetelina Kirilova that was preparing for Olympiad.

B examples of both athletes that have confirmed the positive results of A examples are opened.

Netova’s two-years of penalty comes into force on 28 July 2008 and the Stoynova’s sanctions is in force since 19 August 2008. Their competition rights were stopped on the same dates.

The head of Bulgaria's anti-doping agency says he is shocked:

I was shocked by these two athletes’ behavior and mainly by Tezdzhan Naimova, President of BTFAF Dobromir Karamarinov commented. The positive moment in Naimova’s case is that she confirmed her guilt and declared her readiness to bear any sanction. That is the motive accepted as mitigating circumstance by BTFAF’s Board of Managers so it imposed a minimal sanction in these cases - two years.
Netova and Stoynova are athletes of club stage and the fact that they have not prepared for championships purposefully does not exculpate them. Stoynova and Netova were imposed with two years of sanction each.

Aleksey Cherepanov, Siberian Express derailed: Ranger's Russian hockey prospect death may involve doping and inflammation

An ex-New York Ranger Russian hockey prospect -- Aleksey Cherepanov -- dropped dead at an extraordinarily young age in October.  An inquiry in to the 19 year-old's death revealed 2 pertinent issues (according to RT Sports):

• The report says that Cherepanov 'used stimulants'
• The hockey player suffered from myocarditis

Young ice hockey star Aleksey Cherepanov, who died of a heart attack during a game in October, had been taking performance enhancing drugs. That’s according to a report by the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office.     The 19-year-old collapsed during a Continental Hockey League (KHL) game in the Moscow region.

The official statement of the investigation committee says:

"No traces of alcohol or drugs were found in his blood and urine, however, tests for chemicals showed that Aleksey Cherepanov had been using stimulants for several months."
 
It was also discovered that Cherepanov, nicknamed the Siberian Express, was suffering from chronic myocarditis, which meant he should not have been playing sport. According to a post-mortem examination, the sportsman developed the disease approximately a year before his death.

There seems to be confusion in the Western press reportage. The New York Times reports that no drugs were named;  the Russian Times clearly says stimulants.  Stimulants can rarely be involved in cardiac events, in say a vulnerable heart.

The Times also reports that myocarditis 'does not allow enough blood to reach the heart'.  Really? 

Myocarditis means inflammation of the cardiac muscle (which is all of it, as the heart is one large muscle).  The word ending means inflammation, perhaps due to a virus, or even due to a connective tissue disorder.  Myocarditis could be bacterial, or parasitic, or allergic, or...you get it due to something that inflames the heart.  And saying the heart was inflamed says nothing about blood flow.  (where did the Times get this idea?).

To simplify the issue, the heart becomes inflamed, which causes a number of problems.  One would be enlargement of the organ.  When the heart enlarges it actually stretches the fibers that cause contraction.  The heart becomes less effective at pumping thus leading to failure...heart failure.  It is like the apparatus became stretch, flabby, and weak.  This condition often leads to a heart transplant.

The other issue in myocarditis would be electrical changes, reflected in the EKG.  This would cause electrical irritability, and sudden death due to an arrhythmia.  Boula!  A viral myocarditis is a frequent issue in young adult sudden cardiac death.

Investigators in Russia said Monday that Alexei Cherepanov, who was the Rangers’ first-round pick in the 2007 draft, used performance-enhancing drugs for several months before he died during a Russian league game in October.

They also said that Cherepanov, 19, should not have been playing professional hockey because he had myocarditis, a condition that does not allow enough blood to reach the heart...

The federal Investigative Committee in Russia said in a statement that experts concluded from analysis of blood and urine samples that Cherepanov had “engaged in doping” for several months. A spokeswoman for the committee refused to specify which drugs were found in Cherepanov’s system.

We would not be so quick to say that myocarditis absolutely rules out athletic competition.  It's complicated, and one must exert caution, but nothing is absolute...like Lance Armstrong not fathering a child without sperm.

The Russian athlete could have suffered from something as common as a cold which affected his heart.  A Stimulant might have exacerbated the condition.  On the other hand a drug can cause myocarditis.

The Russian press reports other problems:

The investigation also found that: "the paramedics called in for Cherepanov committed a number of gross violations”.

