Steroid Nation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lenny Dykstra, 'Nails' with steroids, a complete sports and business fraud

EPSN compiled an in-depth story on Ex-Philadelphia Philly, Ex-New York Met Lenny Dykstra once known as 'Nails".  Dykstra was a  hustling aggressive ballplayer in the MLB, but when it was revealed that Nails used steroids to juice up his play, his athletic reputation appeared a a bit rusted.  (commentary at Deadspin)  Now, like other steroid cheats (Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Tim Montgomery) we see his business dealings are also fraudulent.

Fish's article looks at the fraud that is Lenny Dykstra's business 'empire'.  Like the fake stats he juiced up in baseball, Dykstra fraudulently juices up his business acumen, massaging the data to look great, meanwhile he lies, cheats, misrepresents, and defrauds his clients, friends and family.

In case you missed the HBO profile last year or the magazine stories that trumpet Dykstra's business acumen, his life beyond baseball includes acquisitions such as hockey legend Wayne Gretzky's old house ("the best house in the world," Dykstra says) in Thousand Oaks, Calif., which he bought for $18.5 million. He drives a black Rolls Royce Phantom with an extended wheelbase, and hires pilots to fly him around in his Gulfstream II jet...

And after thumbing through a series of lawsuits that stretches from coast to coast and chatting up his business associates, you wonder if this aspiring financial Pied Piper is, indeed, living in a fantasyland. You wonder if the dream, built on glitz and greed in a time of economic uncertainty, is a teetering house of cards. You wonder if anyone this side of Bernie Madoff has ticked off more people -- business partners and family, alike -- than Lenny K. Dykstra.

The lawsuits suggest that one of two things is going on here: Either Lenny hates to pay his bills, or he's a financial train wreck.

Just in the past two years, Dykstra has been the subject of at least 24 legal actions, including 18 since November. Three suits hit the courts on Jan. 29. He's been sued by publishers and print companies, by three different groups of pilots and by a Maryland-based financial and litigation consulting firm that offered expert testimony on his behalf in an earlier lawsuit. He's even been sued by a die-hard Mets fan who was the best man at his wedding 20-some years ago, though that New York investor claims there is no bad blood. 

Dykstra cheated at baseball with steroids and PEDs, and it also appears he cheats at business.  Critical point: look at Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, and Lenny Dystra.  Heck, look at A-Rod too.  These athletes expose serious character flaws that cheat the games, the fans, their competitors, and now their clients.

Those who say illicit steroid and PED use presents no big deal need to answer to the cheating.  The cheaters are consistently flawed and frequently fraudulent.  Sports fraud leads to business fraud leads to personal fraud leads to a wacky moral compass.

Baseball may not be really important or as revered as devotees think.  Then again, ostensibly the sport offers a break from the stress of life...the sport defines itself between the lines where the setting is controlled and the results immediate.  Man v man, like the old days.  However, the cheating and back-stabbing that now takes place daily in the business sphere, is mirrored between the lines.  Great refuge huh?  Human nature, huh?

If Baseball doesn't give a dran about reputation, let the cheaters go on about their way, and we look on the sport as an interesting pastime, kinda like Vegas.  However devotees demand 'integrity'.  Clean up the game and the records if that is the case  From 1990 on there is little  integrity in the game in the 'Steroid Era'.

Dystra's brother turned against him, after the business burns; guess who supplied Nails with Roids:

Kevin Dykstra acknowledges that he briefed investigators for the Mitchell report as well as Major League Baseball security on what he describes as Lenny's use of recreational and performance-enhancing drugs during his playing days. Kevin says he was a source of the drugs for his brother, even after Lenny's baseball career ended.

And here is what the tainted records are worth:

So Dykstra, an assistant and a driver dash out of his office en route to the meeting, carrying plastic-wrapped bundles of The Players Club magazine. Inside the office elevator, Dykstra lifts his right leg like a dog relieving itself -- he retains a degree of the old flexibility -- and farts.

Jocks breaking rocks: Athletes (boosters, trainers) behind bars

Reasononline carries a very nicely researched piece on athletes, boosters, and trainer who walk the line in a prison.  The athletes end up in jail for drug-related offenses, which recently included illegal steroids and PEDs.

 The article sets the stage with the conviction of Logan Young, the 'Bama Booster who bought players for the Crimson Tide:

Before his untimely death in 2006, Logan Young faced six months in federal prison for “conspiracy to commit racketeering” and “crossing state lines to commit racketeering,” both felonies. While those charges made Young sound like a mafioso, his real offense was violating the recruiting rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)...The conviction of Logan Young as “the first college sports booster sentenced to prison essentially for busting NCAA rules” (in the words of ESPN.com’s Mike Fish) is just one example of a disturbing trend: the federal criminalization of private rule breaking in the world of sports.

