Steroid Nation

Court of Arbitration for Sports reduces Italian Gianni Da Ros's cycling suspension from 20 years to 4 years

Think of all the cyclists who doped themselves into oblivion including Floyd Landis, Alejandro Valverde, Tyler "Chimera" Hamilton, Ivan Basso, David Millar, and Bernhard Kohl.  How many years suspension did these elite world class athletes receive?  Couple generally.

Consider 23 year-old Italian cyclists Gianni Da Ros.  This skinny kid was nailed with a number of PEDs, apparently including HGH, and most likley an EPO.  What length ban did he receive?  20 years!!!  Twenty -- that's right.

The CAS rescinded 16 of those years the other day.  Perhaps when this kid can compete again, he can pack on some weight.

Italian Gianni Da Ros will not have to serve a 20-year suspension for trafficking in banned substances, the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided.

The court partially upheld the appeal by Da Ros, who asked to have the ban reduced to two years.

Da Ros was arrested in March, 2009 as part of a large operation by the Italian police to stop the distribution of doping products in fitness clubs.

In November, 2009, the Anti-Doping Tribunal of the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) found him guilty of several WADA code violations, including the use, possession, trafficking and administration of banned substances and imposed a 20-year ban.

The CAS said it "confirmed the existence of the infractions committed by the Athlete", which reportedly included the use and distribution of Human Growth Hormone.

However, the court "considered that a twenty-year ban was not justified and has reduced it to a period of four years which corresponds to the standard suspension provided by Article 10.3.2 of the World Anti-Doping Code."

Da Ros will be eligible to race again March 11, 2013...

What is the saying...The NCAA was mad at Kentucky so put Eastern Carolina on suspension...

PED using Olympian Antonio Pettigrew found dead at 42; PED use involved?

Forty two year-old former Olympian and admitted PED user/drug cheat Antonio Pettigrew was found dead at age 42.  Pettigrew served as a track coach at The University of North Carolina.

ANTONIO Pettigrew, who was stripped of a 2000 Olympic 4x400m relay gold medal for doping, has been found dead at the age of 42.

There was no word on the exact time or possible cause of death for Pettigrew, whose body was discovered on Tuesday according to a spokesman for University of North Carolina, where Pettigrew was an assistant athletics coach.

Pettigrew, who won the 1991 400 metres world title in Tokyo, was a member of the 4x400 metres American relay team that won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped Pettigrew and his teammates - including Michael Johnson - of their medals after he admitted, during a trial against former coach Trevor Graham, to doping.

Pettigrew qualifies as a "non-analytic" PED user: He never tested positive for PEDs, however he admitted to use under oath in court.

Pettigrew used at least EPO and HGH. Studies have shown HGH enlarges the heart muscle.  EPO is related to sudden death in cyclists -- it changes hemodynamics.

Could HGH and EPO use have lead to a cardiac problem in Pettigrew produced sudden cardiac death? No one will know exactly, but it's intelligent speculation.

It is reported Victor Conte thought EPO was one of the best PEDs.  Will we now start to see 40+ former athletes drop dead from PED side effects?

BALCO investigator Jeff Novitzky aims scope at Lance Armstrong

The AP reports BALCO investigator and Barry Bond's good buddy Jeff Novitzky will lead the investigation of Lance Armstrong's cycling antics in the near future.  Armstrong would likely rather have the IRS invite him to a weekend picnic at Alcatraz.

He's been called high-minded, a trailblazing lawman and "America's top steroid cop."

For someone who does his best work behind the scenes, federal agent Jeff Novitzky is hardly a stranger to the spotlight. And depending on the results of an ongoing investigation into the sometimes-shadowy world of pro cycling, he could soon become better-known still.

After hounding home-run king Barry Bonds for years and wringing a confession from Olympic sprinter Marion Jones, Novitzky is leading an investigation that has questioned sponsors and examined claims from former teammates of Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion. A grand jury has been seated in Los Angeles to hear evidence in the investigation over the coming weeks and months, and Armstrong sponsors Trek Bicycle Corp. and Nike each said Friday that they've been contacted by federal agents.

"I'm just glad he ain't after me," said attorney Richard Emery. "He is a nightmare for anyone that's he's focused on."

Gone but not forgotten: Feds close in on Armstrong doping

As everyone (except me, because I have taken a break) knows Lance Armstrong retired from the Tour de France (TDF, or Take da Fraud considering the drug scandals) but apparently US Prosecutors continue to ride on.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Feds continue to be interested in Armstrong's performance boosters.

Federal prosecutors handling an investigation into cheating in professional cycling have subpoenaed documents from an arbitration case that sought to prove that Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs.

The documents contain depositions from former teammates and associates of the seven-time Tour de France champion during a period when a promotions company was trying to prove that Mr. Armstrong employed banned drugs and practices—known as doping—during his cycling career.

Jeffrey Tillotson, the attorney who represented the company, SCA Promotions Inc., in the arbitration hearings, said it received a subpoena for the records on July 16. He is preparing to send the files to the federal prosecutors in Los Angeles who are handling the investigation, he said.

We love the next paragraph about PEDs generally not being illegal.  Oh yeah?  That's patently ridiculous.  There is a difference between using an illegal prescription drug for non-indicated reasons, or abusing a controlled substance, and the public's or the law enforcement's general lazy disregard of the abuse.

Mr. Armstrong has repeatedly denied doping allegations and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.Using performing-enhancing techniques in sports is generally not against the law in the U.S. But federal prosecutors could make the case that Mr. Armstrong defrauded investors by accepting sponsorship dollars with the understanding that he would not use the drugs, if they prove that he doped.

In our view the problems pursing Armstrong remain several:

• He has build up a great 'feel good' following with his charitable works
• He could have taken prescribed drugs legally, for instance androgens as replacement following cancer
  
• People close their eyes when an idol is tainted...evidence ESPN's Stewart Scott's lovefest about Armstrong on the eve when the TdF ended Sunday.  He pointed out a small but vocal minority object to LS's drug use.  Golly gee...

Floyd Landis comes dirty over 'roids use in Cycling and Tour de France

Obviously we have been out of the doping scene over the past few weeks, but what a time to come back.  Hot stories on Floyd Landis, Lance Armstrong, Brian Cushing.  Interesting but weren't these controversial names a few years back with much vitriol spewed at those who would ever consider these athletes cheated.

The Landis story broke late Wednesday (ESPN) when he admitted to years of PED (EPO , blood doping, and steroids) use.

LANDIS: "I WANT TO CLEAR MY CONSCIENCE"

In a lengthy phone interview last night with ESPN.com's Bonnie Ford, cyclist Floyd Landis admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs for most of his career, including in 2006 when he tested positive and was stripped of his Tour de France victory and handed a two-year ban from the sport. "I want to clear my conscience,'' he said. "I don't want to be part of the problem any more.'' Landis also confirmed that he sent emails to cycling and anti-doping officials over the past few weeks, implicating dozens of other athletes, including Lance Armstrong, team management and owners, as well as officials of the sport's national and international governing bodies. ESPN is seeking further evidence and comment from those individuals. Meanwhile, the head of cycling's world governing body questions Landis' credibility, telling The Associated Press that Landis is "seeking revenge" and holds a "grudge" against Lance Armstrong and others.

