Steroid Nation

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

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

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

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

The official statement of the investigation committee says:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Russian press reports other problems:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NASCAR will begin steroid testing in January

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_ Three drugs classified under ephedrine.

_ 13 different narcotics, including codeine and morphine.

_ Ten different benzodiazepines and barbiturates.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lance Armstrong feeling heat...and needle sticks

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

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

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

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

Twitter?  Well...ok....

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

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

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

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

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

Everything LA does is controversial.

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

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

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

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

George Mason University professors develop urine HGH test

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The NFL is very concerned...

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

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

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

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

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

To the BBC:

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

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

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

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

Slovenia's Primoz Kozmus won the gold medal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The first results are expected at the end of March.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's kick it off!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(more after the jump)

NFL Players Association seeks to obtain injunction in Minnesota court in StarCaps/bumetanide case

Apparently unaware that the Vikings Williamses (svelte pictures below) filed their own case in a Hennepin County courtroom, the NFLPA will seek another injunction against the NFL StarCaps/bumetanide suspensions.  ESPN reports on this one:

The NFL Players Association will file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Thursday, seeking to overturn all suspensions issued Tuesday by the league for any player who took the supplement identified as StarCaps that triggered several positive tests for the banned diuretic Bumetanide, union sources said.

       The action will ask the federal court for a ruling by Friday, the sources said.

The basis for the union's action is founded on many of the same arguments that resulted in a temporary restraining order issued in a Minneapolis state district court on Wednesday that will allow Minnesota Vikings defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams to return to the team after they were suspended for a mandatory four games in Tuesday's action.

Players who were suspended included both Vikings players, as well as Deuce McAlister, Will Smith and Charles Grant of the Saints and Bryan Pittman of the Texans. Pittman did not use StarCaps but tested positive for a banned diuretic that he claims was prescribed by a physician.

The NFLPA's suit may seek retroactive pay for any player who already as served a suspension in which StarCaps was the product in question. The union, as Williams' legal team argued Wednesday in court, will cite that the NFL improperly administered the policy for steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by failing to notify players that it had specific knowledge since late 2006 that StarCaps contained the banned diuretic.

The legal brief filed on behalf of Kevin and Pat Williams also claimed that a politically charged climate contributed to the league's negligent action.

The issue, of course, is the NFL's ban on bumetanide which contaminates StarCaps.  The diuretic can be used to mask anabolic steroid use.

Hennepin County judge puts StarCaps/bumetanide game into overtime: Viking's Pat and Kevin Williams obtain injuction staying suspension

The NFL sideline show involving a woman's diet weight-loss supplement containing a potent diuretic banned by the NFL as a steroid masking agent just went into overtime, compliments of a Hennepin County (Minneapolis) judge tonight.

The byzantine case started about 6 weeks ago when several NFL players tested positive for bumetanide, a banned diuretic which can be utilized as a masking agent.  The situation become more complex when players began admitting that that they took the weight loss supplement StarCaps, a supplement known to be contaminated with bumetanide.

The NFL suspended the players Monday, based on a collective bargained steroids policy violation.  However, like may professional situation a judge was more than happy to stay the execution of the ban, pending review and appeal.  Here is the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's story:

The Vikings spent Wednesday afternoon preparing to complete the regular season without Pat and Kevin Williams. But by Wednesday evening, the Pro Bowl tackles were back at Winter Park and hoping they will be allowed to play in Sunday's game at Detroit.

The Williamses, suspended for four games by the NFL on Tuesday for violating the league's policy on anabolic steroids and related substances, were granted a temporary restraining order to rejoin the team by Hennepin County District Court Judge Gary Larson. The suspensions came two days after the Vikings moved into sole possession of first place in the NFC North with a victory over Chicago.

Larson acknowledged leaving the case in limbo after he issued his ruling, but he said he is poised to conduct a full hearing as early as today, if that's what the NFL wants. That means Larson could still issue an order before Sunday that would make the Williamses ineligible to play.

The NFL appear to be caught by surprise, even after past history of frequent injunctions by local judges, and copious threats by the players to obtain a judicial stay.

Dan Nash, a lawyer for the NFL who is based in Washington, D.C., said he needs to consult with the league.

"I'm not sure what our next step will be," he said, adding that if the NFL doesn't try to move the case to federal court, he will want a hearing today.

The NFL better be prepared to fight a change of venue to a federal court.  The Williams's lawyer will clearly be adverse to moving the case out of the Viking-friendly county court.

New York-based attorney Peter Ginsberg said the players would fight a move to federal court from Hennepin County District Court.

Larson issued his ruling after an hour of vigorous debate from both sides. The request was filed at midday Wednesday and arguments were scheduled late in the afternoon. Ginsberg flew in shortly before the hearing; Nash conducted his arguments via conference call in the courtroom.

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.

WADA puts 5 Olympic sports on notice that out-of-competition testing is substandard: Volleyball, handball, wrestling, gymnastics, and pentathalon

The New York Times carries the story that 5 Olympic sports do not meet WADA approval for out-of competition anti-doping tests.

The Olympic sports gymnastics, wrestling, volleyball, handball and modern pentathlon were cited by the World Anti-Doping Agency for failing to have consistent out-of-competition testing programs. The findings were submitted in a report to the agency’s executive committee and foundation board last weekend in Montreal. The report has been published on the agency’s Web site: wada-ama.org

Although sports that fail to apply the agency’s antidoping code risk being banned from the Olympics, WADA has extended the deadline for six months to give federations and national antidoping agencies more time to comply. WADA has no power to punish noncompliant groups, leaving that to the International Olympic Committee. Under I.O.C. rules, sports that do not apply the doping code face expulsion from the Olympics.

The International Volleyball Federation issued a statement Friday saying that it had met WADA’s demands to improve out-of-competition testing and had been removed from the noncompliance list. Modern pentathlon’s governing body said it also had met WADA’s requests.

As noted by the Times, WADA cannot effect punishment, however the agency does carry tremendous influence over the IOC, the committee that controls the Olympics.

In the past baseball was given trouble because that sport's out-of-season doping (and some might say in-season) does not meet WADA standards.   As you may note baseball is no longer an Olympic sport in 2012.

Taxes going up all over: Increased doping taxes for pro cyclists

Everyone appears to be hit hard with rising tax rates, including pro cyclists.

A certain amount of cycling winnings goes to anti-doping programs.  Because of new developments, Cycling News says the dope tax will double from 2% to 4% in 2009.

The UCI's ProTour council (CUPT) has voted to increase the professional riders' contribution to the fight against doping as of next year. Until now, two percent of the riders' prize moneys in ProTour races had to be paid to the UCI to add to the financing of anti-doping measures. As of 2009, this 'tax' will be raised to four percent.

The decision did not please the rider representatives within the ProTour council, Dario Cioni and Cédric Vasseur, who voted against it. The two representatives of the riders' association CPA insisted that "the largest majority of riders were opposed to a taking away of four percent, but that they accepted a participation of two percent."

But the CUPT being composed of 12 members (six representing the UCI, two representing the race organisers, two representing the teams and two representing the riders), the two pro riders were overruled.

For all the races which are not part of the ProTour calendar, the riders' financial participation to the fight against doping remains at two percent.

Further to this, Spanish cyclist Imanol Erviti (Caisse d'Epargne) recently deplored that the press did not publicise the riders' efforts against doping enough. "The measures against doping are not given the same media attention than the positive doping cases," he said at the 13th Days of Pro Cycling held in Cuenca, Spain, from November 20 to 22. "It is not being said, for example, that the riders pay a percentage of their prize money to the UCI for the controls."

The rider, who won a stage in the last Vuelta a España, denounced doping, saying that "every case that is announced does great damage, because in the end the whole peloton seems guilty." But he also insisted that "cyclists do things to combat doping that seem incredible in other sports, like permanently being located by the UCI or give DNA samples," according to Marca.

No one likes increased taxes, however considering the reported hemorrhaging of riders using CERA EPO, looks like anti-doping in pro cycling needs more resources.

Does the double helix (DNA) lead to double trouble for Roger Clemens...Genetic perjury?

The New York Times reports federal investigators are snooping around in Roger Clemens's ex-cell nuclei...looking at the DNA hanging on the bloody syringes that ex-Clemens trainer Brian McNamee claims came from the Rocket's rear-end after steroid injections.

Is this creepy?  Investigators taking old bloody syringes for DNA evidence that the needles went into the butt of a multiple Cy Young award winner?  Is this exercise preparing a perjury penalty against the Rocket?

Brian McNamee has submitted samples of his DNA to federal investigators, who are seeking to determine whether Roger Clemens committed perjury when he told Congress that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs, according to two people familiar with the matter.

McNamee, who is Clemens’s former trainer, has said that he used needles, syringes and gauze pads to inject Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001 and that he kept the materials in his basement for years because he was afraid that Clemens might someday betray him.

In January, McNamee gave the materials to federal authorities, who need to determine whose DNA is on the material if it is going to be a factor in the investigation.

It is not clear whether the authorities also have Clemens’s DNA. His lead lawyer, Rusty Hardin, declined on Monday to say whether DNA samples from Clemens had been turned over...

The request for McNamee’s DNA sample suggests that readable DNA has been found on the items that McNamee submitted. Experts in criminal investigations said it was highly unlikely that authorities would request DNA samples without having something with which they could be compared.

It appears the Feds are making a case that in Congressional hearings -- where McNamee and Clemens presented diametrically opposed testimony -- Clemens fibbed about not using steroids and HGH.  Investigators must be looking for Clemens's DNA and fingerprints, as well as McNamee's on the syringes that contain PEDs.  Thus, evidence for perjury.

Authorities are also trying to determine whether there are fingerprints on the materials McNamee handed over. Emery said in February that in addition to the syringes, needles and gauze pads, McNamee provided authorities with steroid vials that Clemens had given him at the end of the 2002 season.

According to forensic experts, it is fairly easy to plant a person’s DNA on an object they have not touched. The argument that DNA evidence has been tampered with is often made at trials. However, it is much more difficult to get someone’s fingerprint on something without them being aware of the circumstances.

What does perjury in a doping/steroids case get you theses days?  A few months house arrest, apparently.

In other news charities don't want none of Roger Clemens's DNA anymore.

IOC Chair Jacques Rogge expresses sad words for Olympics cheating, and discusses retro-testing (8 years) of samples

IOC boss Jacques Rogge discusses retrospective anti-doping testing back 8 years on Olympic dope samples.

We suppose it is true, athletes are human, humans will cheat, and thus the Olympic Games athletes will cheat.  Considering the hyper-competitiveness of the elite athletes one might expect even more cheating when the stakes are incredibly high.  However, when the International Olympic Committee boss Jacques Rogge lays it out, it sounds depressing.

As here it is, IOC boss Rogge telling it like it is about doping and the Olympics  (AFP)  No more holding athletics up as the paragon of fair play and sportsmanship.  Sad.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge has said that those who hope for a 100 percent drug-free Olympic Games were "naive" and that cheating was part and parcel of human nature.

"I think one has to be realistic," Rogge said in an interview with the BBC's Inside Sport programme.  "Drug-free sport in general is Utopia. It will be naive to believe that no-one will take drugs.

"There are about 400 million people practising sport on this globe, there are not 400 million saints on earth.  Cheating is embedded in human nature and doping is to sport what criminality is to society.  You will always need cops and judges and prisons and jails and rules and regulations."