The report says they “arrived 12 minutes after the call and did not have a properly charged defibrillator. In addition, the brigade's chief doctor wrongly diagnosed a ‘natural death’.”
 
The Omsk Avangard forward was one of the most promising hockey stars in Russia. A first-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, Cherepanov was expected to move to National Hockey League.

The Prosecutor General’s Office says they will continue their investigation and warned that  the doctors involved in Cherepanov's treatment may face legal action.

One just cannot emphasize enough that stimulants, and steroids, and HGH, and EPO are DAMN DANGEROUS.   Don't believe the soft peddlers who essentially want an athletes to believe these drugs are like downing jelly-beans.  Dangerous in particular persons.  (that is a diseased heart on the right; it's ugly)

Silver medalist cyclo-cross rider Jonathan Page skips on doping test

American Jonathon Page, a star on the cyclo-cross circuit, reportedly missed a go at the doping tent after a race in Belgium.  Page says he incurred injuries during the race, and simply forgot the test.  To Cycling News:

American cyclo-cross rider Jonathan Page missed a post-race doping control at the fourth round of the UCI's World Cup in Koksijde, Belgium, on November 29. The 32 year-old silver medalist at the 2007 cyclo-cross world championships now has to await a hearing from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and potentially faces a two-year ban.

"I'm relying on a hearing from USADA and I can only hope that they listen to our story that is was nothing but a stupid mistake," a devastated Page said to Cyclingnews.

The UCI's cyclo-cross coordinator Peter Van den Abeele confirmed to sport.be that Page didn't show up for the post-race control in Koksijde. "When I talked with Page about this he was devastated and really upset," Van den Abeele said. "He was so upset by the news that he didn't start in Zolder despite having the right to start in the race."

The Belgian said that the UCI's legal and doping departments would look into the case in the upcoming days. "He can't escape some sort of punishment but I'm certainly not the man to judge on that."

Page pulled out of the Koksijde World Cup after a crash on the third lap and left the race venue unaware of his selection for doping controls. A few weeks later, on December 19, Page received a letter which stated he missed a post-race doping control in Koksijde.

"It was the first time he or I had heard of it [the missed doping control]," said Cori Page, Jonathan's wife.

The story sounds plausible, however so many other stories in cycling sounded plausible when they covered doping with EPO or another PED.

"Jonathan had a crash, was hurt and went back the mobile home," explained Cori about the day in Koksijde. "When I didn't see him anymore in the race, I of course got worried and went back to the mobile home, too. Jonathan was busy calling his doctor, who was in Denmark at the time, to schedule an appointment, and then the contract agent to report that he would not be able to do the race the following day. I was busy talking to Jonathan about the crash and whether or not he was ok and how he was holding up mentally.

I didn't remember to go to the finish line to check for doping at the end of the race. I'm usually his backup and I failed," continued Cori. "Our second backup is a guy who is at most of the races helping another rider. He checks the control list, too, but on the days where there are chaperones no one worries because the riders will be picked up and escorted to the control. Koksijde was a race with chaperones.

"Additionally, there are all of the other soigneurs and even some of the officials," said Cori. "When they hear a rider's name called, they all help each other by either finding the rider in person or calling the rider on the phone. None of that happened for Jonathan that day. He had absolutely no idea he was on the list. And after many calls, we came to find out that really no one had any idea, as far as we could tell.

It is the rider's responsibility to present at the testing tent, not the 'other soigneurs', so that excuse doesn't fly.  However there may be a sample that could be tested if doping authorities so desire:

"The only bit of luck Jonathan has had in this situation was that at his appointment with the doctor he had his blood taken as part of his checkup since he was overdue anyway," said Cori. "We offered the test to the anti-doping agency and anyone else that wants to see it. As always, no drugs. At least this way, if he does get suspended for missing that test, he will have been suspended just for his mistake, not for being a doper. Jonathan is far from a doper. Everyone important to us knows that.

NASCAR will begin steroid testing in January

NASCAR saw PED use blow up last year.  The racing organization revealed driver Aaron Fike fired up with heroin before he took to the track.  Later, champion Ron Hornaday said he used testosterone (possibly HGH) to treat a thyroid condition.  NASCAR drivers expressed concern, and now NASCAR will initiate dope testing in 2009.  (AP)

NASCAR will test drivers for performance-enhancing drugs next month under a tougher policy that also bans using illegal drugs and abusing prescription medications.