The Landis email are excerpted here by ESPN.  He admitted to at least EPO as well as implicated Armstrong.

Of course there will be the Armstrong defenders, as if no one learns the lessons from history on athlete denials over 'roids and PEDs.

Marion Jones's tainted Olympic gold goes to waste, rather than to Katerina Thanou

The New York Times says that Marion Jones's tainted gold medals from Sydney will in part be distributed and in part will rot in purgatory.

Greece's Katerina Thanou will not be elevated to gold, after her second place finish in 2000 in Australia.  Obviously Thanou's behavior in her native Greece  during the 2004 Olympics left a bad taste in the IOC's mouth.  Thus Thanou, who has never tested positive for steroids but whose behavior reeks of a PED cover up, will be ignored in the record books.  Interesting message from the IOC, and not entirely consistent with logic. (but check out Thanou's photo and one sees why she might fit in better with the men's 100M; those are impressive traps for a female)

However in the 200M, the Jones gold wil be awarded to that 2nd place finisher.

 The International Olympic Committee redistributed the medals won by the disgraced sprinter Marion Jones at the 2000 Olympics on Wednesday, but it refused to award her gold medal in the 100 meters to Katerina Thanou of Greece, who was barred from the 2004 Games because of a missed drug test.

Jones surrendered the medals when she admitted in 2007 to lying to federal investigators about performance-enhancing drug use. Normally, the other competitors are moved up in order when medals are surrendered, but Thanou’s later drug testing issues prompted the committee to leave the top spot in the 100 meters vacant. In record books, Thanou and Tanya Lawrence of Jamaica will be listed as silver medalists and Merlene Ottey of Jamaica, who finished fourth in the race, will hold the bronze.

Thanou did not fail a drug test, but she and her teammate Kostas Kenteris missed drug tests  before the 2004 Games in Athens and were kept from competing by Greek Olympic officials after it was determined they had staged a motorcycle crash to cover up their absence. Track and field’s international federation, the I.A.A.F., barred them for two years.

Jones’s gold medal in the 200 meters was awarded to Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas, with the silver going to Susanthika Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka and the bronze to Beverly McDonald of Jamaica. Jones’s bronze medal in the long jump was given to   Tatyana Kotova of Russia.

Apparently  if the IOC can't catch a drug cheat the first time, they may make a statement some 10 years later...

The fate of the Jones relay medals remains tainted at this point.

The fate of the two medals won by United States relay teams that included Jones in the 2000 Games is still being decided by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. When those medals were stripped from the American teams by the I.O.C., the other members of the relay appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration, which is expected to issue its ruling by Dec. 18.

Mikel Astarloza, 16th stage winner in the 2009 Tour de France, suspended for preliminary positive EPO test

As found at The Sports Network (here), the 2009 Tour de France, does snare a doping athlete, who could be considered a relatively elite rider.  Mikel Astarloza, who finished 11th in the 2009, and won the 16th stage, dropped a positive urine apparently containing EPO.

Mikel Astarloza, who finished 11th in the 2009 Tour de France, has been provisionally suspended after an "adverse analytical finding of recombinant EPO" was found in his urine sample in an out-of-competition test on June 26, the UCI announced Friday.

Astarloza, who won the 16th stage of the Tour on July 21, will be suspended for two years if his B sample also tests positive.

His only major cycling win was in 2003 in the Tour Down Under. He is currently a member of the team Euskaltel-Euskadi.

The Tour, won buy Alberto Contador (with Lance Armstrong 3rd) appeared to be enjoyed a relatively dope-free race this year.

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.

Tour de France 2009 now detects Synacthene (ACTH) in dope testing

One of the stealth drugs to enhance cycling performance over the years , Synacthene (or Synacthen) will be detectable in the 2009 Tour de France.  Synacthene is ACTH or Adreno-cortical stimulating hormone.  The drug would stimulate the adrenal grand to pour out cortisol, a natural steroidal hormonal with multiple physiological effects.

Anecdotal evidence from cyclists using the drug say if used correctly the substance decreased last race inflammation, and improves performance; however street talk alos says that if used inappropriately the drug can decrease cycling efficiency.  Who knows..there ar no scientific studies of the agent.  To SBS:

Anti-doping authorities have perfected a new test capable of detecting the drug Synacthene and it is currently being used by doping controllers at the Tour de France, sources have told AFP.

The substance, a synthetic hormone also known as ACTH, has up to now proved virtually impossible to detect and evidence has been limited to allegations made by ex-users.

The new test has been perfected by specialists at the Anti-Doping Laboratory in Cologne and was tried out experimentally at German cycling events last year before being approved by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as part of its new battery of anti-doping measures.

"It is based on urine samples but can also be applied to blood samples," said Professor Mario Thevis, who developed the system.

"We prefer, however, urine because there are larger volumes and more samples available."

"Of course, Synacthene was considered relevant and important, but blood testing was not as frequent at that time and the first method was based on blood specimens," Prof Thevis said.

"Moreover, the collection and storage conditions were critical: nowadays everything is harmonised."

Experts say Synacthene has typically been used in association with anabolic steroids and testosterone, the cocktail of drugs being injected directly into a racer's body to boost resistance to pain and to enhance performance.

According to anti-doping expert Dr Jean-Pierre de Modenard, there is evidence of the drug having being used for many years - not just in cycling, but also in football.

Dr. de Modenard hopes the discovery will help fill one of the remaining gaps in knowledge relating to illegal susbtances.

"To state that only one percent of controls turn up positive is hypocritical, and this has been the perfect example of what happens when there is a lack of data," he said.

More Beijing Olympians tested positive for PEDs; Report says 1500M champ Rashid Tamzi included

The AP carries a story today of positive doping tests in the rerun of samples taken from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Apparently a rerun for CERA EPO netted a few more PED cheats, including the men's 1500M gold medal winner. These results ave been hinted at for weeks. (Let's Run link too)

An official familiar with the results tells The Associated Press that backup tests came back positive for 1,500-meter champion Rashid Ramzi and four others accused of doping at the Beijing Olympics.

The athletes tested positive for the blood-boosting drug CERA in retests of their "A" samples earlier this year, with the results announced in April.

The official told the AP on Wednesday that the "B" samples have been analyzed and confirmed the positive findings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the results have not been announced.

The athletes face being stripped of results and medals.

The others are Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin, German cyclist Stefan Schumacher, Croatian runner Vanja Perisic and Greek walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka.

CERA EPO (the newer large molecule EPO) tends to be abused by endurance athletes.