Rogge outlines the retrospective testing protocols.  Specimen samples will now be banked for 8 years, as new tests develop.

Rogge was speaking ahead of re-testing procedures from samples taken at the Beijing Olympics and he has already said that he expects further positive doping cases to emerge from these.

"We are going to re-test all the blood samples from Beijing," said Rogge.  About 980 blood samples will be tested for erythropoietin [Cera], the new EPO test, but also insulin.  So we are starting this re-testing, it will last a couple of weeks, so we'll see what comes out of it."

All the samples currently held will be available for testing by any new techniques that emerge between now and the 2016 Games.  We are keeping the samples for eight years and we are going to re-test them," said Rogge.  "And ultimately the judgement on the Beijing Games will be given in eight years' time, because each time a new scientific test is coming up we are going to re-test."

Interesting.  Rogge describes retesting for the CERA EPO, and for insulin.  Furthermore, it may be more common to see medal winners lose medals over time -- as Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones have -- with retrospective testing.

Floyd Landis continues to pursue legal remedies against his doping ban, apparently wanting to enrich a cadre of lawyers

Floyd Landis, the winner disqualified cyclist in 2006 Tour de France continues legal strategies designed to...well not sure what they are designed to accomplish at this point. 

Landis tested positive for exogenous testosterone both in the T:E ratio, and in a test for synthetic testosterone (and note this subject has been debated ad infinitum from all angles of the issue pro and con).

Landis won then lost the 2006 Tour de France.  His case was heard on appeal at Pepperdine CA in 2007 where the cyclist lost a split decision.  The CAS rejected Landis's further appeal in 2008 to uphold his suspension from cycling competition.  Landis will come off suspension in January 2009.

So why does Landis continue to appeal these rulings?  Reports indicate he already spent over $2,000,000 on his defense.  Enough already.  GM, or Citibank can use money like that these days. To Velo News:

American Floyd Landis has challenged the ruling of the international Court of Arbitration for Sport that stripped him of the 2006 Tour de France title in U.S. Federal court, charging that the system for resolving doping cases is inherently biased against the accused.

In a motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Landis claimed that the three arbitrators in the case had undisclosed conflicts of interest that may have affected the outcome of his appeal of an earlier panel’s ruling. In June, the CAS panel upheld Landis’ two-year suspension, the negation of his Tour de France win and imposed a $100,000 penalty to offset the costs of prosecuting a case that the panel said was made unnecessarily complex by Landis’ “scattershot” defense.

Does a United States court hold any sort of authority or jurisdiction over the Court of Arbitration for Sports, which is in Switzerland?

Landis originally filed the case in September, seeking to vacate the CAS arbitration award. On Thursday, Landis’ attorneys filed a motion alleging that all three members of the appeals panel had conflicts of interest that would have precluded a fair hearing in the matter. Those conflicts, the motion asserts, went unreported by each of the three.

History indicates the challenges to the CAS are incredibly futile.

Since the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, there have been no successful challenges to CAS’s authority in the court systems of athletes’ respective countries.

In 2004 Spain's David Meca-Medina and Slovenia's Igor Majcen, two professional long-distance swimmers mounted a challenge to a CAS ruling. The European court, however dismissed the claim, but also ordered them to pay court costs for both sides, ruling that the challenge was "frivolous" in nature.

Here in the U.S., sprinter Justin Gatlin failed in his effort to overturn a CAS ruling in U.S. Federal Court. The court ruled it didn’t have jurisdiction in the matter and rejected Gatlin’s effort to overturn his CAS-imposed suspension.

One option Landis did not exercise was to file an appeal with the Switzerland’s Federal Tribunal, which may have some authority over the Swiss-based CAS.

In the motion filed on Thursday, Landis’ attorneys claimed that evidence of arbitrators’ conflicts of interest on recently came to light after CAS recently posted information about past cases on its Web site.

Landis’ federal court strategy may cause some concern at WADA’s world headquarters in Montreal, since arbitration of his case and its subsequent appeal consumed nearly the agency’s entire $1.8 million litigation budget in 2008.

"We will certainly watch the case with interest," said WADA director general David Howman. “We have no intention of being pushed into compromising our efforts to stop doping, not matter how much it costs.”

Isn't it starting to be ridiculously irresponsible to carry out this obsessive fight forever?  Even if the funds are donated, why enrich the barristers with frivilous motions over and over and over...drained defense funds too...and when your suspension will be expired before the Obama administration takes over (was Obama even a US Senator when Landis won the Tour in 2006?)...hey there is an idea...a Presidential pardon from the out-going Bush adminsitration.

Vikings meet Starcaps: Williams boys to meet with the NFL about weight loss supplements.

The Williams boys up in Minnesota, consumers of StarCaps weight loss supplement, which apparently contained bumetanide -- the potent diuretic which can be used as a masking agent -- will negotiate with the NFL about suspensions today. (The Star-Tribune.com)

Vikings Pro Bowl defensive tackles Kevin and Pat Williams are scheduled to be at the NFL offices in New York today to appeal four-game suspensions for testing positive for a banned diuretic that can serve as a masking agent for steroids.

While the hearings will be on the same day, the cases will be heard separately. Both players will have team and legal representation that is expected to include Vikings owner Zygi Wilf and Kevin Warren, the Vikings vice president of legal affairs and chief administrative officer. Pat Williams' agent, Angelo Wright, and Kevin Williams' agent, Tom Condon, also will attend. It’s believed the Williamses went to New York on one of Wilf’s private planes.

Cool.  The duo flew to New York on a private jet...do these guys think they are CEOs of the big three automakers or what?

The defense seems to be set: The Viking's Williams's ingested StarCaps, the women's weight loss supplement that may be contaminated with bemetanide.  Bumetanide is a potent diuretic that cause fluid loss, and subsequent temporary weight loss.  Obviously a good thing if a consumer wants to see immediate weight loss; but not so good from a side-effect profile and from a truth in labeling viewpoint.  Fortunate that no NFL player died during the summer months from dehydration and diuresis.

The issue with the drug is that by diluting the urine, it can interfere with steroids testing, and thus used as a 'masking agent'.

Why you should not buy Marion Jones' stock, even with a bailout

Athletics in the News blog recently published #26 in the series entitled "Why you shouldn't believe Marion Jones".  For instance:

(This is the 26th part of a long series titled, "Why You Shouldn't Believe Marion Jones". This series depicts the life and times of a (former) woman sprinter whose lies and cover-ups about doping in sport continue even through this day.)

Nearly two entire years after giving birth for the first time, and having had five successive, uninterrupted, dedicated seasons full of training and racing, Marion Jones ran out of luck and could not break 55 seconds (55.03) for 400m in a race at Mt. Sac in the 17th day of April 2005, this despite the fact that Riddick, her fourth coach in less than three years, predicted a week earlier that Marion Jones would run “under 50 seconds”, and added the day of the race that “Marion is in fantastic shape.”

As a matter of fact, she lost three of four races in 2005 against very mediocre competition, running 11.29 for second in Hengelo on 2005-May-29; 11.67 for second place in Milano on 2005-June-1; and cutting her 100m season short with a fourth-place 11.40 in Monterrey 10 days later at a competition which she determined prior to the race, “it’s time to put it all out there” [2].

Her performances were so inferior that they cast even further doubt on how Marion Jones achieved her previous marks in such a short period of time, and with so much full-time work missed on the track.

The article goes on to lay out the evidence that Jones doped to put herself into the midst of the world's elite runners at the time.

Part 26.  Man, that's a lot of evidence against the former World's Greatest Female Athlete.

Professional soccer league annouces aggressive doping tests

The Times Online discusses new rigorous sports dopiing tests for professional soccer players.  An important component here will be an off-season protocol.

England squad members could be among a list of 30 players who will be tested regularly for drugs in a new clampdown. They will be tested at least five times a year — including during the close season — in addition to random post-match tests.

The chosen players will have to keep UK Sport officials informed of their whereabouts for at least an hour each day and any who are not at the location they have specified on at least three occasions will fall foul of the “three strikes and out rule”. That could result in them being banned from playing for a year.

The 30 players will include at least 15 from England squads, ranging from the senior side to youth-team level. The list will be drawn up by UK Sport and the FA with the scheme earmarked to start from July 1. It will target users of recreational drugs, such as cocaine, as well as performanceenhancing substances. If a player refuses to be included in the scheme, he could still be banned or fined...

Andy Parkinson, UK Sport’s Head of Operations for Drugs-Free Sport, said: “At the moment, players have licence to take anything they want in the summer, as they disappear off our radar. I’m not arguing they do take things, but when England didn’t qualify for the last European Championships, they didn’t reappear until six weeks later before pre-season training. They could have done anything. Under this, they could be in Barbados and we could still test them.

“We shall be sensible over how we approach the off-season. We are not evil regulators out to make life difficult for footballers. We’re trying to protect their sport.”

Professional leagues attend HGH summit in California

MLB reports on the HGH summit in Beverly Hills, CA:

The use of performance enhancing drugs in sports remains a serious and sensitive issue, and baseball officials joined some of the best and brightest minds in the field Monday to discuss the topic in broad terms while more specifically addressing human growth hormone (HGH). A joint effort by Major League Baseball and the UCLA Medical School held the Growth Hormone Summit: Barriers to Implementation of HGH Testing in Sports...

The ultimate goal of the conference participants would be to create a reliable and universally acceptable test for the use of HGH in athletes, both at the amateur and professional levels. The scientific community is not in complete agreement about performance-enhancing properties as they pertain to HGH

This is a longish report on the meeting, with many elements documented on the summit.  One investigator looked at the effectiveness of HGH:

Part of Monday's presentation included the substantiation of claims that HGH is a performance enhancer. Richard Holt, MD, PhD of the University of Southampton School of Medicine, said HGH not only builds muscle mass but also reduces fat mass.

But Holt also reported the lack of reliable data to determine how much an athlete benefits from HGH. It has been theorized that HGH has been used by athletes for the past 25 years, while the scientific community has been playing catch-up, only gaining ground in the last year in an effort to create a test.

Holt also said, and other speakers on Monday agreed, that HGH is likely used in concert with other agents such as anabolic steroids. Holt further detailed long-term health issues related to prolonged use of HGH.

Then there is the issue of HGH testing:

Having a reliable test for the detection of possible performance enhancers, all agreed, is critical to the integrity of baseball and all sports. Labs have been making strides.

"We're definitely seeing progress. I wish I could tell you we have a growth hormone test today. We don't," said Don Catlin, a leader and pioneer in performance-enhancing drug tests. "I can tell you we have made substantial progress that I am excited about."

Orza (Gene, MLB Player's Association) said the players would be on board once there is a breakthrough.

"We are not opposed to blood testing. We have said we will consider blood testing when the time is right for it," Orza said. "When someone is able to determine whether or not that human growth hormone independently is performance enhancing."

Catlin, who was the founder and past director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, said it took some 20 years to develop a reliable test for anabolic steroids. He said the industry is in the middle of similar progress for HGH. Catlin cited specifically the size of the molecule in growth hormone as compared to anabolic steroids but also the problem of extracting growth hormone from a urine test.

This exciting development in HGH testing:

The efforts of those assembled Monday received a recent boost from Lance Liotta, MD, PhD of George Mason University, who is applying nanotechnology techniques previously used in cancer research to testing for HGH.

"That is what is exciting about what Dr. Liotta is doing. He has a technique that we think will do that," Catlin said. "It is really brilliant."