The authors look at athletes who did time for crimes which include steroid offenses:

Marion Jones:

Former Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones served six months in federal prison last year for making false statements to two grand juries about her personal use of performance-enhancing steroids. As part of a highly unusual plea agreement, unrelated check fraud charges against Jones were dropped in return for her publicly admitting her past steroid use and retiring from the sport...

Barry Bonds:

All-time Major League Baseball (MLB) home run leader Barry Bonds was scheduled to begin trial in March on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, based on his grand jury testimony in a steroid distribution case that closed in 2005 after producing just four minor convictions that netted seven months prison time combined (half as long as Bonds’ personal trainer served behind bars for criminal contempt after refusing to testify about his boss). At press time, yet another federal grand jury was hearing testimony about whether former MLB pitching great Roger Clemens committed perjury when he denied using steroids after being hauled in front of Congress in February 2008.

There are also 'derivative crimes'; as a 'derivative' in finance refers to an instrument that derives value from the underlying entity so do 'derivative crimes.  For instance money laundering, obstruction of justice, racketeering and so on.  Same with jock crimes.

In 1990 Congress added performance-enhancing steroids to its list of banned substances, largely in response to a scandal involving Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his 1988 Olympic gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids. Capitalizing on the public outcry, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) held hearings on doping in sports. McCain threatened to introduce legislation that would take away the autonomy of the U.S. Olympic Committee unless it adopted aggressive anti-doping policies.

The article continues with a lengthy discussion of the BALCO derivative crimes, found after the jump..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Legendary Olympian Gail Devers weighs in on steroids -- crush them

Gail, Devers the legendary Olympic sprinter weighs in on PEDs and steroids, and she doesn't mince words.  According to Devers a 2 year ban is a 'slap on the wrist'.  Report here from Indopia:

Former Olympic and world sprint champion Gail Devers wants drug cheats to be barred from continuing their career in sports and should not given a second chance as is the norm currently.

" There should be zero tolerance to drugs in sports. By zero tolerance I mean that if you are caught (doping) you don't get a second chance and your name gets erased from all records. It's as if you never existed,"said Devers at a media conference here today.

The former American sprint queen, who overcame the debilitating Grave's disease affliction in 1988 before the Seoul Games and went on to pick up the 100m sprint gold four years later in Barcelona and repeated it in 1996 at Atlanta, is here with her family as Brand Ambassador of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon to be held this Sunday.

" Taking (performance-enhancing) drugs is a big no-no. Banning them for two years (for first time offence) is just a slap on the wrist. They can then come back and avail of new technology and continue to cheat. It should not be allowed,"she said."(My wish is) Once caught you are gone and we don't even know you existed anymore", said the 42-year-old mother of two daughters who won the 100m hurdles title too at Barcelona.

 Devers, who won the 100m sprint as well as the 100m hurdles in the 1993 Stuttgart World Championships, described the case of her American successor in sprints, the drug-tainted Marion Jones, as"very sad"."We should not compromise our integrity. We also should educate our children (about drug abuse),"she said.

Strong words, indeed.

Tim Montgomery outlines doping and steroid use that led to Olympic gold medal in Sydney

HBO interviewed Tim Montgomery -- once the world's fastest human -- who admitted to the doping and steroid protocol that promoted him and his teammates to Gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  (Sydney Morning Herald)

ONCE, he was the world's fastest man. Now, in jail for laundering more than $US1.7 million and separately for dealing and supplying heroin, disgraced sprinter Tim Montgomery has been exposed as a golden fraud on the track.

Montgomery, 33, has revealed that at the time of the Sydney Olympics, where he was a member of the triumphant US 4x100 metres relay team, he had been taking a cocktail of banned drugs, including human growth hormone and steroids.

"Prior to the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia, I broke the rules," Montgomery told US television network HBO. "I used testosterone, and then I used GH [human growth hormone] four times a month. I have a gold medal that I'm sitting on that I didn't get with my own ability."

Montgomery focused on that 4x100M relay team, which caused so much controversy in 2000.

But he has now put the international spotlight on that 4x100m relay team - at the time notorious for their posturing, removing their shirts and bragging with their medals - and Montgomery and his teammates are likely to be stripped of their medals, even though the normal seven-year retrospective window has closed. Those who witnessed that bizarre, brash celebration by Jon Drummond, Bernard Williams, Brian Lewis and Maurice Greene - the four who ran in the final - might think the reallocation of the medals would be poetic justice.