Although this will not make as large a splash as Ben Johnson's Winny positive, an Olympic 1500 gold medalist positive for PED cheating is every bit as disgusting.

German speedskater on thin ice: Claudia Pechstein begins PED suspension

Olympic speed-skater Claudia Pechstein starts a two year ban based on blood doping, devined from her blood indices.  Considering Germany's awful past with doping, it is entirely  disconcerting for an elite German athlete to dope.  (AP)

Olympic speed-skating great Claudia Pechstein of Germany was banned for two years because of blood doping Friday and will miss the 2010 Vancouver Games.

The International Skating Union said Pechstein's blood profile indicated abnormal changes in a series of tests, in particular after the World Allround Championships in February. The governing body ruled after a two-day hearing.

The 37-year-old skater is a five-time Olympic gold medalist. She is banned until Feb. 9, 2011 and can appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Pechstein was stripped of her results in the 500-meter and 3,000-meter races Feb. 7 at the World Allround event, where she finished fifth and fourth, respectively.

Pechstein had hoped to compete in Vancouver for her sixth straight Winter Games. She won her first gold medal in the 5,000 in Lillehammer in 1994, and won at the same distance in Nagano in 1998 and Salt Lake City in 2002. She also won the 3,000 in Salt Lake City and was part of  Germany's winning team in the pursuit in Turin in 2006.

She also won two Olympic silvers and two bronze medals, including a third-place finish in the 5,000 at the 1992 Albertville Games, along with six world championship titles.

Play the Game 2009

We are in Coventry England to present papers at WADA's Play the Game Conference.  We apologize for the lapse in coverage of the steroid and doping scene; however we can tell you that Prime Minster Gordon Brown is in a bit of a predicament.

Catch up with things later.

Greg Lemond is on the podium today...should be interesting.

Now besieged by problems, Autrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl crashes career

Once close to the top of cycling world, Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl retired from the sport, apparently eschewing the dope-for-wins philosophy in pro cycling.  Kohl is currently mired in a professional,personal, and legal quagmire of doping, and doping allegations.

Reflecting on this event, one cannot but help to think about the twisted culture of pro cycling.  Ostensibly based on an activity that promotes health and fitness, all too often pro cycling promotes drug-cheating, dishonesty, and death from doping drugs like EPO.  Kohl apparently tired of this nonsense, calling his career kaput.

It might be easy to drawn down on Kohl and individual athletes.  Much of the disdain may be merited because no one should absolve these dopers of responsibility.  However the system of management, doctors, trainers, personal managers that promotes doping should also be highly implicated.  The athletes (in Europe) often are punished while the doctors behind the dopers simple get rich.  From the Examiner:

Bernhard Kohl of Austria, the disgraced former rider for the former Gerolsteiner team, has retired from cycling and said Monday he will not return to the sport after his doping-related suspension ends.

"I don't want to continue leading a double life which is based on lies," Kojhl said at a press conference in Vienna, Austria.

Kohl originally finished third overall in the 2008 Tour de France, 73 seconds behind race winner Carlos Sastre. But Kohl, 27, tested positive for the EPO derivative CERA during the Tour de France and later confessed to having used illegal doping products and methods for most of his career. He was given a two-year suspension.

Kohl's dismissal from the Tour improved riders below him in the overall standings one position, including American Christian Vande Velde from fifth to fourth.

"Without doping there is no equal opportunity in the top international field," Kohl said. "This is absolutely the end. I have voluntarily doped – in a system in which you can't win without doping. Talent, training and iron discipline just aren't enough at some point. Doping becomes the rule. A clean sport is unfortunately an exception."

Kohl said that he would now dedicate himself to doping prevention, by speaking on the subject and organizing cycling camps.

Austrian cyclist Christian Pfannberger drops out of Giro following positive doping test

Another pro cyclist nailed doping, this one on an unexpected doping test visit.  To the Charlotte observerand the AP:

Austrian cyclist Christian Pfannberger has pulled out of the Giro d'Italia and been suspended by his team after failing a doping test.

A surprise test on March 19 at Pfannberger's home in Austria came back positive. Pfannberger's agent informed the Katusha team of the failed test Wednesday, one day after the rider sent a letter to the Russian team saying he was pulling out of the race for personal reasons.

Katusha spokesman Andrea Agostini told The Associated Press that "we thought it was best to suspend him immediately." He added that it was still unclear what substance the test revealed.

Dominican women's weight lifter positive for CERA EPO

A very interesting story out of Reuters,says a female power lifter from the Dominican Republic -- Yudelquis Contreras -- tested positive for CERA EPO.  This positive EPO is interesting because weight lifters usually use anabolic steroids, HGH, or insulin as primary anabolics.  EPO would generally be utilized by more distance and endurance athletes -- cyclists and runners.  Here we have a female strength athlete using EPO.

Women's weightlifter Yudelquis Contreras of the Dominican Republic has tested positive for the banned blood booster CERA, the Dominican Today newspaper said on Thursday.

Dominican Today said the positive test had been confirmed by the Dominican Olympic Committee and the Dominican Weightlifting Federation on Wednesday.

Contreras is the sixth and final athlete to test positive for CERA after the International Olympic Committee re-tested samples taken at last year's Beijing Olympics.

The weightlifter, who finished fifth in the 53 kgs category, faces a two-year ban.

Bahrain's Olympic 1,500 metres gold medallist Rashid Ramzi and Italian cycling road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin were among the six to test positive for the new generation of EPO.

The athletes can ask to have their B samples tested in their presence. If the B samples are positive the athletes face two-year suspensions, if they are first time offenders, and possible life bans if they have been caught cheating before.

More on 2008 Beijing Olympics positive doping tests: Davide Rebellin, Rashid Ramzi & Stefan Schumaker

More news emerges from the news wires today on the new 2008 Beijing Olympic doping results.  Focus is directed on 2 sports and 3 athletes:

Cycling: Stefan Schumaker, Davide Rebellin
Track: Rashid Ramzi (Gold medal 1500)

Again, it appears CERA-EPO constitutes the doping agent.

From Monsters and Critics:

Stuttgart - Olympic 1,500 metres gold medallist Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain and Italian cycling  road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin have tested positive for the latest generation of the blood booster EPO at retests of samples from the Beijing Games.

German cyclist Stefan Schumacher was also named by the German cycling federation while the ruling athletics body IAAF confirmed reports that three of the overall six suspects are from its sport.

Ahmad Ben Hamad Al El Khalifa, deputy general secretary of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, told German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday that the committee has been informed about Ramzi's positive test.

At the same time the Italian Olympic Committee CONI named Rebellin as a doping suspect and summoned him to a hearing on May 4.

And Germany, hit with a spate of blood doping scandals, announced this:

The Germany cycling federation then confirmed that Schumacher had also failed a retest for CERA. Schumacher had already tested positive for CERA at retests of 2008 Tour de France samples.

If found guilty, the athletes face disqualification, will be stripped of their medals and banned from the 2012 Games on top of sanctions from their respective sports federations.