Breeders Cup Report: No horsing around with steroids, EPO, or bicarb

Looks like the Breeder's Cup horse are running clean according the The Horse.  Here is a good report on the methods, and the consequences of doping in the Breeders Cup series.

None of the horses that participated in this year's Breeders' Cup World Championships Oct. 24-25 at Santa Anita tested positive for steroids, blood-doping agents or TCO₂ (bicarbonate), according to Pam Blatz-Murff, senior vice president of operations for the Breeders' Cup.

However, as of Nov. 8 test results for any other prohibited substances were not available because of the testing process used by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB).

Under Breeders' Cup and CHRB rules banning anabolic steroids, tests were conducted on the first four finishers and one additional horse selected at random in each race. The steroid rules, in place for the first time at the Breeders' Cup, called for disqualification and purse distribution, and a possible one-year suspension for the trainer of any horse testing positive.

The blood-doping tests were conducted under "out of competition" rules 10 days before the races. Any horse testing positive would have been ineligible for competition, with the trainer facing suspension. The TCO₂ tests were conducted in the detention barn prior to each race, with a purse forfeiture and trainer sanctions for any positive tests.

Rick Arthur, DVM, equine medical director for the CHRB, said any positives for other prohibited substances would not be reported until the split-sample process is completed. Under CHRB rules, a test is not considered positive until a suspect sample has been confirmed by another testing lab.

Under CHRB rules, the primary testing lab has 21 days to report any positives. The trainer of the horse in question then has 72 working hours to request that a split sample be sent to a confirmation lab and then has five additional working days to make arrangements with one of the six labs available for split-sample testing. Once the lab receives the split sample, it has 28 days to report the results to the CHRB. At that time if the split sample confirms the positive, a complaint is filed against the trainer.

The Professional Bull Riders test top bulls for steroids; no BS as all the prime cuts test clean

Relax.  All candidates for rodeo's Bull of the Year (BOY, not BS) tested clean as reported by the Professional Bull Riders.

The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) conducted steroids tests on the five bulls for the 2008 Bull of the Year award. Those bulls are Copperhead Slinger, owned by Chad Berger/Clay Struve; Troubadour, owned by Julio Moreno Bucking Bulls; Bones, owned by Teague Bucking Bulls, LLC; Spitfire, owned by C&G Rodeo Livestock, LLC; and All In, owned by Naccarato Bucking Bulls. The results will be sent back in three to five weeks.

We were very concerned about Spitfire; he seemed to be well defined this year, even after gaining tremendous bulk.  Looks like it was long hours in the gym for that bull, and no needles or patches...just hang cleans and sit-ups.

PBR tests bulls more stringently than the NFL tests linemen, and that's not BS:

The PBR has deemed the issue of steroid use in bulls of such importance that a PBR Bull Testing Committee was developed and introduced a Steroid Testing Policy for the 2008 Built Ford Tough season. Under the new policy, PBR will test the top performing bull or bulls at various events throughout the season. The first testing was conducted following the conclusion of the PBR’s VERSUS Invitational event held this weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City. A stock contractor whose bull is found to have yielded a positive test result will be subject to discipline by the Committee.

While it is unclear to what extent, if any, bulls competing in sanctioned PBR events are being subjected to anabolic steroid treatments, concerns had been raised PBR stock contractors themselves, with respect to that very possibility. Those concerns could be residual in nature. Proponents contend that steroid use was far more prevalent in the past. Stock contractors have since realized that the serious and detrimental side-effects that steroids had upon their bulls simply out weighed any benefit gained.

In an effort to ensure and maintain the integrity of competition and the health of its bull athletes, PBR and its Bull Testing Committee have partnered with the leading veterinarian in the bucking bull industry, Dr. Gary Warner, DVM. and world renowned veterinary scientist Dr. Walter Hyde, M.S., Ph.D. to create the first ever anabolic steroid bull testing protocol and policy in the history of the sport. Testing methods will include taking samples of a bull’s blood and urine.

We notice one problem: the PBR does not address issues of bull supplements, masking agents, or chimeras. 

NFL players caught in diuretic 'scandal' bring legal action against weight loss supplement StarCaps

The NFL bumetanide (diuretic scandal) took an interesting twist today.  NFL players who tested positive for the drug Bumox in NFL doping tests now point out the drug was found to be a contaminant in the over-the-counter weight loss supplement StarCaps.

Reports name StarCaps by Nikki Haskell (apparently a 'hostess') as the culprit in this drama.  The weight loss supplement names a number of drugs not contained in the formulation; bumetanide however didn't make the exclusion list.  Here is the blurb:

 NIKKI HASKELL'S STARCAPS - Lose Weight and Get In Shape! Now you can have the amazing diet secret all Hollywood is talking about. Created by the Diet Queen to the Stars Nikki Haskell, STARCAPS is the natural dietary supplement containing a rare blend of papaya and garlic. STARCAPS make dieting easy! The secret is in STARCAPS unique ingredients...its all-natural blend of papaya and garlic from the higher Andes of Peru. Each bottle is a two week supply and includes a diet booklet. BOTTLE OF STARCAPS CONTAINS 30 CAPSULES, A TWO WEEK SUPPLY STARCAPS ARE AN ALL-NATURAL DIETARY SUPPLEMENT STARCAPS ARE NOT DIET PILLS STARCAPS DO NOT CONTAIN ANY AMPHETAMINES, NICOTINE, THYROID, CAFFEINE OR EPHEDRA MINIMUM DIET RECOMMENDED ONCE WEIGHT LOSS IS ACHIEVED CONTINUE TO TAKE "STARCAPS", IT WILL HELP MAINTAIN AND KEEP YOU FROM GAINING WEIGHT RECOMMENDED FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE JUST GONE OFF POWDERED DIET DRINKS HOW STARCAPS WORKS: PAPAYA IS A DIGESTIVE ENZYME THAT METABOLIZES PROTEIN IN YOUR SYSTEM WHILE GARLIC IS A NATURAL DIURETIC DRINK BETWEEN 6 TO 8 GLASSES OF WATER A DAY WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU TAKE POTASSIUM OR ORANGE JUICE WITH STARCAPS

Before we refer to the media reports on Starcaps we ask the following:

1. Why are NFL players using an OTC weight loss prep designed and marketed for women.
2. Why does the manufacturer recommend taking potassium with the pills; that's weird because that is exactly what electrolyte a diuretic would deplete.
3. Did the company contaminate the formula with a potent diuretic to induce water weight loss.  (perfect strategy because the 'weight' comes Right back with re-hydration.  That means a person needs to continue the pills.
4. Did the players not figure out they were peeing alot?
5. Was the trace amount of bumetanide found enough to cause a positive in a urine test (remember this is dilated urine anyway).

The abstract for a report in the J Analytic Chemistry reads very eerie and answers #6 - yes a therapeutic dose was contained in the StarCaps pill (pdf here):

Bumetanide is a loop diuretic used clinically to treat heart failure, acute renal failure, high blood pressure, and edema. However, diuretics may also be used by athletes as masking agents and to decrease weight. Taken as masking agents, diuretics increase urine production and decrease urinary concentrations of banned performance-enhancing agents, such as anabolic steroids. StarCaps is an over-the-counter dietary supplement marketed as a diet aid. The manufacturer claims that the product contains only natural cleansing agents and emphasizes that it is free from traditional appetite suppressants such as sympathomimetic amines. However, no such disclaimer is made concerning diuretic agents. A single StarCaps capsule was administered to two male and two female volunteers, and their urine specimens were collected at discrete intervals (2, 4, 8, and 12 h) post administration. The specimens were analyzed by a high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry quadrupole (HPLC-MS) method, and bumetanide was detected in all specimens (4.6 to 351.3 ng/mL). Adjusting the bumetanide concentrations for creatinine content did little to normalize the excretion profiles. Bumetanide was also detected in the StarCaps capsules at concentrations approaching therapeutic doses. HPLC-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to confirm the presence of bumetanide in the urine samples and StarCaps capsules. The results showed that unregulated dietary supplements may put consumers at risk for unwitting consumption of prescription medications, and that it is possible for athletes to inadvertently test positive for bumetanide and face disciplinary actions.

There it is: A potent diuretic was found in StarCaps, in high doses.  Why was this supplement pill not immediately pulled from the OTC market?  Why was this result not publicized to athletes?  (or was it).  And why the researchers choose StarCaps to test?

And what other supplements do NFL player ingest (if indeed they ingested contaminated StarCaps)?

Here is the IHT article: (after the jump)

Plenty of glitches revealed in 2008 Beijing Olympics dope testing

The Brisbane Times picked up on a WADA report indicating anti-doping measures at the recent 2008 Beijing Olympics left something to be desired...like the loss of 300 samples.  Oops.

OFFICIAL independent drug testing observers at the Beijing Olympics say up to 300 test results taken from Games athletes are missing.

The team of 10 independent observers charged with reporting on the Games drug testing procedures detailed the missing tests in their official report to the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The report says: "once the (Beijing ) laboratory had apparently delivered all reports to the independent observer team it transpired that around 300 test results were missing in comparison to the doping control forms" The team checked the status of the laboratory results with the International Olympic Committee medical chairman and the observers reported that the IOC too "may be missing some reports".

The Chinese doping control lab lacked the capability to test for insulin...not to mention missed a 'control' spiked planted sample.

The observers also uncovered some surprising deviations from the normal drug testing procedures — including the fact that the Beijing laboratory could not test for one of the banned substances, insulin.

The laboratory also appeared to miss picking up one of the quality control samples that had contained a prohibited substance. The observers also reported that nearly half of the national Olympic committees did not provide the important whereabouts information of their athletes to enable effective pre-Games and out-of-competition drug testing.

As reported the other day, many countries failed to reveal the location of their athletes, thus making random testing impossible.

Initially more than 110 national committees out of the 204 teams competing at the Games failed to provide whereabouts information concerning their athletes.

After the issue was raised at a meeting on August 7, on the eve of the opening of the Beijing Olympics, there were still 102 countries which did not provide whereabouts.

These snafus do not lend to increased confidence in the doping control carried out in the Beijing Olympics.  At least we know that the gymnasts ages were absolutely legitimate...

Third place Tour de France finisher, Bernhard Kohl, admits to doping

He finished fourth in the Tour de France.  He slipped by doping control with problems...until a retest of CERA EPO revealed his urine was dirty.  Now, Bernhard Kohl admits during the 2008 Tour de France he doped with CERA EPO. To Sporting Life:
 

Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl has admitted to taking CERA, according to a report.

The 26-year-old, who finished third in this year's Tour de France, tested positive for the new generation of the banned blood booster EPO both before and during the Tour after samples were re-tested at the French laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry, France's national anti-doping agency revealed on Monday.

As well as claiming a place on the podium, the Gerolsteiner rider also won the Polka Dot jersey as the best climber on this year's Tour.

And, talking to Austrian national broadcaster ORF, he has now admitted the weight of expectation drove him to use the banned substance.

"I gave in to temptation, because the pressure for success on my shoulders was unbelievably great.

"I am only human and like many humans in an exceptional situation I became weak."

Kohl was the fourth rider to test positive for CERA on this year's Tour.

 Disturbing that Kohl evaded doping control until a special re-assay found CERA EPO.  We find that disturbing.

Is the 2008 Tour de France done? Indications no more CERA EPO positives

The 2008 Tour de France may be done finding drug-cheats. At least AFP thinks so:

Austria's Bernhard Kohl will be the "seventh and last" positive doping case from this year's Tour de France, according to sports daily L'Equipe on Tuesday.

