More on Greek Olympic steroid tragedy: Methyltrienolone (M3) gone wild, but not on the Ebays

The IOC came out with a strong statement on Greek use of the obnoxious anabolic steroid methyltrienolone (full post after the jump).  M3 has been found in Greek weightlifters, sprinters (here and here) and in Fani Halkia, the Athens gold medalist in the 400M hurdles. Katerina Thanou was also sent home for being bad in Athens, 2004.   Now the IOC weighs in, and the medical director talks about the Internet tubes and Ebays causing the problem:

The International Olympic Committee confirmed Monday that Greece's Fanni Halkia, the Olympic record holder in the 400m hurdles, tested positive for methyltrienolone...The news is the latest in a series of doping violations by Greek athletes. Halkia is the 15th Greek athlete in the last three months to fail a drug test.

The IOC notified Greek authorities regarding possible violations of that country's law by Chalkia's coach. George Panagiotopoulos.

CNN carries the story on systematic doping:

Organized doping is likely behind a recent spate of positive drug tests in Greek sports, the president of the country's Olympic Committee said Monday.   

"There are 15 people, all with the same substance. This is the strangest thing, because it leads to the conclusion that there is an organized effort," Minos Kyriakou told The Associated Press.

The athletes -- 11 weightlifters, three runners and a swimmer -- all tested positive for methyltrienolone, a banned steroid.

"There is an organized crime -- because that is what this is called," Kyriakou said. "Because it seems there is a lot of money hidden there, a lot of profit."

Meanwhile The Australian says the IOC is blaming the Internet tubes and the EBays:

A STEROID that suddenly became available for sale on the internet this year has claimed another alleged Greek cheat, with Fani Halkia, the reigning Olympic champion in the women's 400m hurdles, testing positive.

A total of 15 Greek athletes, including Halkia, have been caught with the same steroid, which has never been commercially available.

IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said that the high numbers of Greek athletes turning in positives to this substance was because it was available online.

Halkia said she was shocked to learn she had tested positive for the highly toxic oral steroid methyltrienolone and did not know how the banned substance was found in her sample.  "I am shocked," she said. "I have undergone more testing than anyone else."

But Schamasch said the easy availability was probably behind the positive test.  "Some drugs are quite difficult to get hold of but this one suddenly became much easier to buy and I guess that's why we're seeing more positive tests," Schamasch said.

"It seems the use of this drug by the Greeks is related to its appearance on the internet."

As a ton of Greek athletes have been caught doping with M3, methyltrienolone. (well about 15, times about 175 average pounds is actually over 2000 pounds), we tried searching the Ebays for methyltrienolone, and could not find drug for sale, nor any completed sales.  Although PayPal would be a convenient payment method, we suggest looking at coaches, doctors, and trainers rather than the Ebays for your steroid supplies...

Full IOC statement:

The International Olympic Committee confirmed Monday that Greece's Fani Halkia, the Olympic record holder in the 400m hurdles, tested positive for methyltrienolone.

Halkia was set to participate in the hurdles heats on Sunday, but instead was sent home because of the positive test, which the IOC says the sample was made August 10 in Japan during Greek training. The IOC's medical director was informed of the result of the first sample on August 16. A day later another sample was tested, which confirmed the positive result.

The Greek NOC suspended Halkia and she left the Olympic village.

The news is the latest in a series of doping violations by Greek athletes. Halkia is the 15th Greek athlete in the last three months to fail a drug test. Before the Games, the executive board of the IOC ruled Greek runner Katerina Thanou out of the Beijing Games due to her participation in a drug-testing scandal at the 2004 Summer Games in her home country. Tassos Gousis also tested positive for the same substance as Halkia, as did 11 weightlifters, a boxer and a swimmer.

The IOC notified Greek authorities regarding possible violations of that country's law by Chalkia's coach. George Panagiotopoulos.