More 2008 Beijing Olympians test positive for doping: Cyclist Davide Rebellin and unnamed track gold winner

News agencies report today that several 2008 Beijing Olympians tested positive for doping. (NBC)  A cyclist from Italy -- Davide Rebellin -- was named.  Also interesting was unnamed male track gold medal winner.  Appears CERA-EPO was the culprit.

A person familiar with a new round of drug tests from the Beijing Olympics says two medalists were among six athletes who turned up positive when their blood samples were rechecked.

The person tells The Associated Press the tests nabbed three track and field athletes, two cyclists and one weightlifter.

The person also says one of the track and field athletes is a male gold medalist. The other medalist was in cycling.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the names haven’t been officially released by the International Olympic Committee.

The Italian Olympic Committee says one of the six was an Italian athlete. The Italian news agency ANSA identified him as cyclist Davide Rebellin, silver medalist in the road race.

Unnamed male track gold medalist.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Any guesses?  CNN reports 7 positive tests from 6 athletes; one doper was a double winner.

A total of 948 samples were analyzed, with seven tests, from six athletes, coming back as positive.

More from the NY Daily News:

The IOC announcement didn't identify the six athletes, who each failed a newly-designed test for CERA, an endurance booster. They are being notified through the governing bodies of their sports. CERA, which stands for continuous erythropoietin receptor activator, is an advanced version of erythropoietin, which increases the development of red blood cells, bringing more oxygen to the muscles.

The IOC's anti-doping rules allow for the storing of samples for up to eight years so athletes tempted to cheat know that they may test positive even if the anti-doping technology hasn't yet caught up to cutting-edge doping products and techniques. The testing took place in accredited laboratories in Switzerland, France, and Germany, and targeted samples from athletes in cycling, rowing, swimming and track and field.

The IOC said it tested a total of 948 samples after developing new tests for CERA and insulin, the diabetes treatment that has some performance-enhancing properties. The insulin re-test, performed on 101 urine samples, didn't result in any positives. But the CERA test identified seven positives for six athletes.

German pro cyclists Kloeden and Kessler under doping suspicion

A huge doping scandal in pro cycling continue in Germany involving the T-Mobile team.  Latest caught up were Andreas Kloeden and Matthias Kessler.  To the Earth Times:

German cyclists Andreas Kloeden and Matthias Kessler have been implicated in illegal doping practices following an independent investigation, news magazine Der Spiegel reports. The former T-Mobile cyclists are suspected of having received banned blood transfusions by doctors at Freiburg University Clinic, the magazine reports in its edition to appear Monday, quoting the results of an investigation by an expert commission.

The independent commission has spent two years looking into doping allegations against the doctors, Lothar Heinrich and Andreas Schmid, who are alleged to have created a systematic doping system between 1995 and 2006 for the former T-Mobile and Team Telekom team.

Kloeden, who now rides for Astana and is regarded as Germany's top cyclist, and Kessler, who is serving a doping ban, did not comment to Spiegel on the report. Kloeden has always denied doping. Former T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz has admitted having received banned blood transfusions from the Freiburg doctors and also to having used the illegal blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO).

Once again medical professionals aid the dopers.

Greek racewalk champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka might be walking in jail yard

From Hellenic Athletes comes a story on champion Greek race walker Athanasia Tsoumeleka.  Appears the Olympic athlete caught doping with CERA EPO may be spending time in the pokey.

Olympic race-walk champion Athanasia Tsoumeleka was charged under Greece’s penal code earlier this week with using an illegal performance-enhancing drug.

Athens prosecutor Costas Simitzoglou charged Tsoumeleka with breaking the country’s strict anti-doping laws, recently revised to include jail-time, after she tested positive in January for the drug CERA, an advanced version of the blood-booster EPO.

Last month, Greece's track and field federation handed her a two-year ban from competition, while this week's charge carries a maximum two-year jail term.

Tsoumeleka finished ninth in Beijing in the 20k walk event in a personal best of 1 hour, 27 minutes, 54 seconds. She was almost 3½ minutes behind winner Olga Kaniskina of Russia.  In 2004, she won Athens gold in 1 hour, 29 minutes, 12 seconds.

Tsoumeleka, 27, denies knowingly using the substance, has expressed doubts about the whole testing procedure, and upon learning in

January that she had tested positive announced her immediate retirement from competition.

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).

Australian cyclist Jobie Dajka found dead

An Australian cyclist Jobie Dajka -- 27 -- was discovered dead today.  Young cyclists appear to die more frequently than one would expect.  Not saying this was involved here, but one thinks of the morbid effects of EPO, either alone or added to all the other drugs these guys ingest.  (The Age)

Australian cyclist Jobie Dajka has been found dead at his Adelaide home, it has been reported.

The body of Dajka, a world and Commonwealth Games champion, was discovered late Tuesday, the Nine Network reported.

A cause of death has not been released, Nine said.

Dajka, 27, was dumped from Australia's team for the 2004 Athens Olympics just weeks before the Games for lying to a doping inquiry.

In 2005, he was given a three-month suspended jail term for assaulting Australia's head track coach, Martin Barras - an offence that also led to a three-year ban from professional cycling.

Following the suspension, which was lifted in late 2006, Dajka admitted having alcohol related problems and to have suffered depression.

Dajka won a Commonwealth Games gold medal at the Manchester Games in 2002 in the teams sprint, and was the 2003 world championships kierin winner.

The ink between doping and depression, doping and alcohol and other street drugs has yet to be explored.

More here on the cylist.  Obviously depression was a problem.  Don't underestimate the effects of doping on mood.

Austrian doping scandal blowing up: More arrests

The doping scandal in Austria appears to be blowing up.  Police now are pursuing the source of the illicit drugs.

Prosecutors confirmed today (Fri) there had been five more suspects in the Austrian doping scandal.

It was announced that some of those arrests dated back to February. No names have been revealed, but investigators of the "SoKo Doping" special group said those people were from the provinces of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Carinthia and Vienna. Doping substances worth 200,000 Euros have been secured in house raids.

Vienna prosecution spokesman Gerald Jarosch revealed one of the suspects was Slovak Alexander N., 39, who is regarded as a member of criminal circles in the bordering country. Another person put under arrest was "Austrian businessman Gerhard D., 51 years old," Jarosch added.

Jarosch said: "We may have demolished a criminal structure of dealers and consumers – from production to supply. Some of the suspects were active in the fitness and bodybuilding community."

The individuals are suspected of having breached Austrian anti-doping law by doing business with doping substances.

One more cylist may be hearing footsteps:

Media reports recently had it that cyclist Georg Totschnig, who came in seventh in the Tour de France in 2005, was also under investigation. The 37-year-old, who retired in 2006, dismissed any allegations – as did cross-country Olympic winner Christian Hoffmann, whose name had also been mentioned.