Kohl, the best climber at this year's race where he finished third overall, has become the fourth rider to test positive for CERA, a new generation of the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).

Here is the tally for doping in 2008 Tour de France, of which 4 were CERA EPO:

In all seven riders tested positive at this year's race, which was won by Spaniard Carlos Sastre of the CSC team.

Italians Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli and Germany's Stefan Schumacher all tested postive for CERA, which until recently was thought to be undetectable.

During the race Ricco, the winner of two climbing stages, was ejected along with his Saunier Duval team after urine samples belonging to the Italian revealed traces of CERA.

Ricco followed Spanish duo Manuel Beltran, of Liquigas, and Barloworld rider Moises Duenas in leaving the race, both of whom tested positive for EPO.

On the race's final day it was revealed that Dmitri Fofonov, a Kazakh who rides for Credit Agricole, tested positive for a banned stimulant. He has since been banned for three months.

Weeks ago it was confirmed that Ricco's teammate Piepoli, a climber who won the 10th stage to Hautacam in the Pyrenees, also tested positive for CERA.

Then last week Schumacher - Kohl's team and room-mate at Gerolsteiner - was also confirmed as having tested positive for CERA. The German won both time trials on the race.

On Monday Kohl was the latest rider to be snared for using EPO to oxygenate his blood cells, thus boosting his abilities to perform on the world's toughest bike race.

And this is it for CERA positives:

Although it had been reported recently that France's national anti-doping agency was set to reveal a deluge of positive tests, L'Equipe said Tuesday the Kohl positive case "is the seventh and last positive, according to our information".

The French anti-doping agency (AFLD) was in charge of this year's controls as the Tour was being held outwith the auspices of the International Cycling Union (UCI) because of a dispute, which has now been resolved.

The AFLD recently pioneered a new blood test for CERA, the latest generation of a drug which has been in use in endurance sports since the early 1990s.

Australian physician who 'exposed' Lance Armstrong expresses concerns about the LA Comeback

The Australian physician who guided the lab which found the Lance Armstrong 'controversial' positive EPO in 1999, harbors deep concern about the LA Comeback Tour.  To the Herald-Sun.

Dr Michael Ashenden, whose analysis of Armstrong's urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France allegedly revealed that the cyclist used the blood-boosting drug EPO during the race, said too many people in Australia had been "dazzled" by Armstrong's "star power".

"It surprises me that the Tour is willing to embrace such a controversial figure," Ashenden said.

"It surprises me in the wider context that there hasn't been more adverse reaction to his proposal to come back."

There has been adverse reaction to the LACT (Lance Armstrong Comeback Tour), which is muted.   However note that LA stands to make a little currency and enjoy alot of publicity off the LACT.

The International Cycling Union last week ruled Armstrong could take part in the Tour Down Under, despite the cyclist not complying with a six-month drug testing program in the lead-up to the January event.

"People are dazzled by the star factor and they are not pausing to really reflect on what this is all about and whether or not it would be good for the sport," Dr Ashenden said.

He also questioned Armstrong's motives in appointing prominent anti-doping scientist Don Catlin to his team.

This is the first major medical professional to question Catlin's role in the LACT.  Of course Catlin is violating a major tenet of science -- objectivity.  Sadly he points to his reputation -- which although good -- is not a part of the standard of objective lab testing.

"Everyone recognises that this is prone to abuse. If Don Catlin finds EPO he can't do anything about it," Dr Ashenden said.

Tour de France champion Greg Lemond also questioned the point of self-policing by cycling teams, and said Armstrong must do more if he was to prove he is 100 per cent clean.

"It's like a wolf guarding a hen house. You've got to have a group with no self-interest," Lemond said.

Bending the rules: Lance Armstrong goes over the top to race down under

The UCI today cleared Lance Armstrong's first comeback race in Australia at the 'Tour Down Under'.  Armstrong's late entry into the anti-doping protocol held up the LA comeback. (AP)

Cycling's governing body is relaxing its rules to allow Lance Armstrong to make his comeback at a road race in Australia in January. The International Cycling Union said the seven-time Tour de France champion can compete in the Jan. 20-25 Tour Down Under, his first race since coming out of retirement after three years.

A strict application of testing rules would not have allowed the 37-year-old Texan to compete until Feb. 1, 2009, six months after he filed paperwork with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

But the UCI said Wednesday that Armstrong could return early because its drug-testing standards have improved since the rule was drawn up four years ago.

The Armstrong mystique must trump the rules.  LA did not have to enter into the protocol for the required 6 months.  Thus the old boy network of privilege continues on; if a cyclist is an elite world superstar he doesn't have to play by the rules.  (Isn't this what got the Dow Jones and the stock market into trouble in part?  Now if only the poor cyclists could get subprime anti-doping testing).

Wonder if LA tests positive for doping, do the rules get bent again?

"Riders are now subject to a much-reinforced system of monitoring compared to that of the past," the governing body said in a statement. "Lance Armstrong has and will be the subject of very strict monitoring throughout the period running up to his return to the peloton."

Armstrong's comeback is meant to draw attention to his global campaign to fight cancer, a disease he survived before winning seven straight Tours from 1999-2005.

It is also a defiant stand against critics who doubt he could have achieved those victories without the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Now he is liable to be tested at any time without notice and will have his own biological passport as part of a UCI-backed initiative to monitor possible doping offenses.

Riders must give a series of blood and urine samples that allow a World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory to establish a baseline. Fluctuations from those readings afterward could indicate doping.

So th rules will be broken if you are Lance Armstrong.  Not an auspicious start to a comeback meant to show LA did it/will do it the right way.

The International Olympic Committee will retest 2008 Beijing samples for new CERA EPO

First the Tour de France retested (and not finished) cyclists in the 2008 for CERA EPO, and now the IOC will also retest 2008 Beijing samples.  Breaking news at ABC CBN:

Blood samples taken at the Beijing Olympics are to be reanalyzed for the banned blood booster EPO using a new detection system developed for the Tour de France, the IOC announced Wednesday.

The retroactive controls are designed to seek out the presence of the new generation of EPO known as CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator).

The IOC must have looked at the results of the Tour de France's retest, which encouraged the anti-doping police to retest Olympians:

The IOC's announcement comes 48 hours after reanalyzed samples from the Tour de France using the latest technology unearthed two drug cheats - Germany's Stefan Schumacher, a double stage winner on this year's race, and Italian Leonardo Piepoli.

IOC spokesman Emmanuelle Moreau told AFP: "This is part of our normal procedure. We keep the samples for eight years and whenever a new test arrives we carry out new tests."

The CERA form of EPO was detected for the first time at this year's Tour in the sample of Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco with a full test developed to combat it by the French laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry.

The laboratory is currently retroactively checking 15 samples from this year's Tour with two of those producing Schumacher and Piepoli's positive tests.

It was that double success that "prompted the IOC to retest samples from Beijing," explained Moreau.

The IOC is now in the process of moving all the Beijing samples to its headquarters in Lausanne before finalizing the conditions and timing of the new tests.

"A joint IOC/WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) commission is going to decide the procedure," Moreau said.

Over 1,000 blood samples were taken at the Games as part of over 5,000 anti-doping controls.

The 2008 Games were held up by the IOC as proof that they were winning the war on drugs with only a handful of positive cases compared to 26 at Athens in 2004.

Wonder who is at risk for detection?

More drug cheats expected to emerge from Tour de France CERA EPO retesting

The new post-race EPO CERA testing now processed by the Tour de France will produce more positives, according to Reuters.

The new CERA EPO apparently was thought to be undetectable by Tour riders in 2008.  Not so; 6 pro cyclists spit out" tainted urine thus far, and more are expected.  Two riders were nailed with the new CERA EPO.

French drugs testers are continuing to screen samples from riders who competed in this year's Tour de France and expect to announce more positive results despite the race ending three months ago.

"The tests are still underway, they are not all done yet," French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) head Pierre Bordry told Reuters on Wednesday.

"I imagine there could be one or two more cases," race director Christian Prudhomme added, in a week when two Tour riders were exposed as drugs cheats.

On Monday, Italy's Leonardo Piepoli and Germany's Stefan Schumacher were both revealed to have tested positive for CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator), a new generation of banned blood-booster.

    The positive tests are the result of the AFLD retroactively testing blood samples for the new type of erythropoietin (EPO).

The Chatenay-Malabry laboratory has developed a more effective blood test to find CERA, which had been difficult to detect through urine samples.

                   

Tour de France boss Jean-Etienne Amaury says Lance Armstrong 'embarressment'' Armstrong says 'last time I checked' he was clean.

The new boss of the Tour de France minced few words to disguise his unhappiness with American pro rider Lance Armstrong.  Jean-Etienne Amaury referred to Armstrong (in a double negative) as an embarrassment.

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has been an embarrassment to the French race, the new head of the Tour's organizer said in an interview Saturday.

L'Equipe quoted Jean-Etienne Amaury as saying that Armstrong has not always been good for the Tour.

"We can't say that he has not embarrassed the Tour de France, as he has had a quite a complicated history with it," Amaury said.

The 32-year-old Amaury was named president of the Amaury Sport Organization earlier this week, replacing Patrice Clerc, who was known for his hard line against doping. Some observers interpreted the change as a sign that the ASO intended to soften its position on doping.

Amaury, however, insisted the fight against doping remains a top priority.

"The Tour de France's position has always been very strict and that will not change in the years to come," he said. ASO "is quite conscious of the fact that doping undermines cycling's credibility."

Asked whether a comeback by the 37-year-old Armstrong, who retired in 2005 after winning his seventh consecutive title, would throw suspicion on the race, Amaury said that "today's tools in the fight against doping are different."

Armstrong, long know for his aggressive defense, took a swing back at the French.  To the BBC:

Lance Armstrong has hit back at Tour de France organisers who claimed the seven-time Tour champion's return to cycling was "embarrassing".

The American, who has always denied allegations of drug use, said: "I won the Tour seven straight years and was never found to be guilty of doping.

"Not to mention that my team of 25 riders over those seven years was also never found to be positive.

"The last time I checked, I won the Tour seven straight years and was never once found to be guilty of doping despite seven years of intense scrutiny," Armstrong said in a statement.

"We won clean and fair. Where's the embarrassment in that?"

The 37-year-old added in a statement: "Also, according to industry standards, the TV ratings, worldwide media impressions, spectators along the route, and global sponsorships (of the Tour) were at an all time high.

"It comes as an issue of distraction. While I love the event and France's people, I cannot accept this sort of grandstanding."

That controversial 2005 EPO sits out there like the 1000 pound doping gorilla in the locker room.

Suday steroid injections

1.  Dr. Charles Yesalis on PED use in the NFL.  (Wall Street Journal)

2.  Bangladesh bans weightlifter Satheesha Rai for life (The New Nation)

3.  Will VInokourov return to pro cycling after doping ban?  (Podium Cafe)

4.  Pro cyclist and Tour de France stage winner Ricco b anned for 2 years.  (The Star)

Cycling Friday: Ullrich, Schleck, EPO, and doping

1.  Jan Ullrich says he will not resort to doping follow Lance Armstrong out of retirement. (The LA Times Blog)

When Lance Armstrong was winning his seven consecutive Tour de France titles, seemingly every year the easygoing Jan Ullrich was a co-favorite. Until somehow, in some stage, Armstrong would blow by the German cyclist on some massive mountain climb. Or Ullrich would fall in the rain in a time trial. Or something.