Comments

[middle aged mid packer]

Am I just being uncharitable when I take the "Shocked! Shocked, I am! I have been tested gazillions of times!" line as a clear sign of being caught red-handed?

I feel that a genuinely innocent athlete would be, rather, "freaked out and bewildered", asking the labs to analyze the remainder of any "supplements" they had about the house in case it really was contamination, and asking for the procedure to be double-checked in case there had been some mix-up. Though of course it is hard to know, because I can't recall any certain example of one :/

The miracle of the internet..

http://www.tradekey.com/ks-oral-methyltrienolone/

[Philippos]

..."could not find drug for sale".
Are you kidding? Almost every greek journalist ordered and most of them received M3 bottles from various sites and internet resellers, most of them of Chinese origin.
Have you tried to find the greek weightlifting team's supplier? They had a website but it went down as soon as the doping scandal broke out.
This is what you get when you replace the original Olympic moto of "fair play" (ef agonizesthe) with the modern "Citius, Altius, Fortius" - Faster, Higher, Stronger, no matter how and no matter the cost.
Personally I believe that the majority of the top athletes use chemicals, as records like Usain Bolts 100m "walking" 9.69, are not human. The thing that separates champions from felons is just a matter of having access to non detectable hi-tech substances. Isn't kind of clear why the US and the Chinese athletes are not tested by any international organization?
Solutions? Probably make doping legal and somehow hope to make it better controlled. Evidently, it is not something that can be stopped.

[Stelios adamou]

fani is a great athete and very well credited and educated person.Her body structu re as such is enough to be with training of course a very competent international athlete.I personally love to see fani on the field again proving everybody wrong!She is a very big asset for the sports,and track and field will be much poorer without her!After all i strongly believe that she is THE victim of the whole thing.The greek nation will also turn out to be a victim without fani.Fani we love you please keep on!!!!!

[Jack Jordan]

Where is everyone getting this internet supply idea from? That particular compound is the single hardest illegal substance to find over the internet. When people do take Methyltrienolone they usually get it from underground sources that never see the internet, and even in those circles MT is still relatively unavailable. The traditional greek physique is mounted with muscle and is attributed to their genetics. The truth is that their genetics arent much different from anyone else's they just have a history of steroid use that's teared down from many generations past. Because Greeks don't look at it as a tabooed drug that's harmfull to the body, but rather a way of Greek life, the media has never thought to make a buzz out of it. Steroids are like food and water in the eyes of Greeks.

[Philippos]

Mr Jordan, your opinion on Steroids "in the eyes of Greeks" is at least ridiculous.
You obviously have not watched any Greek media to confirm what I mentioned. Within a week, a single journalist managed to find eleven (11) sources for the drug and received samples from seven (7) vendors. All of them were confirmed to be M3 by the Greek official anti-doping organization.

You obviously believe that we Greeks think of the doped Greek athletes as some kind of heroes - although they are being prosecuted at this very moment, while some other people like mr. Iakovou - the head coach of the doped Greek national weight-lifting Olympic team is already on his way to prison. Apparently you are wrong.

"The traditional Greek physique is mounted with muscle" - this is partially correct: the Greeks have always been decent weightlifters and wrestlers but never in the past decent sprinters or swimmers.

In my book there is no traditional athletic tribe. Carl Lewis talked about HUNDREDS of US athletes "allowed to escape bans" after testing positive for steroids - himself included. Yet he is still a hero in the US and unlike the Greek doped athletes he's not facing prison or any form of punishment and not getting stripped of any of his medals.
Check this link: www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2003/apr/24/athletics.duncanmackay

This year it was also the Chinese along with the Americans that were allowed (as they demanded) to avoid tests.

My point is this - many more Olympic medals have been won by science labs all over the world than by hard work and talent alone. If use of chemicals is a way of improving the human race then we should embrace it. If it simply means cheating, then we should forbid it and punish it's use - but we should make no discrimination at all.

[air jordans]

The Antarctic penguins are dying, we will go to save it