More on the Matschiner Austrian doping scandal: Kohl, Rasmussen, Vroeman, and more

From Earthtimes comes news of the latest in the burgeoning Austrian/Bulgarian doping scandal. The scandal extends now into cycling (Tour de France contestant Bernhard Kohl), skiing, and track.

Vienna - Austria's cycling doping scandal widened Thursday as three more people were detained, according to media reports. The reports come on top of four arrests of alleged doping suppliers in March.
 
The latest development came after Stefan Matschiner, the former manager of disgraced Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl, was detained Monday night for allegedly supplying athletes with a range of performance-enhancing substances and blood transfusions.

Prosecutors in Vienna did not comment on the reports by Austrian press agency APA and the daily Die Presse, which attributed its story to unnamed investigators. According to the reports, at  least one of the arrests took place Wednesday. Earlier in March, police detained Austria's former cross-country ski coach Walter Mayer on charges of having bought the blood-booster EPO from a pharmacist. The pharmacist and a professional cyclist were also taken into remand but have since been released. Their names have not been made public.

From OE24.at comes a graphic of the athletes involved with the trainer Matschiner.  The group includes the pro cyclists Kohl and Michael Rasmussen, and the triathlete Lisa Hutthaler.  Also note Simon Vroeman, who tested positive for doping last year, was a client of this 'manager'.

 Meanwhile, public attention was focused on the Humanplasma laboratory in Vienna, where Kohl said he went three times to receive blood transfusions before buying a transfusion machine together with other athletes.

The laboratory said it could not confirm or deny Kohl's presence on its premises, but claimed it had never "approached, invited or received" athletes for blood doping.

The Austrian cross country skier Christian Hoffmann, as well as Danish cyclist Michel Rasmussen have denied reports that they also paid for and used the machine that was allegedly set up in Matschiner's home.

This article failed to mention Bulgarian sprinter Ivet Lalova, who is linked to Matschiner too.

Bulgarian sprinter Ivet Lalova denies doping charges

The Austrian press yesterday implicated Bulgarian sprinter Ivet Lalova in doping sponsored by the Bulgarian manager Stephan Matschiner.  LaLova answers the critics.

Another Bulgarian athlete was involved in a doping scandal. In the center of the problem was the sprinter Ivet Lalova. According to publications in the “Courrir” newspaper the manager of the Bulgarian Stephan Machiner has regularly given to his athletes forbidden substances. 

The newspaper’s publications are based on the triathlon athlete Lisa Huthaller, who claims that the agent has made a special calendar with the specific substances  and when they should be taken. Machiner has denied Huthaller’s accusations.

Ivet is in the committee of the European association athletes where she was elected not only  because of her sport qualities but also for her personal ones. The bad thing is that the involving in this scandal is coming in a moment when she is recovering from a new injury”, said Lalova’s coach Konstantin Milanov.

Ivet’s sister – Ani was also surprised with the accusations. “Ivet is impeccable”.
Ivet Lalova made an official statement. “It is highly unpleasant to me that exactly in this moment my name is involved in a scandal.  In a moment when my returning to the sport is the most important of all, the media cite an Austrian newspaper that is involving me in a scandal.

My relations with Stephan Machienr have only been as between a manager and an athlete. With which other sports people he was working and what were their relations I am not aware of and I haven’t been interested professionally.

After the first doping scandal with his cyclist in the end of 2008 I announced my intention not to work with him anymore. As a result after the end of the last winter season I canceled my contract with him. I don’t want to bare responsibility for the actions of someone else. I am attacked by an Austrian journalist whom I have “allegedly” refused an interview.

This is absurd. I haven’t even been contacted for a comment from that newspaper. For nearly 5 years I am in the list of 24-hour checked athletes. I have more than 15 controls every year.

Austrian triathlete champion Lisa Huetthaler on doping: "You have to lie"

Austrian triathlon champion Lisa Huetthaler came clean about her doping regime.  She named suppliers up the food chain, and as we contend behind every doper is a trainer, coach, and doctor who encourages or enables the cheating.  Here to Asia One News:

Austrian triathlete Lisa Huetthaler, who was suspended last October for doping, named names in an interview with the daily Kurier published Friday, as Austria once again faces a doping scandal.

A former European champion at under-23 level, Huetthaler, 25, revealed in the interview that she had obtained banned substances from Stefan Matschiner, the former personal manager of Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl, who was also suspended last year for doping.

She also named a doctor at a Vienna children's hospital, Andreas Zoubek, who has already come under suspicion in recent months for supplying doping substances but has always denied the charges.

Huetthaler, who had until now always rejected doping allegations, said Matschiner sold her EPO (erythropoietin) half a dozen times between 2007 and 2008, as well as testosterone. He also gave her a blood transfusion on one occasion.

'When you're really in it, you have to lie. You have to make lying systematic. It's routine. You lie so much that after a while you don't even really know anymore what's the truth,' Huetthaler said in her interview.

Her revelations come days after the arrest of Walter Mayer, a former Austrian national ski coach, on suspicion of dealing in illegal doping substances, including EPO.

Another cyclist, Christof Kerschbaum, was also arrested but later released, while a Vienna pharmacist suspected of supplying Mayer and Kerschbaum with banned substances is still in custody.

Mayer was already involved in the Austrian cross-country and biathlon doping scandal at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

Huetthaler was handed a two-year suspension by the Austrian national anti-doping agency (NADA) in October after testing positive for EPO.

BTW, nice delt-bicep tie-in in the photo.  Very testosterone-like.

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.

Austrian nordic/biathlon ski coach Walter Mayer arrested on doping charges related to 2006 Olympics

Last week Austrian authorities arrested a cyclist and a pharmacist on doping charges.  Today, a ski coach was arrested for distributing EPO to his skiers. To JAVNO:

Former Austrian national biathlon coach Walter Mayer, at the centre of a 2006 Winter Olympics doping scandal, was arrested on doping charges at the weekend, judicial officials said on Monday.

Mayer was arrested on suspicion of distributing to athletes the blood-booster EPO and related drugs which he purchased from a Vienna pharmacist, who was also arrested over the weekend, Vienna state prosecutor Gerhard Jarosch said.

Jarosch declined to say to how many athletes to whom Mayer sold the EPO and the other drugs, or what sports those athletes were active in.

Police on Friday arrested an Austrian cyclist who received EPO from the same pharmacist, Jarosch said.

Mayer's presence among the Austrian Nordics team at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, in defiance of a doping related ban, triggered drug raids by Italian police who found syringes and drugs in the Austrian base.

Mayer was banned from the Olympics until beyond 2010 after a blood doping scandal at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

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.

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.

CERA later: German cyclist Stefan Schumacher worldwide ban will not boost career

Top News says that German cyclist Stefan Schumacher will sit the next two years due to his purported use of CERA EPO in the 2008 Tour de France.  Schumacher disagree he doped with CERA EPO; he plans on legal action against whomever he can see.  Sounds CERA-ious.