Montgomery lost his 100M world record, and now may be losing much much more (his freedom is gone too).

Montgomery has already had his world record 100m time of 9.78 seconds expunged from the record books after his drug links were exposed during the BALCO investigation. But the officials only went back to March 31, 2001. Now, they will go back much further. The US Olympic Committee has already urged Montgomery to return the medal voluntarily. USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said: "He owes it to his sport and to the athletes against whom he competed."

The ex-sprinter knows the consequences of his words...perhaps the loss of one more compliment of medals: Marion Jones and her teammates lost the 4x100 Sydney Olympics relay medals due to PED use, and Michael Johnson's Sydney 4x400 relay team lost medals after Antonio Pettigrew admitted to doping.

(more after the jump, including Montgomery's  words on Conte)

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.

Still Marion Jones gently weeps

I look at the trouble and see that it's raging,
While my guitar gently weeps.
As I'm sitting here, doing nothing but aging,
Still, my guitar gently weeps.
(George Harrison)

Ex-Olympic gold medal winner, convicted perjurer, ex-con, and now not-so-contrite Marion Jones weeps for Argentina herself on Oprah.  (To Bill Livingston of the Cleveland Plain Dealer) (Victor Conte cannot believe Marion Jones 'continues to lie')

Marion Jones appeared on Oprah Winfrey's television show Wednesday. It was a tearful interview, her first after serving time in the slammer for lying about steroid use.

She went to a minimum-security prison in Fort Worth, Texas, for six months because she lied to federal investigators about using steroids. Some say the cover-up was worse than the crime. That's false. By further tainting a drug-plagued sport that needed her to be the symbol of excellence and honor, she almost ruined track and field...

Jones couldn't mask her shame and sorrow Wednesday the way perverted science could mask the reason for her performances.

After her guilty plea came the long slide of the sport into dishonor and irrelevance, as NBC tucked track and field into obscure corners of its programming in 2008.

But in 2000, Marion Jones, powerful, physically attractive, dazzlingly swift, was the smiling, radiant face of track and field. She won three gold medals and two bronze ones.

On the Winfrey show, she still denied knowingly taking Tetrahydrogestrinone, or TGH, an almost undetectable performance-enhancing drug known as "the clear." Unconvincingly, she even forgot her alibi, that she thought it was flaxseed oil, until Winfrey reminded her.

Forgot her alibi?  Sigh....remind Jones and Barry Bonds about Flaxseed oil...

It took a lot of denial in Sydney to think she knew nothing about the activities of her husband in 2000, shot-putter C.J. Hunter. Revelations of his four positive tests for steroid use broke before the heats in the 200 meters, which Jones won. But denial is the stock in trade for a dirty competitor and for fans who love sports.

We have stated Marion Jones was likely led astray by a dishonest coach (Trevor Graham), a drug-cheat husbands, a sport gone awry, and perhaps her own naivete.  Nonetheless, her record is extremely checkered.

Sordid associations can be damning. Jones told Winfrey she knew of no one in the sport's drug subculture. In fact, she worked with a rogues' gallery of them - disgraced coaches Trevor Graham, Charlie Francis and Steven Riddick; her former boyfriend and the father of one of her two children Tim Montgomery; and Victor Conte of the BALCO viper's nest. As long ago as her high-school days, O.J. Simpson's murder-trial lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, got overturned Jones' four-year competition ban for missing a drug test.

She lived a lie for years. She wrote some too in a book called "Life in the Fast Lane." Finally, she came cleaner in 2007 than she had been in years on the track. She told Winfrey, "I didn't love myself enough to tell the truth."

She added, "I could say others who did as much [drugs] did less [jail] time." But some, like Graham, cooperated with investigators. Jones did not.

"I could say it was a bad judge," Jones said. "But it was me."

Of course Jones deceives herself.  We are to believe she didn't know about the injections of insulin, anabolic steroids, and HGH?  Don't think 'self-love' has much to do about drug cheating to gain an inherent advantage.

She sold her soul for fool's gold and the world's acclaim. She wept Wednesday for her children and the shame they will face. Others grieve for the sport, to which she did such damage.

Jones states to Oprah that she didn't need drugs to win.  Then why, Marion, did you dope and lie?