After Armstrong retired, Ullrich was almost universally granted status as the new peloton leader, but instead, Ullrich got caught up in the doping scandals and retired in disgrace.

In an interview with VeloNews, Ullrich says he would not be surprised if Armstrong won the Tour again after his return from three years in retirement. And, no, Ullrich is not planning his own comeback so that he can finish second to Armstrong again.

2.  Cyclist Frank Schleck suspended by CSC.  (IHT) (Update too at Cheat or Beat)

Frank Schleck was provisionally suspended by his team Friday after admitting he transferred money to a Swiss bank account held by a doctor at the center of a major doping scandal.

The Luxembourg rider had appeared before his country's anti-doping agency on Wednesday for a hearing into his alleged involvement in the Operation Puerto doping scandal in Spain.

Danish team CSC Saxo Bank said Schleck had transferred the money to the account of Eufemiano Fuentes in March 2006 "to receive training advice by experts who presumably worked with some of the biggest names in the sport."

Schleck admitted making "a serious blunder" and regretted the contact with "these people," the team said. However, he denied having had direct contact with Fuentes and reiterated his claim that he had never engaged in doping.

The team manager, Bjarne Riis, said Schleck would be suspended from racing "until we have had the chance to evaluate the outcome of this."

A German prosecutor contends that Schleck paid almost $9,850 into a Swiss account held by Fuentes, who is at the center of the Puerto case.

Armstrong rejects French EPO retest offer; French doping czar regrets Armstrong rejection

Things become so complicated.  Earlier this week, the French anti-doping agency 'offered' to retest that nasty 1999 Lance Armstrong disputed alleged EPO positive urine test.  And now Armstrong answers in Cycling Weekly:

Lance Armstrong has rejected the offer by the head of the French Anti-doping agency, Pierre Bordry, to retest his urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France.

Bordry yesterday offered to retest the samples according to L'Equipe newspaper as of a way to prove Armstrong's good faith and dispel accusations made by the L'Equipe newspaper that the samples may contain traces of the banned blood booster EPO.

In a written statement, Armstrong sidestepped the offer by claiming that an independent investigation instigated by the UCI had said the 1999 samples “have not been maintained properly, have been compromised in many ways, and even three years ago could not be tested to provide any meaningful results.”

“There is simply nothing that I can agree to that would provide any relevant evidence about 1999,” Armstrong added in his statement.

Armstrong also pointed out that the “the Independent Investigation concluded that the French laboratory, the French Ministry of Sport, and Dick Pound, the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, all behaved improperly with respect to the 1999 Tour de France samples.”

Obviously Armstrong will reject an offer to retest his sample. What does he have to gain?  Not much whatever the new outcome; there will continue to be doping accusations against the 7-time Tour de France winner.  What can he lose?  He could lose more of his reputation if the sample turned up positive.  However the French answer (BBC Sport)

The head of the French anti-doping agency believes Lance Armstrong has missed a chance to prove his critics wrong over allegations of drug use.

Pierre Bordry gave him the opportunity to have samples taken during the 1998 and 1999 Tours de France retested.

But the seven-time Tour champion refused to consent to the new tests.

"If the analysis is clean it would have been very good for him. But he doesn't want to do it and that's his problem," Bordry told BBC Sport.

"It was a good opportunity for him to answer positively to my proposition, because if he is clean, as he says, I am ready to follow him."

The American, who has always vigorously denied any wrongdoing, has announced he will return to the sport in 2009 after an absence of more than three years.

Armstrong, who would have to give his permission for tests on any sample older than eight years, gave a terse response to Bordry's invitation to prove he had "never cheated in his brilliant career".

As a reminder, here is the collection of samples that reportedly turned out an Armstrong positive for EPO:

The urine samples in question have been the subject of speculation ever since French newspaper L'Equipe reported in 2005 that six B samples contained the banned substance EPO - a blood-boosting hormone that enhances endurance.

Drug-testing protocol dictates that blood or urine is divided into A and B samples and both must show traces of the banned substance for a test to be declared positive. Cycling did not have a robust test for EPO until 2001.

And nothing settled...

French offer to retest Lance Armstrong's 1999 Tour de France urine samples

The French agency responsible for testing Lance Armstrong's disputed positive (EPO) 1999 urine sample wants another go at applying the doping test, only with Armstrong's permission.

Armstrong, staging a well publicized comeback, wants to assure the world his cycling will be clean.  One of the thorns in Armstrong's side continues to be the 'alleged' positive 1999 urine sample; (again allegedly) Armstrong's stored samples tested positive for EPO, a test not available at the time of the sample collection.  However Armstrong disputes several issues including chain of custody of the samples.

Now the French agency AFLD is offering to retest the '99 samples for EPO, in an attempt to clear Armstrong's name (to Cycling Weekly):

The French Anti-Doping Authority (AFLD) has offered Lance Armstrong a chance to retest his urine samples from the 1999 Tour - which, according to French newspaper L'Equipe allegedly contained traces of EPO.

“Mr. Armstrong is a great champion,” AFLD boss Pierre Bordry told French newspaper L'Equipe on Wednesday, “Everybody can understand how someone like him would want to come back to the Tour again."

"I would like that comeback to be in the best possible conditions, so I would suggest that we do a complete analysis of the six urine samples taken in the 1999 Tour.That would perhaps give him the chance to affirm he never cheated during his brilliant career.”

L'Equipe alleged back in 2005 that the 1999 samples, taken during the first of Armstrong's seven Tours victories, contained traces of EPO. Armstrong has always categorically denied all allegations of doping.

Bordry added that the Paris laboratory which had carried out the testing had confirmed to him that Armstrong's samples had been conserved in the correct conditions, and that if Armstrong wished the new tests would be carried out in the presence of an expert nominated by the Texan.

The French agency seems to have Armstrong in a bit of a pinch.  If Armstrong agrees to the testing, he risks the chance that the samples test positive (?again).  The same chain of custody, sabotage, and storage issues remain as with the first test, although DNA testing could prove the samples are Armstrong's.  If the samples are not positive would the world accept the result?

If Armstrong does agree to re-testing then he will be accused of a cover-up.

Only Armstrong knows the chances of an EPO positive.  Is he willing to run the risk of a positive doping sample in 1999?  If clean he could prove it.  If dirty, he will try to avoid the re-test.  This could be interesting.  However we are betting an attorney will advise not to volunteer a retest.

Why does baseball not get it? The NY Times says minor league teams warned in advance of testing

"Gather round drug users.  Drug and substance testing to be held next Friday."

What if that announcement come out to a group of dangerous meth addicts?  How would the public safety, or their personal health be served by a prior announcement of drug testing?  Obviously any drug user with half a brain will seek to avoid the testing, or detoxify the substance from his body.

The New York Times says this happens in baseball, even after the  Mitchell Report warning of last winter.

When George J. Mitchell issued his report last December on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, Commissioner Bud Selig quickly embraced the report’s findings. He then went further, saying baseball would immediately end a practice under which drug testers were giving major league teams 24-hour notice before they showed up in clubhouses to collect urine samples from players.

The 24-hour notice had been roundly criticized by antidoping experts, who said it undermined the integrity of baseball’s drug program, which called for random, unannounced testing.

Despite that change, minor league teams still received advance notice of when testing would occur this season, according to eight people who work in the minor leagues.

One doesn't need to be an anti-doping expert to criticize this set-up; a dollop of common sense would suffice to know that testing needs to be done by an independent agency to avoid a conflict of interest, and to test players at secure sites without advance knowledge..

In recent interviews, four minor league managers, two team trainers, one general manager and one clubhouse attendant said the manager or trainer for their club was called by a tester the day before drug testing was to be done at the ballpark.

None of them said that they knew of any instances when players were told about the tests ahead of time.

However, one Class A manager who said he received a call from a tester during the season, said that if he believed one of his players was “dirty,” he would have been tempted to tell the player that a tester would be coming the next day and that he should try to flush out any drugs from his system.

The manager said he believed there would be others who would be tempted to tip off suspect players and that the practice of advance notice had to be eliminated. The manager spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified as being critical of the drug-testing procedures.

So why the advance notice?

“Under the minor league policy, collections are performed by the Center for Drug Free Sport, which is a wholly independent entity,” Richard Levin, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, said in an e-mail message dated Sept. 15. “The center was directed to give only nominal notice, no more than 45 minutes, to a club prior to a collection.”

Asked in an e-mail message the next day as to how Major League Baseball planned to address the issue, Levin responded in an e-mail message: “Once we learned that there were occasions on which the Center for Drug Free Sport gave overnight notice to clubs, we took prompt corrective action to prevent such notice from being given in the future.”

A number of the minor league employees who were interviewed said advance notice in the minor leagues extended back at least several seasons.

Apparently players in the Dominican Summer League receive less notice:

The bulk of the positive results in organized baseball in 2008 occurred in the Dominican Summer League, a development program run by major league teams in which some of the players were as young as 16. This year marked the first time that players in the Dominican league faced suspensions for positive tests, and 36 were publicly identified as testing positive.

Why attempt drug and steroid testing if is performed in a sloppy protocol?  Read the Times for more info on the lax minor league testing procedure.

Jamaican Veronica Campbell–Brown turns tables: Suspicious of American Griffith-Joyner's records

We posted a host of stories casting doubt on various Jamaican sprinting records.  Today the tables are turned, perhaps the first time in a public way on Florence Griffith-Joyner's incredible 1000M and 200M records.  The astute athlete: Jamaica's Veronica Campbell–Brown.  From the Caymanian Compass:

Female athletes feel they are at a disadvantage to their male counterparts because many of their world records are out of reach, says Veronica Campbell–Brown.

The Jamaican star defended her Olympic 200 metres title in Beijing in a personal best of 21.74 seconds, which is 0.4 seconds slower than Florence Griffith–Joyner’s 1988 record. That is a huge margin in women’s sprinting, equivalent to around three metres. Many women athlete consider Flo–Jo’s times to be ‘men’s’ records.

“Everybody wants to watch a world record,” Campbell–Brown told BBC Sport. “The men enjoy all the glamour because they’re capable of breaking world records. Women don’t have that luxury.”

That does seem right: fans and crowds crave new records: bigger, stronger, faster.  More home runs, more speed, and a larger drop in the Dow Jones Average.

In Olympic track and field disciplines, the only women’s world records to have been set in the last 20 years have come in modified or recently added events.

Today’s competitors, in fact, are not even threatening the majority of records from the 1980s.

This has led many observers to suggest those records are suspicious and may have been achieved with the use of illegal, performance–enhancing drugs.

Of course the two records sitting out there are the glamorous women's 100M and 200M mark held by the equally glamorous Florence Griffith-Joyner, or Flo Jo.  It's been about 20 years since Flo Jo set the record in LA (with questionable tailwind), and 10 years since she died suddenly.  Those records stand, as opposed to almost all male sprint records which have fallen over the past 20 years.

Campbell–Brown said it was not for her to decide if any of the world bests were tainted by doping but acknowledged that serious doubts exist over the legitimacy of many women’s records.

Perhaps the most suspicious, and iconic, of those records is Griffith–Joyner’s 10.49 for the 100m.

The American smashed the previous mark by a staggering 0.27 seconds in the quarter–finals of the US Olympic Trials in 1988.  It was also a half–second faster than she had ever run prior to that season, and it came after a three–year break from the sport.