Paris - German cyclist Stefan Schumacher was on Friday banned by the ruling body UCI for two years over doping at the 2008 Tour de France.

The UCI imposed a worldwide ban until January 20, 2011, two weeks after the French Anti-Doping Agency banned him for two years in France.

Schumacher was found using the latest generation of the blood booster EPO, known as CERA, during retests of the Tour samples after a test method for CERA was available.

Schumacher has protested his innocence and stated errors in the doping control proceedings. His lawyer said he will fight the ban before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. (dpa)

The German cyclist won time trials at the Tour last year before he was sent packing.

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...

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...

Lance Armstrong punished syringe man on Amgen ride

The Drunken Cyclist documents a Lance Armstrong shove for 'Syringe-Man' during an Amgen Tour of California outing.

Armstrong may have shoved the guy into the snow, but somehow we think he made

his 'point'...

One comment on the site says this:

Apparently Pharmstrong did not recognize his Oncologist.

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.

Lance Armstrong backs out of Don Catlin anti-doping protocol

Lance Armstrong announced he will be butting out of UCLA doping guru Don Catlin's custom made anti-doping program.  Armstrong announced -- amid huge fanfare at a Bill Clinton conference last fall -- that he would undergo Catlin's state of the art anti-doping program to prove he was ahead of the curve in dope testing, and to prove he was clean.  Does this mean he is neither?  What spin will be weaved on this announcement.  To the Sydney Morning News:

LANCE ARMSTRONG may have scrapped plans to put himself through an independent anti-doping program run by world-renown expert Don Catlin but he will undertake the control system in place for his Astana team.

Armstrong's management was quick to clarify the status of his testing protocols after news reports said Catlin and Armstrong's management had been unable to put their proposed testing regime in place.

Armstong's agent and lawyer, Bill Stapleton, said: "After a thorough review of the efficiency of a separate testing program, the decision has been made to transfer the comprehensive program we had planned to do with Don Catlin to Rasmus Damsgaard, a renowned anti-doping expert who runs the Astana team's internal testing program."

Armstrong will go with Astana's anti-doping program...Astana which withdrew from the Tour de France in 2007 when Vino Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping.

More on Armstrong and Catlin after the jump...

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.

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.

Dwain Chambers threatens to quit unless someone hires an ex-drug cheat

Dwain Chambers, fastest man in England, says he needs money, and he needs it now.  The UK's top sprinter who feasted on a BALCO regimen of steroids, HGH, and the other BALCO PEDs now cannot run in international track meets due to bans on ex-drug users.  Seems it isn't fair to ban a guy who cheated once, and may still benefit from the long term effects -- although it has been some time since he used PEDs.  Chambers also owes payback for earnings during his doping days.

To the Sporting Life:

Former drug cheat Dwain Chambers admits he could quit athletics if he cannot make it pay financially in 2009.

As a result of his two-year drug ban, Chambers is currently barred from competing in over 50 meetings organised by the Euro Meetings Group including those staged in this country.

The 30-year-old is also burdened by having to repay to the International Association of Athletics Federations over £100,000 pounds he earned during the period he was using the banned substance THG, beginning in 2002.

UK Athletics (UKA) have now welcomed the sprinter back into the fold after unsuccessfully preventing him competing in a British vest at last year's World Indoor Championships where he shared the 60metres silver medal.

That will see the Londoner initially bid for a place in the national side for the European Indoor Championships in March and then the World Championships in August.

But Chambers is hard up and must start earning cash in the next few months, otherwise he will have to retire from the track.

"I'm able to continue competing as long as my lady is still in a job," Chambers told PA Sport. "I have no one other than Leonie supporting me."

Chambers is currently searching for money paying races, particularly in Europe, and continued: "The duration of my career will depend on how well I'm treated by the meet promoters.

"But it's not going to be easy. If I can't earn anything next year then I'll have to seriously consider finding some other kind of living."

Sorry about that Dwain, we all have to earn a living at some point in time.

However, he insists that although he is banned from competing at Olympic level after his drug offence, he will try every possible avenue to continue.

Chambers was Europe's quickest 100m sprinter last summer and he has been hammering out the training in his bid to bring more medals home for the Norwich Union GB side at next year's major championships.

Chambers said: "I plan opening my season at the Birmingham Games in January, then the trials as I want to run in the European Indoors and at the World Championships in the summer.

"I'm the man - I want to win medals for my country. I can achieve that and get the job done."

Meanwhile he is hoping to have a meeting with UKA chief executive Niels de Vos and see if there is any possibility of competing in the Aviva-sponsored British meetings.

"I'll try and arrange a meeting with Niels de Vos in the New Year and we'll see what happens."

Too bad 'the man' was a drug-cheat, huh?

 

Victor Conte details drug menu for Sugar Shane Mosley

Victor Conte, operator of BALCO and boxer Sugar Shane Mosley go back and forth about Mosley's PED use before a 2003 title match with Oscar de la Hoya.  Conte claims he supplied Mosley with steroids; Mosley sued Conte for defamation.  Now Conte defines the Mosley prescription: anabolic steroids and EPO.

Victor Conte, founder of a supplement company connected to the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes, on Tuesday provided details of the drugs he allegedly gave — and how much money he allegedly charged — boxer Shane Mosley before Mosley's 2003 title fight against Oscar De La Hoya.

Mosley has filed a defamation suit in New York state court against Conte, who operated the Burlingame, Calif.-based Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO). The suit claims Conte told newspapers he watched Mosley inject himself with endurance-boosting EPO and that the boxer knew what he was taking.

When a man details the prices of the drug, you suspect he isn't lying.  However, receipts or checks would be better. 

Mosley's lawyer, Judd Burstein, said Conte's allegations "are completely false" and he is confident the suit will progress to trial. "I'm salivating to get Victor Conte under cross examination," Burstein said.

Among the documents Conte's lawyer, Thomas Harvey, said he filed along with a motion to dismiss Mosley's suit, is an affidavit in which Conte says he charged Mosley $900 for EPO and $600 for the steroids known as "the cream" and "the clear." Conte says he billed Mosley an additional $150 for blood work and $200 for the limousine Mosley used during his visit to Conte's offices. Conte also says Mosley paid him $500 in cash and, later, $1,350 by personal check.

The World Boxing Council revealed earlier this month it is investigating the doping allegations against Mosley, who won his WBC junior middleweight title fight against De La Hoya by a decision.

And now Conte lays it on the line: he demands reparations.

"I believe it is time for Shane Mosley to receive the consequences he deserves for lying about his use of performance enhancing drugs," Conte said Tuesday in an e-mail. "Other athletes associated with BALCO who have lied about their use of drugs have been banned from their sport, stripped of their records and medals and even spent time in jail."

No more track and field world records without steroids or doping?

As noted by the Irish Times, there were 11 track and field world records broken in 2008, which the author considered remarkable (nothing like the deluge of swimming records).  There was also this statement:

...the only way a world record is likely to be broken is if the athlete is on industrial amounts of steroids or a product of genetic doping, or indeed both.