NASCAR likely will test drivers the third week of January, and crew members must submit results from an approved lab by Jan. 16, according to documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

A NASCAR memo sent to teams lists specific banned substances for which crew members must be screened. No similar guidelines were issued for drivers, as NASCAR reserves the right to test competitors for anything.

Under the old policy, NASCAR had the right to randomly test based on suspicion of abuse. Under the tougher guidelines first announced in September, everyone will be tested before the season begins, and random testing will continue throughout the year. NASCAR expects to randomly test 12 to 14 individuals per series each weekend in 2009.

The guidelines were strengthened in part because of former Truck Series driver Aaron Fike's admission that he had used heroin — even on days he raced. That led Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and other veteran drivers to call on NASCAR to add random drug testing to its policy.

The memo, dated Dec. 8, is the first time the new policy has been laid out in writing and specifies who falls under the guidelines. Those who must be tested before Jan. 16 include: pit crew members, including "over-the-wall" crew members, the crew chief, car chief, team members responsible for tires, fuel and pit crew operation, spotters and race-day support personnel that includes engineers, engine tuners, shock specialists, chassis specialists and tire specialists.

Sounds like a comprehensive testing regime.  Here are the drugs included:

_ Seven different amphetamines, including methamphetamine and PMA, a synthetic psychostimulant and hallucinogen.

_ Three drugs classified under ephedrine.

_ 13 different narcotics, including codeine and morphine.

_ Ten different benzodiazepines and barbiturates.

_ Marijuana, cocaine, zolpidem, nitrites, chromates and drugs that can increase specific gravity.

No such list exists for the drivers, but spokesman Ramsey Poston confirmed NASCAR will test for performance-enhancing drugs.

The driver testing, which will be administered by NASCAR, had been scheduled for preseason testing at Daytona next month. But because testing has been suspended for 2009, NASCAR likely will screen drivers when most are in Charlotte next month for the annual media tour of race shops.

Interesting that there are no published guidelines for the real stars of the circuit -- the drivers.

Details behind the 2008 Russian track Olympic doping scandal: How Yelena Soboleva went down

In July 2008, world class Russian track stars -- including world record holder Yelena Soboleva -- found themselves banned from the Beijing Olympics for a urine doping scandal.  Some of the details emerged as recounted here (IOL, South Africa).

It appears that the IAAF suspected the Russians (inside informant?), and thus laid a trap -- a sting operation involving DNA.  Obviously the IAAF compared DNA of prior urine samples with DNA of current urine samples; a discrepancy revealed the cheats.

Untroubled access to elite Russian track and field athletes for unannounced random dope tests triggered suspicions among the testers that all might not be as it seemed.

The athletes were always ready for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) anti-doping officials and always provided clean urine samples.

"There were no 'no shows'," one official told Reuters. "The Russians were always there."

Suspecting that the results were too good to be true, the IAAF started storing Russian dope samples taken during competition throughout the 2007 season.

The upshot was a meticulous sting operation this year, after which seven Russian women were informed that the urine they had supplied was clearly not theirs because the DNA did not match that in the stored samples.

Five of them, including the world number one 800 and 1 500 metres runner Yelena Soboleva, had been bound for the Beijing Olympics.

A clear victory for the testers over the cheats, 20 years after the Ben Johnson doping scandal had revealed the extent of illicit doping in the central sport of the summer Olympics, was rightly trumpeted.

Lance Armstrong feeling heat...and needle sticks

Chchchchchanges...Lance Armstrong feels the pain.  The dope testers are frequenting the Armstrong house this off-season, and Lance doesn't like it.  From AFP:  (And The Telegraph)

International drug testers are keeping a watchful eye on Lance Armstrong during his probation period, the seven-time Tour de France winner revealed on Thursday.

Armstrong claims to have been drug tested 11 times in the past 18 weeks and two times in the past four days. The latest test was conducted by officials from the International Cycling Union on Thursday at his Texas home.