Aged 28 at the time, she would quit athletics two months later, shortly before the introduction of out–of–competition drug testing.

Ten years later, Flo–Jo died when she suffocated in her sleep following a brain seizure.  Her tragically early death fuelled the rumours of doping – rumours that have never been substantiated and have always been denied by her family and friends.

But there was another suspicious element to her remarkable 100m time, the long–held belief a faulty wind–meter failed to record a strong tailwind that would have ruled out her time.

Despite showing a helping wind of more than three metres per second for the rest of the day – a metre more per second than the legal limit – the anemometer recorded a wind of 0.0 m/s for Flo–Jo’s race.

“When I look at my personal best for 100m it’s 10.85,” said Campbell–Brown, the reigning 100m World champion.

“The world record is 10.49. For me that is very difficult to break. Rumour has it that the world record could have been wind–aided.

“The people in authority have the power to look at it. It’s been 20 years now and the closest anybody has come to it is 10.7 (the disgraced Marion Jones ran 10.65 at altitude in 1998).

“So it’s very difficult and I know a lot of people would like to see women break world records like the men do.”

Usain Bolt says he is clean. Answers Carl Lewis's criticisms

In a Reuter's telephone interview Usain Bolt says he is clean.  And who can argue with him?

The now famous Jamaican sprinter is enjoying the fame that comes with being the world's fastest man.  In this interview, Bolt addresses Carl Lewis, and details his future plans. (The Guardian).

Usain Bolt, who shattered the world record each time to capture Olympic gold in the 100 metres, 200 and 4x100 relay, dismissed speculation his sudden rise to supremacy was aided by doping.

"I know I'm clean. I work hard for what I want," the Jamaican told Reuters in a telephone interview on Friday.

Carl Lewis expressed his doubts;  Bolt answers.

"I'm still working with the fact he dropped from 10-flat to 9.6 in one year," American Lewis was quoted as saying.  "I think there are some issues ... countries like Jamaica do not have a random (dope control) programme so they can go months without being tested."

Bolt felt such speculation came with the territory.  "I know what he said," said the Jamaican. "To me it doesn't really matter what he said, a lot of people were saying that.  "When you run the 100 metres that's what you get. As long as you're fast they start saying that.  "It's like a trend. I'm trying to change that. It's a bad image for the sport.  "Carl Lewis can say whatever he wants. That's just his opinion."

Bolt says training for the 200 helped his 100 race.

Bolt said his 100 breakthrough was earned by hard training. "The 200 is also sprinting, that was key," he said. "The only thing I had to do was get my start right and I got my start right. "That's why my last 50 metres are so good because I've got speed and endurance."

Bolt also answers the doubts about testing.

The 22-year-old also rejected Lewis's comments about the amount of testing he had to go through back home.  "For sure we get tested in the Caribbean," he said. "They like to come to your house early in the morning."It's no  t cool getting up at six, seven in the morning when you're just trying to enjoy your sleep. But I know what it's for and it's fair. We get tested all the time.  "When you're in the top 20 in the world you get random tested. They get to know your whereabouts."

Bolt also discussed his future.

Bolt said he would continue to run the 100 and 200.  "In the future I'll probably step up to 400 metres," he said. "But it's a lot of work. I'm not ready for that kind of work."  Bolt also said he was looking forward to defending his titles at the 2012 Olympics.  "I'll be in London ... I hope it isn't cold," he said. "I'm looking forward to that.  "I can be champion again. I'll be 26 then. I have a lot of time on my hands. All I have to do is stay focused, train hard and be ready."

Thus, Usain Bolt answers his critics.  You have to like his straight-forward style, without dodging the issues.

Greg LeMond interrupts the 'Feel Good' LA tour; peppers the Armstrong team with doping questions

Cojones.  That is what Greg LeMond displays in spades.  LeMond attended yesterdays press conference in Las Vegas, at the Interbike trade show.  If Armstrong wants publicity, then he should deal with the tough issues too.  To Bike Radar:

A day after officially announcing his comeback to professional cycling, Lance Armstrong made an appearance at the Interbike trade show to give the cycling media and industry an opportunity to hear more details of his plans, including the special testing by Don Catlin of the UCLA anti-doping lab. Catlin joined him on stage along with American Taylor Phinney, who will lead Armstrong's new U23 developmental team.

Sitting in the front row, asking the first question was another Tour de France champion and outspoken critic of Armstrong, Greg LeMond. Cyclingnews was on hand to hear the plans and questioning from the industry, including LeMond.

LeMond, seated in the front row, led off the questioning with some pointed ones, all surrounding the theme of questioning the reasonability of the planned special testing of Armstrong by Don Catlin of the UCLA lab.

Very topical questions for Team Armstrong.  Or should we say Corporate Armstrong.  If an athlete is going to trumpet state of the art doping testing, then make it state of the art.  Look at more than the 'forensic' lab tests (drug level, or T/E ratios).   Look at physiologic functions and blood parameters for irregularities.

"I see Mr. Greg LeMond is here," Armstrong said somewhat wryly, but allowed him to have the first question.

LeMond pressed Armstrong and Catlin about the type of testing they had planned. He levied some reasonable critiques, essentially calling into question the proposed testing, arguing that it is not comprehensive enough, such as using T/E ratios and tests for specific EPO drugs as opposed to measuring physiological variables such as power output changes over time. LeMond inferred that a spike in power output would better indicate the use of something compared to trying to test for particular substances.

"That is not my area," responded Catlin. "He will be subject to testing by everyone under the sun. I think that will be all sorted out."

Catlin is a good guy; we hope he is not seduced by the Armstrong mystique and the Armstrong financial power.  For too long stars tend to intimidate people; even in Congress, members were asking Roger Clemens for autographs rather than grilling him about his doping agenda.  LeMond is not easily intimidated as we can see below. This exchange proved pretty testy:

Catlin said that the actual program is still taking shape. "[Lance] has agreed to a couple of a few very fundamental points. One is his data, like T/E ratio and all that kind of stuff that a doping control is allowed to do will be on the web, so you can see it. 'Ah, your T/E ratio changed today, what happened?' Like to see if he is taking EPO – all the actors to make it a very public campaign.

"The other thing is samples will be kept frozen for a good long time so that if next year, five years a new test comes out and someone says Lance was doing something five years ago, we can pull out the samples and test them. This is longitudinal testing whereas the usual type of testing is taking a stop in time. This is where you connect the dots and is much more powerful kind of program to understand the physiology."

"That is all irrelevant," LeMond responded. "It doesn't matter about T/E ratio but watts and power output..."

"I don't think it is irrelevant," said Catlin. "I dare say you know this business pretty well! Come with your ideas of what we should do!"

At that point Armstrong stepped in tried to move things along. "You've done your job," Armstrong said to LeMond. "We are here to talk about a couple of things, like the Global Clinton campaign and my comeback to cycling. It's time for us, everybody in this room, to move on. We are not going to go there, I appreciate you being here – next question."

Come on folks.  If an athlete holds a press conference to trumpet his complete transparency to anti-doping agenda, and if the athlete expects to be state-of-the-art, then the athlete needs to answer all questions completely without cutting off the questioner because the issues are too tough, or he doesn't like the path the questions are going.

This is not scientific agenda here, it is public relations.  and perhaps to sell some SRAM bicycle components.

Neither God nor man can brake this ride: Lance Armstrong announces comeback plans

As the old saying goes, he is 'the big wheel'...in this case, the big cycling wheel that spins on and on and on.  Lance Armstrong, never quite out of the spotlight, completed the preliminaries of his startling comeback today.  The 24/7 nature of the modern CNN/Fox/ESPN news cycle assures us of more Lance Armstrong news over the next year than even Brett Favre spots.

Even though he retired after winning 7 Tour de France titles, Lance Armstrong never retired from the bright lights.  He dated any number of the world's more famous women.  He became a 'spokes'man of cancer awareness, a surefire way to gain support....push for animal welfare, Jerry's kids, and cancer awareness and you cannot go wrong.  However, here is a positive view of the Armstrong idealism.

Fans love the cancer survival story, and indeed it is a great one.  However the cycling story is not quite so stellar.  Armstrong mounted an impressive mid-career push to become the best.  He cavorted with the infamous dope peddler, Dr. Michele Ferrari.  And he retired at a time when the entire peloton doped to the max, before anti-doping testing matured to the point it has now.

It must be incredibly difficult for an athlete with galactic adulation from 1999 to 2005 to retire.  Now there are several issues with the Armstrong comeback:

1.  Armstrong will ride with Astana, home of 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador  (from the New York Times today)

Armstrong said he hoped that Alberto Contador, the talented winner of the 2007 Tour, would not leave in a huff if Armstrong signed on, as Contador has threatened to do in recent days.

“If I’m not the strongest guy on the team, then I’m the domestique,” Armstrong said, somewhat tentatively.

Good luck to that. In 1986, the five-time Tour champion Bernard Hinault promised to serve as a domestique to an up-and-coming American, Greg Lemond. On the crucial ascent on the Alpe d’Huez, Lemond looked over his shoulder and saw the gritted-teeth smile of Hinault, whose nickname was the Badger. Hinault shrugged, as if to say, well, what did you expect, I am the Badger. Lemond held him off and won the Tour — but probably still has nightmares about Hinault. Armstrong, bless his heart, could induce a nightmare just by musing about being somebody’s domestique.

2.  Armstrong, dogged by doping accusations feels compelled to hire the best in the business to monitor his blood parameters (from the NY Daily News):

Armstrong confirmed that he will ride in the Tour de France for the Kazakh team Astana and claimed he will be "totally validated" by an aggressive screening program to be designed by world-renowned anti-doping scientist Don Catlin.

But Catlin, whose chemical sleuthing helped crack the BALCO doping ring in 2003, said "there are no guarantees," and conceded that the program he is establishing to monitor Armstrong will do nothing to clear the suspicions that linger over the cyclist's past accomplishments.

"I think it's going to be as airtight as I can possibly make it," Catlin told the Daily News. "Anybody who tries to beat it will be a fool."

Catlin said results of Armstrong's blood and urine tests would be posted online, and the urine would be frozen and stored for future re-testing. He said Armstrong's representatives approached him about the plan in the last two weeks, following Armstrong's announcement that he will return after three years of retirement.

Armstrong will pay Catlin for the work, but dismissed the concerns of "conspiracy theorists" who see a conflict of interest in that.

"There's not enough money anywhere to potentially buy out Don Catlin," said Armstrong. "For the conspiracy theorists out there that might think that, I would refer them to Don Catlin."

Armstrong spoke to the celebrity-laden crowd in New York today:

Armstrong was discussing his comeback Wednesday in New York, at the Clinton Global Initiative, the nonpolitical conference about the world’s problems. He linked his return for five races next season with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which fights cancer.

He portrayed his comeback as more than the ego of an aging athlete who missed the spotlight, saying that he would race in nations that need either praise or prodding for their approach to cancer. Armstrong plans to race next January in Australia; he did not mind saying that Australia does not do enough to combat melanoma, a form of cancer prevalent in that sunny part of the world.

Armstrong told an audience that included two former presidents, Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, and former Vice President Al Gore — as well as Muhammad Ali — that cancer patients should not think of themselves as victims.

Armstrong is a force for hope in the battle against a disease that will kill 8 million people this year. More than 50 million yellow Livestrong wrist bracelets have been distributed around the world, signifying donations to the foundation. And now Armstrong says he wants to ride for all the people.