Lets go to the set up for this conclusion.

Although 13 world records were set during 2008, one French study suggests the days of this happening are now numbered...

Seven of the world records were in men's events: the 100 metres (twice, by Usain Bolt); the 200 metres (Bolt, again); the marathon (Haile Gebrselassie); the 110 metre hurdles (Dayron Robles); the 4 x 100 metre relay (Bolt, again, with some Jamaican company); and the 50 km walk (Denis Nizhegorodov).

The women didn't do badly either, with six world records: the 5,000 metres (Tirunesh Dibaba); the 3,000 metres steeplechase (Gulnara Galkina); the javelin (Barbora Spotakova); and the pole vault (thrice, by who else but Elena Isinbaeva).

Given it was an Olympic year there was always going to be some exceptional performances, and yet the flurry of records during the summer still caught a lot of people off guard. Actually, at the start of the year, a study carried out by the French Institute of Sport (Irmes) concluded that the days of world records in athletics were numbered, and would run out in 2060 - after which date no more world records would be set.

Why would there be a limit to human performance?

Irmes analysed all 3,260 world records set since the first modern Olympics in 1896, and, in the end, reckoned athletes are coming very close to reaching their physiological limits. They noticed a common pattern for all events, and based on their mathematical model, estimated that athletes were operating at 75 per cent of their potential in 1896, while in 2008, they would be operating at 99 per cent.

By 2027 the athletes in about half of the events will have reached 100 per cent, and by 2060 they all will. After that the only way a world record is likely to be broken is if the athlete is on industrial amounts of steroids or a product of genetic doping, or indeed both.

That's a study for another day, and in the meantime it's up to athletic freaks such as Usain Bolt.

Exactly.  What about the influence of drugs, and of technological advances in the sport?  We have argued that doping pulls along the non-doped competitors, although we have no data to support that conclusion.

But what the Irmes study didn't predict was where exactly the records will finish at. Some may well be finished already. The 10.49 that Florence Griffith-Joyner ran for the 100 metres back in 1988 hasn't been touched in the years since, nor does it look likely to be. Without going into the gruesome details of the rise of Flo-Jo, as she was affectionately known, (widespread rumours of steroid abuse, dead at 38) only one other women has run under 10.7 seconds for the 100 metres, and that was Marion Jones.

In other words Flo-Jo's record is unlikely to be broken before 2060.

There are several other dodgy records in the books and they are unlikely to be broken before 2060 either. Unless of course the IAAF finally gets some sense and remove all world records from the drug-infested 1980s.

As the author  points out, other studies suggest that the limits of human performance have not been reached:

In another study just published by the Journal of Experimental Biology, Mark Denny of Stanford University looked at the limits to running in humans, compared to dogs and horses, and came to some conclusions of his own.

Denny reckoned that the 9.69 seconds that Bolt ran for the 100 metres in the Beijing Olympics can definitely be improved, and put the absolute human limit at 9.48.

Likewise, he believes Flo-Jo's record will go and that a woman can someday run the 100 metres in 10.39.

Dogs and horses, he says, already reached peak speeds in the 1970s, while humans are still getting faster. And Bolt is ample proof of that.

A more basic study was carried out on Bolt shortly after Beijing, when Norwegian physicist Hans Eriksen analysed TV footage of the Olympic final and estimated that Bolt would have run 9.55 seconds had he not slowed down to punch his chest and acknowledge his own extraordinary performance.

Even the long distances have some room for improvement. When Gebrselassie ran his 2:03.59 for the marathon last September it seemed the magical two-hour barrier was edging ever closer, yet Denny puts the human limit for running 26.2 miles at 2:00.47.

The women are already closer to their limit, as he reckons Paula Radcliffe's world record of 2:15.25 can only be trimmed to 2:14.97.

(more after the jump, if you can break the record)

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.

The World Boxing Council (WBC) opens steroid probe on Sugar Shame Mosley

Following Sugar Shane Mosley's admission of EPO and steroids use, the WBC will investigate the boxer's doping prior to the De La Hoya fight.  Mosley, who claimed he worked with Victor Conte, says he was unaware the drugs were bad.  To the AP:

The World Boxing Council has opened an investigation of Shane Mosley following recent reports that Mosley testified under oath to taking performance-enhancing drugs in the lead-up to his 2003 title fight against Oscar De La Hoya, the New York Daily News reported in Tuesday's edition.

Nearly three months after winning the WBC junior middleweight title with his victory over De La Hoya, Mosley told a grand jury he used steroids and EPO as part of his training regimen for the fight.

Mosley insists he didn't know the drugs he took were banned or illegal.

"It was a real surprise to read that Mosley has confessed that he did take those medicines, those drugs that are totally prohibited by the WBC," said the Council's president, Jose Sulaiman. "The WBC rules state that we must have a hearing. This is a matter of serious concern to us."

Sulaiman has ordered the WBC's legal counsel to gather evidence on Mosley to present to the Council's 29-member board of governors. The board has the authority to vote on sanctions and can issue disqualifications or severe fines, even after the conclusion of a fight.

"Thus far the WBC has seen only press reports, and must therefore investigate any available evidence and review it, in terms of the WBC rules and regulations' anti-doping provisions," said Robert Lenhardt, an attorney for the WBC.

The investigation will coincide with a defamation lawsuit Mosley filed against BALCO founder Victor Conte. The suit claims Conte told newspapers he watched Mosley inject himself with EPO and that the boxer knew what he was taking.

Conte, who is in possession of the grand jury transcripts because he was a defendant in the BALCO case, said he is "more than willing to cooperate with any investigation of Shane Mosley's use of performance-enhancing drugs."

The WBC rules include a prohibition that no boxer "shall be under the influence of any drug during the contest that will in any manner affect their performance in the ring."

Mosley, a four-time world champion, is scheduled to meet current WBA welterweight title holder Antonio Margarito on Jan. 24 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

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.

Sugar in the morning, steroids in the evening, EPO at super time

Sorry about the antiquated title, but that's what you get to sweeten this pot, as Sugar Shane Mosley tells the grand jury he used anabolic steroids and EPO to prepare for his title match with Oscar De La Hoya in 2003.  Of course Mosley was lost in the steroid ozone had no idea that any of these illicit substance were illegal. To the New York Daily News I-Team:

Boxer "Sugar" Shane Mosley testified in 2003 that he injected himself with the notorious doping agent EPO as he prepared for his light-middleweight title fight against Oscar De La Hoya, according to grand jury transcripts and doping calendars reviewed by the Daily News.
 
The Mosley transcripts are part of a massive BALCO file that was under a protective order from March of 2004 until last week, when U.S District Court Judge Susan Illston vacated the order at the request of prosecutors who are preparing for the March 2 trial of Barry Bonds on perjury charges.
 