"UCI control. They flew a guy from Germany for it. That makes a ton of sense," Armstrong wrote on Twitter, a social networking website.

Twitter?  Well...ok....

Twitter allows users to send short messages which are then posted on subscribers' cell phones and the Internet.

Armstrong even let his Twitter readers know that he was on his way to meet with the drug testers.

"I am back from the shop after riding four hours. I hear the drug testers are waiting at the house. #11," he wrote.

Armstrong, who plans to resume his cycling career next year, was placed under a six-month probation period by the United States Anti-doping Agency at the beginning of August.

Armstrong needs to pass USADA's out-of-competition testing pool before his cycling comeback can become official.

Everything LA does is controversial.

News of his return has drawn mixed reviews in cycling circles.

Armstrong has been accused of doping practices on several occasions, most notably in an article in French sports newspaper L'Equipe in 2005, claiming six urine samples from his 1999 Tour victory contained the blood-boosting drug EPO.

The rider himself has always denied doping and the UCI cleared him in 2006.

OK, let's all follow Lance on Twitter...right.

George Mason University professors develop urine HGH test

Remember George Mason's deep run into the 2006 NCAA basketball tournament?  That's not the point here.  The point is Mason professors moved doping tests forward with the development of an HGH urine test.  USA Today says so:

Just as George Mason University's athletics program was overshadowed in the Washington, D.C., region — never mind the nation — until its men's basketball team made a surprising run to the NCAA Final Four two years ago, the school's medical research program had worked in relative obscurity until a major breakthrough this summer.

Two GMU professors whose primary interest had been cancer research developed the first urine test for human growth hormone. Working outside the Olympic movement, outside the traditional research environment of a university-backed teaching hospital, and 20 miles outside the university's main campus in Fairfax, Va., Emanuel "Chip" Petricoin and Lance Liotta moved directly to the forefront of international sports' anti-doping efforts. They also furthered — at least for now — their university's high-risk, high-reward pursuit of national renown and future income.

The Mason technology utilizes nanotraps to grab minute amounts of HGH in the test tube.  Although not specified, the isolated HGH molecules then must be identified as exogenous to the athlete.

It wasn't until earlier this year that they began to alter a test — which they hope one day will be able to detect cancer at its earliest stages — to find HGH in urine. There has been a blood test for HGH for a few years, but it's extremely expensive and its reliability has been questioned within the anti-doping community. The test has been used at the last three Olympics but has failed to identify an athlete using HGH. There is no indication major sports leagues or their players' unions are eager to implement it.

Mixing chemicals that cost less than $100, Petricoin and Liotta created a reaction in the lab that creates millions of nanoparticles tailored to find HGH — and, one day, possibly cancer. The particles, which would be placed in a specimen container before collection, find, trap and preserve the compound so standard testing equipment can detect HGH.

The next step is having their research accepted by the scientific, athletic and legal communities. That process took a step forward last week when their research into the HGH test was published in Nano Research, a peer-reviewed journal specializing in the science of engineering on an atomic and molecular scale.

Ceres, the biotech company, is cooperating with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for the next phase: identifying a normal range of HGH in the body. The study will take urine from dozens of adults 18 to 45 who volunteer to give samples at an on-campus athletics facility.

The professors are still early in the approval process, which could take years, according to Frederic Donze, a spokesman for the World Anti-Doping Agency, which approves testing procedures used in Olympic sports.

"There is usually a long way between research and implementation of a methodology for anti-doping purpose," Donze says via e-mail. "A significant element of this process is that the anti-doping community needs to make sure that any detection method can withstand any … scientific and legal challenge."

The most recent incarnation of the test for endurance-boosting EPO — a test that has flagged several cyclists at the Tour de France and a handful of athletes at the Beijing Olympic this summer — took four years, Donze says.

Don Catlin, who founded the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory and is widely viewed as the dean of anti-doping research, spent years seeking this HGH test and has been in constant contact with the professors in hope of getting their test accepted.

"We have made substantial progress," says Catlin, who sat alongside Liotta during a panel discussion at a summit about HGH that Major League Baseball sponsored last month. "I'm excited about it. We have Dr. Liotta, who walks in as a breath of fresh air with a new technology."