Not one to hide his light under a basket, as Paula Duffy enumerates:

But there is a twist to this story that is of some note. To support Armstrong's contention that he will be clean and free of any banned substances, the team has hired Don Catlin, a noted anti-doping expert. Catlin has credentials that no one can question but there's just one hitch in all this.

He will be an employee of Armstrong's team. Armstrong believes that Catlin is beyond reproach and Pat McQuaid who heads up the sports governing body has no problem with it.  Both those men seem to believe there would be no circumstances underwhich Catlin wouldn't do the right thing, even if it means outing Armstrong. Might I suggest that it takes incredible fortitude and honor not to be influenced by the marketing juggernaut that is the Armstrong cancer awareness cause? Human beings are fallible and we have seen men and women in public life fail us after we have trusted them to tell us the truth. Everyone has his price, we all know that.

I am not predicting any cheating and I absolutely do not mean to say that Catlin and Astana have exchanged winks and nods on the topic of transparency. I'm just pointing out to Mr. Armstrong that if he really wanted to give the world some reason to believe he won't get any assistance from banned substances, he might have taken a different route.

For example, hundreds of blood samples taken from Australian athletes at the recent Beijing Olympics are being stored for study in the next decade. As a member of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority said, an athlete might be able to evade present-day tests for new substances, but these samples will be kept for eight years under the presumption that testing catches up a bit late with cheating.

But hey, then Armstrong wouldn't be able to make Mr. Catlin part of his marketing campaign this summer.The cyclist's test results will be posted on the Internet. What a world.

Lance Armstrong has become very good at marketing Lance Armstrong.  He is a lightning rod for major issues of the day: doping, cancer awareness, sports marketing, and even politics.

Dressage dresses down Steroid Nation with a myth

We love controversy.  Yesterday we posted a story taken from Horse and Hound on the disqualification of the American dressage horse Mythilus.  The horse tested positive for the anti-inflammatory drug felbanic, which is apparently a topical NSAID sold in countries outside of the USA.  The rider of the horse, Courtney King Dye, was not a happy rider (and we understand why):

''Anyone suspected of giving their horse drugs, I agree there is zero tolerance. But I think it needs to be worded in a way that if the person is clearly innocent, like they said I was, they can not punish them.''

The heartache of being branded a cheater for something she didn't do won't deter her from continuing on in a sport she loves.

''I've spent so much energy on this,'' King Dye said. ''Yes, it's a bummer this happened ... It's just one of those things in life you have to deal with.

''I've gotten so many phone calls and emails that are concerned I'll be sour on the sport and hold it against the Olympics. But I really feel everything was done according to the rules.

We heard about this issue here at Steroid Nation, and frankly horsed around way too long with it.  However here was the USA dressage team's defense:

"When we first learned about that use, we suspected that Myth might have been exposed to Felbinac during his treatment for his heart in the Hong Kong Jockey Club," King-Dye said. "However, after doing more research on the drug and having a bio-chemist analyze the data, we learned that the trace amount found in Myth's system could occur from something as distant and arbitrary as a person using Felbinac on their knee then using a broom, then someone else uses the broom and shakes my groom's hand, and then my groom touches my horse. In the sampling, 14 nanograms per milliliter were found. It takes 7,500 to 100,000 nanograms per milliliter to have an effect on a rat."

Interesting defense, but we smell a rat.  The major flaw in the argument is the level of the drug found in the horse.  As seen by the drug elimination curve (to the right) a drug is eliminated from the body at a particular rate depending on how the drug is absorbed, metabolized (say liver or kidney) and how it was distributed in the tissues (that depends on it's chemical properties); this is called pharmacokinetcs. 

Steroid Nation is not going to perform calculus on Mythilus but the argument falls apart because an important piece of data is unknown: the time of administration of the drug.

If the horse were tested one hour after administration producing a low level of the drug in plasma (or urine, we don't know the test specimen, but it sounds like blood) then a low level would be significant, indicating some low level contamination or administration.  (BTW, could the sample have been contaminated in the lab?)

However, if the test were carried on on a horse days after the administration of the dose, a low level would be incredibly significant.  That would mean the measured amount of drug was way to the right of the graph's time axis.  Theoretically a ton of the drug could have been administered to the horse, and the very small amount indicates he was simply tested after most of the drug was eliminated.  Or it could be that the drug is fat soluble, which means drug sticks around in the horses tissues for a long period of time (such astute clinical terms we use).

The example of a person using the drug on his hands, touching a broom, some hand-shaking, then the horse's groom patting the horse is first irrelevant, and second preposterous.  Hopefully the FEI didn't buy that tangential story;  that dilution of the drug in the broom and groom is such that a molecule or two might have passed to the horse.  (we would go with the lab contamination theory first)

The important piece of data missing is the time of administration.  This drug is an effective analgesic at 1 inch of the cream applied to the skin (in humans) from what we read.

The broom and gloom story is irrelevant, and a canard.  Dose in a rat is a smoke screen because trans-species drug doses mean very little; the absorption, distribution, and elimination will all vary between species.  Does anyone want to dose themselves with digitalis (a heart drug) based on rat pharmacokinetics?  Or take an analgesic for a headache based on rat doses?  Didn't think so.

We would suggest that the USA dressage team stick to their reputation as a measure of honesty (it sounds like the FEI recognized the good word of the USA riders, and vets), because there are all kinds of reasons for low levels of a doping agent in a horse, and none of them involve grooms and brooms. (and note that none of this debate reflects on whether the horse was deliberately or inadvertently doped)

Addendum:  We are bit concerned about the horse Mythilus.  The story says this:

King-Dye noted that Mythilus was treated at the clinic in Hong Kong Jockey Club prior to the start of competition nine times for heart fibulation, a disorder in which the rhythm of the heart is disrupted, but Felbinac was not part of the treatment.

Not the dread 'heart fibulation'!  The horse's fibula is invading it's heart?  Is that A-fib or V-fib?

That's a misnomer.  A heart 'fibrillates', not 'fibulates'; the writer has it spelled a bit wrong, but for us, misspleiing is commen, er, cammon, er common.

Beijing Olympics doping cases confirmed in Lausanne: Belarusian hammer throwers, and Polish kayak athlete await decisions on doping

Details of the International Olympic Committee dealings with residual doping cases from the 2008 Beijing Olympics have emerged.  As suspected hammer throwers from Belarus are under suspicion, as well as a surprise kayaking athlete from Poland.  To the IOC site:

The IOC Disciplinary Commission, composed of Thomas Bach (Chairman), Denis Oswald and Gerhard Heiberg, met today in Lausanne (Switzerland) on three pending doping cases from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The meeting was convened to deal with adverse analytical findings for Vadim DEVIATOVSKIY, Belarus, silver medallist in the men’s hammer throw competition; Ivan TSIKHAN, Belarus, bronze medallist in the men’s hammer throw competition; and Adam SEROCZYNSKI, Poland, who placed fourth in the men’s kayak double (K2) 1000m event.

The IOC Disciplinary Commission gave the two Belarusian hammer throwers the opportunity to provide further information until 17 October 2008. The decision by the IOC Disciplinary Commission will be taken once this information has been analysed.

The decision concerning the Polish canoeist will be issued by the IOC Disciplinary Commission on 8 October 2008.

The USA Today also carries the story about the Olympians in question:

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -The IOC has given two Belarusian hammer throwers more time to fight allegations of doping at the Beijing Olympics.

Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan, who won silver and bronze in Beijing, have until Oct. 17 to provide more information explaining why they tested positive for abnormal traces of testosterone after the Aug. 17 hammer final.

The athletes emerged after spending 3 1/2 hours Sunday with the International Olympic Committee's Disciplinary Commission.

"We are waiting and we hope," silver medalist Devyatovskiy said through an interpreter. "We know that we are clean but we are waiting for information."

The Belarus pair could be disqualified and stripped of their medals if found guilty of doping.

If disqualified, Devyatovskiy's medal would go to Krisztian Pars of Hungary, and Tsikhan's bronze would go to Koji Murofushi of Japan. Slovenia's Primoz Kozmus won the gold medal.

The 31-year-old Devyatovskiy faces a lifetime ban if found guilty of a second doping offense. He served a two-year drug suspension from 2000-02.

It would be a first offense for the 32-year-old Tsikhan, a three-time world champion and silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The commission heard a third case Sunday involving Polish canoeist Adam Seroczynski, who tested positive for clenbuterol, a prohibited anabolic agent.

The 34-year-old Seroczynski was a bronze medalist at the 2000 Sydney Games in the K4 class, but competed in the flatwater K2 class at Beijing. His 21-year-old teammate Mariusz Kujawski is not under suspicion. The pair finished fourth.

We don't know how this happened:

Seroczynski's legal adviser Ludwik Zukowski said before the hearing he would argue that the athlete did not know how the substance entered his body.

"We don't know how it could happen," Zukowski said. "The amount was so unbelievably small. Human beings don't use clenbuterol."

The disciplinary commission will rule on the Seroczynski case on Oct. 8.

The IOC carried out more than 5,000 doping tests at the Beijing Olympics.

NASCAR to implement random drug testing

Following the revelations of Ron Hornaday (left, testosterone) this year, and Aaron Fike last year (right, opioids)  NASCAR decided to institute random drug testing. The Milwaukee JS goes into the story.  NASCAR press conference here)

NASCAR will drug test all drivers in its three national series and its officials and require that all licensed crew members be tested before the start of the 2009 season as part of an updated drug policy announced Saturday.

Drivers, over-the-wall crew members and officials will then be subject to random tests throughout the year.

"We have made a very good policy even better with the addition of random tests," said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said in the announcement. "NASCAR's policy has long given us the ability to test anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Random tests now provide us and the industry with additional information."

Considering the incredible risks in high speed NASCAR racing, driver should be protected from other drivers using PEDs.  The Fike admission of opioid use was damning at the least.

Perhaps a decade ago, NASCAR described its testing as random, but in reality, some people were tested more randomly than others, if you get my drift. Within the past several years, though, the sanctioning body has been under increasing scrutiny after several positive tests, and it took a huge public relations hit when former Craftsman Truck Series driver Aaron Fike admitted to using heroin even on race days.

NASCAR's policy on substance abuse governs all drugs, meaning a competitor can be found in violation for the use of a prescription medication if NASCAR believes it has been misused.

Penalties will continue to include immediate suspension from competition. Even one positive test could result in a lifetime ban, but three will automatically.

NASCAR's tests will be administered by AEGIS Sciences Corporation, a Nashville-based company established in 1986 as an anti-doping lab.

Who will join 'The Legion of the Damned': More Beijing Olympics doping cases looming this weekend

Prepare for more doping cases lagging from the 2008 Beijing Olympics to be announced this weekend following an IOC meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.  We reported on the suspected doping in judo wrestling and in the men's hammer throw; might there be more disqualifications?  To Monsters and Critics:

More alleged doping cases connected to the recent Beijing Games are pending, a Norwegian member of the International Olympic Committee said Thursday.

Gerhard Heiberg's remarks were made on the eve of a meeting of the Olympic movement's ruling body in Lausanne, Switzerland this weekend.

The cases concern 'several people from several nations' and several different events, Heiberg told broadcaster NRK, adding he was 'not surprised.'

'We had expected more to be caught during the games. Luckily there weren't more, but I said that more were due and we are going to consider them,' Heiberg said.