In the testimony, recorded on Dec. 11, 2003, at the federal courthouse in San Francisco, Mosley also said that BALCO founder Victor Conte explained in detail how the drug was used and what its effects would be, including the potential harmful effects of the highly-regulated endurance booster. Mosley has admitted publicly and under oath that he used steroids and EPO, but has denied knowing that the drugs were banned or illegal.

Gee officer, I didn't know the speed limit here in the school zone was only 20...I thought it was 75....  Mosley also admitted to obtaining his stash from the erudite Victor Conte and his mates at BALCO.  And how does one inject EPO?

"And that's something you actually inject into yourself?" he (Sugar Shane) was asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nedrow.

"I think it's right by your stomach, yes," Mosley said, indicating where the drug is often injected.
 
Conte has said he instructed Mosley on techniques for drawing EPO from a bottle with a syringe and injecting it in each side of the belly button in what is known as "double-saturation" injections.

Conte's organization produced wonderfully organized and detailed records,probably better than most hospital charts:

At one point in the questioning, Nedrow produced a calendar seized from the BALCO lab showing Mosley used a potent cocktail of steroids and EPO right up until a few days before his victorious fight with De La Hoya on Sept. 13, 2003. The calendars denote which days Mosley was supposed to take which substances.

Mosley acknowledged that the calendar, marked "S.M.," contained instructions for him, and that the prices scribbled on the margins corresponded with the money he owed Conte for the treatments. (Conte, who estimates Mosley injected himself 20 times on each side of his belly button in the month before the fight, says he drew up the calendar while Mosley watched.)

Nedrow then pointed to the letter "E," which appears on the calendars at regular intervals in July and August.

"E, are those the injections of the EPO?," Nedrow asked Mosley.

"Yes, those would be the days," Mosley answered.

And the legal aspects of the case:

Conte is embroiled in a bitter defamation suit filed against him by Mosley, who claimed in U.S. District Court in California that the BALCO founder had defamed him when he told reporters, including the Daily News, that Mosley had knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. Mosley withdrew that suit in August, refiling immediately in New York state court. Mosley also threatened to sue the publisher of Conte's book, and Conte's lawyers received an e-mail today from Skyhorse Publishing saying they no longer plan to publish the book because of the lawsuit threat.
 
As a result, Conte is now looking for a new publisher for his controversial book.

More on how Mosley doesn't know his arse hemoglobin from a hole in the ground hematocrit after the jump, but he knew just enough to dope up for a fight, huh?

News flash (not really): Lance Armstrong to compete in 2009 Tour de France

In the worst kept most obvious non-secret in the sporting world, everyone held a collective breath to see if ex-Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong would sign up for this years bike ride.  Yeah, he is.

The chief of the 2009 Tour said Armstrong's history of doping accusations alone made the cyclist an embarrassment to the Tour.  Armstrong talked about his incredible fear of attack by a lunatic French spectator.  Armstrong has not developed the doping program he promised.  Armstrong narrowly didn't make the Tour Down Under field in Australia.  However, he overcame these adversities to announce he undertaking of the 2009 Tour.  To Sky Sports:

Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will contest next year's race, his team have confirmed.

Armstrong, who won the Tour between 1999 and 2005, announced in September that he was coming out of retirement next season, three years after taking his last victory in the event.

Famously overcoming cancer prior to the first of his Tour successes, Armstrong has dedicated his comeback to raising awareness for the global fight against the disease.

The 37-year-old is scheduled to make his return on January 20 for the Tour Down Under in Australia and will also contest the Giro d'Italia for the first time.

Appearances in the Tour of Flanders, the Tour of California and several of the one-day classic races have also been pencilled in.

However, a potential bid for an eighth Tour title had been delayed, with Armstrong failing to receive an invitation from race organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO).

Clearly Armstrong deserves admiration for the fight against cancer, and the incredible comeback following surgery and treatment.  Also true that his crusade to raise funds for cancer treatment  deserves kudos.  However, the LA Tour 2009 has been filled with drama and histrionics.  Further, the questions about Armstrong's past doping have not been answered, and likely will not be answered (charges ranging from steroids to HGH to EPO to corticosteroids).

The Texan has endured a strained relationship with ASO - who in October said his return to the Tour would be "embarrassing" - as well as the French crowds and media over doping allegations.

He was linked with possible doping by a report by French newspaper L'Equipe three years ago that claimed a 1999 sample from the American contained a banned blood-boosting substance.

But Armstrong never tested positive and was cleared by a Dutch investigator appointed by the International Cycling Union.

Contrary to that statement, Armstrong did test positive for a corticosteroid, which he said he took for saddle sores.  More:

He has made a commitment to ride for the Astana team - who were barred by ASO from contesting this year's Tour because of their part in previous doping scandals - alongside 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador.

Monday's announcement confirming Armstrong's presence on the Tour was made on Astana's website.

Speaking from their training camp in Tenerife, Armstrong acknowledged that the combination of age, time out of the saddle and talented team-mates may leave him playing a supporting role.

"I'm committed to riding for the best guy," he said. "We'll abide by the same code that I do: cycling is team sport, while we'd all like to win."

After voicing concerns in recent weeks about his personal safety in France, Armstrong also dismissed that issue, adding: "It's not going to keep me from going and doing my job, and it's not going to keep me from spreading my message."

The 2009 Tour de France starts in Monaco on July 4.

Such courage once again displayed by LA...braving the vicious French cycling crowd.

Lance Armstrong: No doping/steroids testing program, as promised

Back when he announced his new foray into the pro cycling world, and perhaps the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong stated he was developing his own private doping label.  Apparently the 7-time Tour winner is too busy to follow through with the details.

Lance Armstrong has stated that his 'personal' drug-testing program will be in place by the time of his first race at the Tour Down Under in January - but no sooner.

When seven-times Tour de France winner Armstrong announced his comeback to professional cycling in September, he also announced that he would be part of a rigorous drug-testing program carried out by US anti-doping expert Don Catlin and that the results would be published online. The idea was to silence critics and create complete transparency.

So far, no results have been published and according to the Associated Press (AP), Catlin has admitted that he hasn't yet tested Armstrong.

As noted, Armstrong said he was working with Don Catlin, the UCLA doping/steroid wizard of BALCO fame.  However, that's not happening yet.

When asked about the lack of visible test results, Armstrong told AP: "It's a tough thing to organize, but we will make it happen."

"We're working as quickly as we can to get everyone coordinated, but it's not that simple."

"The program we want to do is going to be intensive," Catlin said. "And he's a moving target. He's very busy. Keeping up with him, testing him, takes a lot of planning and it hasn't all come together yet."

Despite the stalling of his own testing program, Armstrong has so far been tested seven times by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) officials.

Armstrong is currently in Tenerife with his Astana team-mates on the squad's first training camp since the Texan joined. He is scheduled to race in the Tour Down Under, South Australia, from January 20-25.

Also as noted above, the established programs of USADA and UCI tested the cyclist.  Thus, without the big show Armstrong's testing is moving forward.