The USA Today piece focuses on the entrepeneurial aspect of the Mason research.  We are excited about the anti-doping potential.

StarCaps case may produce long lasting implications for NFL anti-steroid policy and procedure

It appears that the contamination of a woman's weight loss supplement used by NFL players may inexorably complicate the anti-steroid policies of professional sports leagues.  So says the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The story (briefly) goers that several NFL players including running back Deuce McAllister of the New Orleans Saints, and tow Minnesota Vikings defensive linemen -- the Williams boys -- took StarCaps to loose weight.  Starcaps is contaminated (or spiked) with bumetanide a potent diuretic that can also be used as a masking agent for steroid abuse.  The players were suspended.

However, the players appealed the suspensions to local and Federal courts who blocked the NFL suspensions, on procedural grounds.  Seems the arbitrator in the NFL's players internal appeal was the NFL's own lawyer, hardly a dispassionate observer.  To the PP:

A federal judge's injunction allowing suspended Vikings Kevin Williams and Pat Williams and three New Orleans Saints to play the rest of the season could profoundly affect how the NFL and other professional sports enforce their drug testing policies, legal experts said Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson's ruling Thursday blocked the NFL's four-game suspensions and set a course for trial. His findings also weakened the league's Policy for Steroids and Related Substances and marked a path for players to challenge their sport's punishments in court, according to one sports law scholar.

"Every disciplinary decision of a major professional sports league is up to the unfettered, Solomonic wisdom of U.S. district judges," said professor Stephen Ross, director of Penn State's Institute for Sports Law.

If one knows about 'judicial realism' that could be a frightening prospect.  Clearing every particular disciplinary decision would appear to be time-consuming, and costly.  US courts do not move with the speed of the NFL schedule.

On the other hand, a decision to suspend a player based on lab tests without good due process restricts the players form earning a living.  And it appears the NFL did not present the players with objective due process.

Ross and others scrutinizing Magnuson's 20-page decision were drawn to his initial determination that the NFL violated public policy by failing to inform the players in November 2006 the diuretic they were using contained a known masking agent for steroids for which a positive test could result in suspensions.

The judge wrote it was unfair for Jeff Pash, the league's chief legal officer and arbitrator, to punish the players after withholding specific information that might have helped them avoid testing positive for the banned substance bumetanide.

It appears Mr. Bash isn't particularly objective.  As an arbitrator, he is not objective as  he represents the NFL...in fact the NFL's chief legal consul.  Imagine the arbitrator is the lawyer for the NFL in the NFL v. players.  Odds are somewhat weighted against the players.  The Daily Norseman says this:

The Mr. Pash he's referring to is Jeffery Pash, the person who heard the appeals of the cases of the StarCaps Five.  Oh, and in a minor but somewhat interesting fact, Mr. Pash is also the NFL's chief legal counsel.

Basically, this is the equivalent of getting a judgment against you in a divorce proceeding, filing an appeal, and having the appeal heard by the mother-in-law that never liked you anyway.  See, I've watched enough episodes of Law & Order in my life to be under the impression that arbitration, in a legal matter, is supposed to be handled by a neutral third party. . .not somebody that's on the payroll of one of the parties involved.  That really doesn't strike me as impartial or neutral, but that's just me.

The Star-Tribune also talked to a couple of Twin Cities attorneys on the matter, and they're basically under the same impression:

Marshall Tanick, who has represented players in drug-testing matters, said of Magnuson: "He came out pretty strong on this one. This looks like, at the end of the day, the scoreboard is going to be in favor of the players."

John Klassen, an attorney who does much of his work in federal court, said Magnuson's language about Pash's partiality and the league's obligation to warn players is a clear signal that the tide may have turned against the NFL.

"It is no longer about the players' conduct," Klassen said. "It is about the NFL's conduct, which would be a surprise turn that the NFL didn't expect when they stepped into this."

After all, it was the NFL that moved to shift the Williamses' case from state court -- where they had obtained a temporary restraining order two weeks ago -- to federal court.

"It's the old lesson," Klassen said. "Be careful what door you open and what arena you walk into. And the NFL may come to regret that."

Backto the Pionieer Press.  As pointed out the NFL may be correct in their policy, however their administrative handling of the policy presents serious troubling possibilites.  ANds such bungled administrative actions then threaten to jade public opinoin about anti-doping effprts.