The number of doping cases discovered prior to the Olympics, as we documented, clearly reduced the positive tests at the Games.  For instance American swimmer Jessica Hardy might have tested positive at the Beijing Games if she hadn't been tested in the USA prior to heading to China.

The IOC member said he could not name the athletes but said the IOC would meet with the athletes suspected of doping. The cases were based on tests of both A- and B-samples.

Heiberg said the names likely would be disclosed after the IOC  meeting in Lausanne this weekend, the report said.

Any predictions on new Beijing positives?

• Judo: Tuvshinbayar Naidan
• Hammer throw: Belarusians Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan

The Tour de France 2008 is not finished: More testing for CERA EPO

So we thought the 2008 Tour de France was finished and in the books.  Typically there were cyclists like Manuel Beltran of Spain testing positive for EPO, and Dmitriy Fofonov of Kazakhstan testing positive for a banned stimulant.  The winner is in the books, and we all move on....right?  No.

Authorities report that the Tour will re-test doping samples for a more careful examination of the new CERA EPO.  To the AP:

Several Tour de France riders are having their blood samples retested for traces of the banned blood-booster EPO.

The head of the French Anti-Doping Agency told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the testing involved riders who were already under scrutiny for suspicious urine samples. Pierre Bordry declined to name the cyclists.

The new blood tests will look for CERA, a third-generation variation of EPO. Italian rider Riccardo Ricco tested positive for the substance during the Tour.

"I have decided that we will retest — with blood testing — all those who showed up as suspicious during the urine samples," Bordry said by telephone. "When we did the urine samples of those athletes, we had a serious suspicion that there was CERA. The laboratory could not say definitively. The same analysis will be done, but in the blood samples."

Bordry asked for the blood samples to be sent from Lausanne, Switzerland, where they were tested during the Tour.

"All the blood tests have been repatriated to France," Bordry said, adding that they are currently being examined at the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory, outside Paris.

Testing has already begun and could take up to two weeks, Bordry said.

CERA EPO developed as a medical advance -- a molecule large enough not to be sucked out of the kidneys as quickly as the other versions of EPO.  Cyclists thought the new version would go undetectable, however anti-doping agents were apparently almost ready for the drug.

As mentioned, Riccardo Ricco tested positive in the original Tour testing, while several other cyclists have suspicious results.

Bordry also said that Spanish rider Moises Duenas Nevado's "B" sample came back positive for EPO, confirming the original finding.

Also testing positive during the Tour were Manuel Beltran of Spain, for EPO, and Dmitriy Fofonov of Kazakhstan, for a banned stimulant.

Ricco and his teammate Leonardo Piepoli were fired by the Saunier Duval team — which also lost its sponsor.

Even though Piepoli did not test positive, he was released for violation of the team's ethical code. Spanish media later reported that Piepoli had admitted to his team that he took the same form of EPO as Ricco.

French cyclist Jimmy Casper tested positive for a banned steroid, but has since been cleared on grounds that he forgot to renew a prescription for a long-standing asthma problem.

Jamaica Observer trashes Carl Lewis: Ad hominem to the maximun

Poor Carl Lewis.  He simply restates concerns about the new world records in the 100M, 200M, and 4 x 100M relay set by Usain Bolt.  Suddenly he is the butt of the ad hominem attack from a leading Jamaican newspaper, who accuses the Olympic champion and former world record holder of lying:

An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin: "argument to the man", "argument against the man") consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim. The process of proving or disproving the claim is thereby subverted, and the argumentum ad hominem works to change the subject.

It is most commonly used to refer specifically to the ad hominem as abusive, sexist, racist, or argumentum ad personam, which consists of criticizing or attacking the person who proposed the argument (personal attack) in an attempt to discredit tCathe argument. It is also used when an opponent is unable to find fault with an argument, yet for various reasons, the opponent disagrees with it.

Go to the Jamaican Observer to understand the ad hominem attack:

There's a measure of mean-spiritedness being exhibited by a few people in international track and field in relation to Jamaica's outstanding performance and, particularly that of Mr Usain Bolt, at the Beijing Olympic Games.

No sooner had the world slapped down Mr Jacques Rogge for his reprimand of Mr Bolt's celebration on winning the 100 metres in a new world record, we now have the xenophobic US Olympian, Mr Carl Lewis, raising doubts about the authenticity of Mr Bolt's outstanding achievements.

Catch the 'xenophobic' reference?...that's the begging of the ad hominem.  More...

According to a Caribbean Media Corporation report published in last Saturday's Observer magazine, Sporting World, Mr Lewis, in an interview with Sports Illustrated, raised strong doubts about Mr Bolt's performances in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 metres relay - all won in world record times - but cleverly stopped short of accusing the Jamaican sprinter of taking performance-enhancing drugs.

"When people ask me about Bolt, I say he could be the greatest athlete of all time. But to run 10.03 seconds one year and 9.69 the next, if you don't question that in a sport with the reputation it has right now, you're a fool. Period," Mr Lewis was quoted as saying.

Mr Lewis who, in the past, has used his stature as an Olympic champion to oppose the acceptance of Caribbean athletes, particularly Jamaicans, by American colleges, went further to try and smear Jamaica's drug-testing programme.

"Countries like Jamaica do not have a random programme, so they can go months without being tested," he fumed.

Then he delivered what he obviously believed would be regarded as some form of objectivity by saying: "No one is accusing Bolt, but don't live by a different rule and expect the same kind of respect. How dare anybody feel that there shouldn't be scrutiny, especially in our sport."

Lewis's words are certainly not aggressive in accusing anyone of doping. He simply raises the question.  The Observer attempts to answer the question:

In fact, Messrs Bolt and Asafa Powell, as well as other leading Jamaican athletes, have said on more than one occasion that they do not fear being tested at any time. And even before they went into competition in Beijing, they were among the most tested athletes at the games.

In point of fact, Dr Herb Elliott, Jamaica's team doctor who is a member of the IAAF anti-doping commission and a man whose integrity has never been questioned, is on record as saying that he tested Mr Bolt 15 times between last November and December.

That doesn't really answer the 'testing question'.  What are the results?  And Dr. Elliott (right) appears to be a cheerleader for the athletes, not an objective observer.

Now the attack:

All this, of course, exposes Mr Lewis's lies which, we believe, are driven by envy and the fact that his own athletics career - during which he won nine Olympic gold medals - has been shrouded in suspicion.

Sometime ago, one US scribe wrote that Mr Lewis, despite his many triumphs, was never embraced by his country, neither did he become athletics' ambassador.

Probably his latest utterances, though baseless, are an attempt to grab a headline. Poor man.

Lies?  Lies?  What lies?  What suspicion on Lewis?  Good lord, ad hominem to the maximum.

Anyone distracted now?  Jamaica does not have a formal out-of-season testing program (although recent legislation may change this).  From the New York Times:

But Jamaica does not have an independent, out-of-competition testing program for its athletes, nor has it joined the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organization.

Officials from the International Association of Athletics Federations, track and field’s governing body, said they compensated for the country’s lack of testing by flying testers into Jamaica, where the I.A.A.F. conducted more out-of-competition tests than in all but four more populous nations: Russia, Kenya, United States and Greece.

Although no one was accusing Jamaican athletes of doping, many said the country should be doing more to ensure that its premier sport was clean.

“They need a testing program that starts with their juniors if they really want to play,” John Chaplin, the men’s chairman for USA Track & Field, said. “If you test, you will catch.”

Rather than strike back with ad hominem attacks, Jamaica should systematically test their runners.  Until then, expect more criticism.

Carl Lewis questions Jamaican dope testing, and questions Usian Bolt's 100M world records

Always controversial, Carl Lewis now questions the legitimacy of sprinter Usain Bolt's 9.69 100M world record Olympic sprint. From the London Times:

“When people ask me about Bolt I say he could be the greatest athlete of all time. But for someone to run 10.03 one year and 9.69 the next, if you don’t question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you’re a fool. Period.”

Like many others, Lewis pointed to Jamaica’s perceived lack of testing as the foundation for his suspicion. “I’m proud of America right now because we have the best random and most comprehensive drug-testing programme. Countries like Jamaica do not have a random programme, so they can go months without being tested. No one is accusing Bolt, but don’t live by a different rule and expect the same kind of respect. How dare anybody feel that there shouldn’t be scrutiny, especially in our sport?”

As we pointed out several weeks ago, the disparity in testing among countries can be startling.  As the old East German doping machine demonstrated, a clever coach with a good lab can time the use of steroids or other drugs to aid performance, yet avoid detection.  Indeed, recent stories implicate contemporary Jamaican athletes with doping.

Lewis, who was allowed to compete in the 1988 Games in Seoul having been cleared by the IAAF after being accused of testing positive for banned stimulants, said that he was not singling out Bolt and also questioned the performance of Jamaica’s female sprinters. The IOC targeted the Jamaica sprinters for blood-testing when they were in Beijing and none of them tested positive.

Lewis also expressed his anger that Antonio Pettigrew, the American who testified this year to doping when part of the United States Olympic title-winning 4 x 400 metres relay team in 2000, had kept his job as a coach.

However, it is Lewis’s remarks about Bolt that will cause a storm in Jamaica. Herb Elliott, the Jamaica team doctor and a member of the IAAF antidoping commission, accused the US of peddling “condescending crap” at the Olympics. “They still think we don’t know anything down in Jamaica,” he said.

The issue is not what Americans think or do not think about Jamaica, the issue is enforcing integrity in a world that too often cheats.  The tracks records the past 40 years are clearly littered with drug cheating.  It's high time to clean track and field up.

Test the athletes, post the data online, and verify the trust.

Infamous Brazilian swimmer Rebeca Gusmao suspended for life for steroid use

Brazilian swimmer Rebeca Gusmao, winner of several races of note, will now be retiring to civilian life after a life suspension from swimming for chronic anabolic steroid cheating.  Perhaps her skin will clear up now.

The International Swimming Federation belatedly nailed Gusmao, who displayed vividly the acne side effects of 'roids, for testosterone abuse. To the IHT:

The International Swimming Federation on Friday banned Brazilian star Rebeca Gusmao for life for failing two drug tests.

Lawyers for Gusmao say she'll appeal the decision.

In July, Gusmao received a second two-year doping suspension after a positive test for testosterone at a 2006 competition — a decision delayed by problems with the tests.

Gusmao also tested positive for the substance before the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. She won two gold medals at the Pan American Games and was later stripped of the medals.

The photo at the right show Gusmoa before her steroid madness.  She gave the following quote:

“I did not have boyfriends, I was not the parties and nor I cultivated friendships are of the swimming pools. But I am certain of that I was born to be an athlete”, says Rebeca.

Gusmao collected quite a collection of medals on her way to a steroid lifetime ban.  Here is a list of some of the tainted medal acquired before 2004 (note the 'bigger every day quote":

...Rebeca she received gold medals in the 50 and 100 meters free in the Júniores Games from the South Africa. After that, she participated of the Pan de Winnipeg, in Canada. Since then, they had been 91 gold medals, 52 of silver and 33 of bronze in 63 national and international championships. To the 19 years, she is recordista South American Brazilian and of 100 free meters and one of the hopes of medal in Atenas. “I am close to the accomplishment of my bigger dream, but I confess that the fear is each bigger day.”

Gusmao became something of a celebrity in Brazil for the incredible transformation from female athlete to the Incredible Hulk.  You wonder if she added other drugs besides testosterone to her training regimen.  Look at the lower jaw.  Incredible indeed.