That narrow interpretation (of the Federal judge) has broader implications for the sports world because it undercuts the bedrock  principle of strict liability governing all drug-testing programs: players ultimately are responsible for what they ingest.

Moreover, it dealt a blow to the NFL's image because the public tends to view steroids and drug cases in black and white, said professor Paul Haagen, co-director of Duke University's Department of Sports Law and Policy.

"People think of cheaters and not cheaters, people who take the stuff or who are clean," he said. "What you've got here is this middle ground. Yes, (the players) ran a risk by using this supplement, and, yes, it turned out to be a banned substance. But there is a justice problem.

"At that point you are in danger of losing the public-relations war, which is central to anti-doping."

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency monitors the country's Olympic athletes. Its authority is unrivaled in the realm of drug testing because it is not governed by a collective bargaining agreement like major pro sports are.

The NFL is very concerned...

Magnuson's decision is subject to appeal, and he ultimately could reverse himself after hearing a full vetting of the case if the NFL and the union hold evidentiary hearings and proceed to trial.

Until then, his words set a precedent for other players to challenge the authority of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on similar grounds.

Elite Belarus hammer throwers get nailed with steroids: Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan lose Beijing medals

Belarus hammer throwers lost their sliver and bronze medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as the result of doping offenses reported the IOC today.  The IOC identified the pair as drug-cheats last summer following the Beijing Olympics.

The two hammer throws clawed their way with the help of exogenous testosterone, according to lab tests.  Devyatovskiy appears to be a chronic drug-cheat.

To the BBC:

Belarus hammer throwers Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan have been stripped of their Olympic silver and bronze medals for doping offences.

Devyatovskiy, who served a two-year ban in 2000-02 and now faces a lifetime ban, and Tsikhan both tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone.

Tsikhan, the 2004 silver medallist and a three-time world champion, faces a two-year ban for his first offence.

The silver now goes to Krisztian Pars and bronze to Koji Murofushi.

Slovenia's Primoz Kozmus won the gold medal.

Both Devyatovskiy and Tsikhan denied the charge but were found guilty at a hearing in front of the International Olympic Committee disciplinary commission in Lausanne in September.

Japan's Murofushi is making a career of waiting out the dope cheats.  He was elevated a few years ago to a medal.

It is the second time Murofushi, from Japan, has benefitted a rival's doping misdemeanour. Four years ago, he was upgraded to the gold medal in Athens after Hungary's Adrian Annus was stripped of first place.

The IOC also noted a Polish canoe competitor doped with clen.

The ICC also disqualified Polish canoeist Adam Seroczynski, who was out of the medals in the flatwater K2 event in Beijing.

Seroczynski, who was fourth in his event in Beijing, tested positive for the steroid clenbuterol.

The three cases bring to nine the number of athletes caught for doping in Beijing.

The IOC disqualified six athletes during the Games - Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska, Ukrainian weightlifter Igor Razoronov, Greek hurdler Fani Halkia, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su, Spanish cyclist Isabel Moreno and Vietnamese gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do.

Blonska was stripped of her silver medal, while Kim had his silver and bronze medals taken back.

The IOC to retest 400 Beijing Olympic samples for CERA EPO and 100 for insulin

The new year may bring some new surprises from the old year Olympics.  The IOC is saying it will retest 400 samples from the 2008 Olympics for CERA EPO (AP) and 100 for insulin.

Some 500 doping samples from the Beijing Olympics will be retested in January, the IOC said Tuesday.

About 400 blood tests searching for the illegal use of CERA, a new version of the endurance-enhancing hormone EPO, will be conducted at World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratories in Paris and Lausanne, Switzerland.

A further 100 urine samples will be checked for insulin at a WADA lab in Cologne, Germany. The lab recently perfected a test for the hormone, which can serve as an anabolic agent to enhance an athlete's performance.

The International Olympic Committee said in a statement that the tests "will primarily target endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics."

The first results are expected at the end of March.

Very interesting.  A medal in Beijing must be considered temporary if the testing is on-going over years... like 8 years

The IOC said in October that it would recheck Beijing samples to look for CERA, after a new blood test was developed by the French Anti-Doping Agency. The test was used to catch four riders from the Tour de France in retesting after the July race.

Samples from the Olympics are frozen and stored for eight years, making them available when new detection methods are devised. Any athletes caught by new tests can be sanctioned and stripped of their results and medals.

The IOC says it conducted 4,770 doping tests during the Beijing Olympics, including nearly 1,000 blood screenings.

There are 3 doping cases pending form Beijing, still on the books (or in the lab).

Six athletes tested positive, while three additional cases became known after the games and are still pending.

Rulings on the cases of Belarusian hammer throwers Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan — who won the silver and bronze medals respectively — and Polish canoeist Adam Seroczynski are expected at the IOC executive board meeting which begins Wednesday in Lausanne.

Federal judge blocks NFL kick-off in Vikings Williams boys Star Caps - bumetanide - masking agent case

Got a rule you don't like?  Talk to a couple judges who will pretty much let you do what you want.

Not quite that simple, and certainly due process should be protected, however this 'possibly much ado about alot of pee' StarCaps - bumetanide diuretic steroid masking controversy' appears to have captivated this press cycle.

The AP reports that now a Federal judge blocked the suspension of the two defensive ends on the Minnesota Vikings, who will kick it off this weekend, playing as usual.

A local judge previously acted on Wednesday to stay the suspension.  Now the Feds are involved in this complex case.  (any bailout money there?) 

Let's kick it off!

A federal judge on Friday blocked the NFL from suspending five players for violating the league's anti-doping policy by using a banned diuretic, clearing the way for them to play Sunday.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson said he needed more time to consider the case after hearing several hours of arguments from the league and the NFL Players Association.

"I've got to read the background material," said Magnuson, who noted he received a 20-page filing from the NFL earlier that morning. "Justice cannot function in this way."

Is that David Justice?  Didn't he play baseball?

Magnuson gave no indication when he would issue his written ruling, but did note there was no evidence of steroid use by the players. "We're not talking about steroids in this case. Period," he said.

Kevin Williams and Pat Williams of the Minnesota Vikings and Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith of the New Orleans Saints were suspended this week for four games each. They tested positive for a banned diuretic in the dietary supplement StarCaps.

The union argued the NFL didn't properly inform players about what it knew about the product. The NFL's attorneys argued that that claim, and others, had been considered and rejected in a process set out by the league's collective bargaining agreement.

"The arbitrator's decision carefully goes through each and every one of these things," said NFL attorney Dan Nash.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league welcomed the scrutiny Magnuson was giving the case.

"We are confident that, once he has had an opportunity to review all of the relevant materials, including the collective bargaining agreement, he will uphold our long-standing agreements with the (NFL Players Association) that protect the health and safety of NFL players and the integrity of our game," Aiello said.

Everyone appears to be happy at this point.  The NFL made it's case; does anyone really think the NFL wanted to suspend the players?  The NFLPA does it's job in getting the players off the legal hook -- at least temporarily.

Jeff Kessler, an attorney for the union, said he was delighted. He said the ruling showed that the NFL isn't above the law. "In this particular case, they did not follow the rule of law," Kessler said.

Magnuson's move came two days after a Hennepin County judge issued a restraining order blocking the Williamses' suspension. The NFL got the case moved to federal court, where the NFL Players Association joined in a broader action that included the Saints players.

The five players were suspended for four games for testing positive in training camp in July and August for the banned diuretic Bumetanide, which can be used as a masking agent for steroids. Diuretics are also used to quickly shed weight.

The drug was in the dietary supplement StarCaps even though the label did not list the diuretic as an ingredient.

The issue here, even blurred by talking head sportscasters is that taking a diuretic is a ridiculous method to loose weight temporally, and Even dangerous: one of those NFL players will die form the complications of dehydration.

Attorneys on both sides told Magnuson overweight players use the weight-loss drugs for various reasons, including getting down to target weights in their contracts and for medical reasons, including alleviating high blood pressure and heart problems.

The key issue is whether the NFL had any specific obligation to notify players and the union that it had known since at least 2006 that the weight loss supplement contained the banned diuretic. The NFL says the burden is on players to know what's going into their bodies.

(more after the jump)