Ex-world record holder Tim Montgomery will be running in place in jail a long time: Given 5 more years on drug charges

Once the world's fastest man, Tom Montgomery today will be facing 5 more years in a US federal penitentiary for drug charges related to heroin distribution.  This should slow him down considerably.  To the BBC:

Disgraced US sprinter Tim Montgomery has been jailed for five years by a court in Virginia for heroin dealing.

The former 100m world record holder had previously pleaded guilty to possessing more than 100 grammes of the drug with intent to distribute it.

He is already serving four years in prison for fraud and conspiracy offences.

Montgomery, 33, was banned from athletics three years ago after he was found to have used steroids.

That ban also saw him stripped of his 100m world record.

Another former sprint champion, Marion Jones - Montgomery's former girlfriend - was implicated in the cheque fraud.

She was sentenced to six months in jail for misleading investigators over the fake cheques.

Montgomery, once Marion Jone's spouse -- father to one of Jones's children -- continues his run through the underworld.  The IAAF stripped Montgomery of the world 100M record after his involvement in the BALCO doping scandal.  And, as mentioned, he is already serving a prison sentence for fraud.

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.”

Victor Conte's new book on BALCO and steroids not quite ready for injection

Victor Conte's new book promises to be an 'inject and tell' thriller about his BALCO days.  Called  "BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports"  Conte plans to expose athletes like Marion Jones and Barry Bonds, as only he can.  Soon to be a major motion picture.  However, the New York Daily News reports a glitch in the Conte  mix.

Nasty legal warfare has broken out over Victor Conte's forthcoming tell-all book about his leading role in the world's biggest steroid conspiracy.

Skyhorse Publishing originally hoped to release "BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion JonesTony Lyons. and What We Can Do To Save Sports" in September, but Conte's book may not hit shelves until 2009, said Skyhorse president

Conte has submitted the manuscript, but the imminent presidential election and other intervening factors have led Skyhorse to reconsider the timing of the book's release.

Intervening factors like defamation suits from athletes who might be named in the book:

Among the factors is an expensive barrage of defamation litigation launched against Conte by boxer Shane Mosley, one of the athletes whose BALCO doping regimens Conte promises to describe in detail, and Mosley's threats to sue the book's publisher.

Mosley's defamation suits have been a "distraction," says Conte, who has promised to retell anecdotes proving Mosley knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and EPO. (Mosley has said he thought BALCO's products were legal.)

Sugar Shane wasn't so sweet on the legal challenge:

In Mosley's corner is the aggressive New York attorney Judd Burstein, who narrowly escaped a hefty court sanction eight years ago for what a federal judge called "Rambo lawyering."

The most recent of Burstein's actions against Conte is a motion filed Wednesday asking a U.S. District Court in California to sanction Conte's defense attorney for submitting what Burstein called an "outrageous and entirely frivolous" motion to recover $75,654 in attorney fees from a defamation suit that Burstein initiated and withdrew.

Burstein showed the Daily News an Aug. 14 e-mail from Lyons in which the publisher floated the idea of canceling Conte's publicity tour and giving Mosley two or three pages in the book to "explain his side of the story."

"This is NOT a firm offer," Lyons wrote.

Burstein rejected Lyons' overtures. He has promised to sue Skyhorse and its insurers.

And you can take all this to the bank.

The Marion Jones chess game: Secretly moved to San Francisco for the Trevor Graham trial

In a very interesting revelation, the New York Times today says that Marion Jones occupied a fine suite in the federal pen near San Francisco, just in case she was called on to testify in the spring Trevor Graham trial.  Queen to King's pawn.

Marion Jones was moved quietly from a Texas penitentiary to the San Francisco Bay Area in May by federal prosecutors who feared that her former track coach, who was on trial for making false statements in connection with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative investigation, would take the stand in his own defense, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Trevor Graham, the former track coach, never took the stand at the trial but if he had, prosecutors were prepared to call Jones in the hope that she would rebut his testimony.

As we know, the government earned a conviction in the Graham trial on one count of the three counts.  However, the prosecutorial team appears to have worried about the verdict, secretly relocating Jones to the Bay Area.

It is often risky for a defendant to take the stand in a criminal trial. But if Graham had decided to testify that he never set his athletes up with drugs, Jones, based on her plea agreement with federal authorities, would have provided a contradictory story.

Jones was one of the biggest stars Graham trained. When she pleaded guilty in October to making false statements about her use of performance-enhancing drugs, she said in court that Graham had provided her with a steroid from September 2000 until July 2001.

Jones, who won a record five medals in track and field at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, which were held in September 2000, said she thought it was flaxseed oil.

Although Jones said in court that she had never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs, her testimony could have proved embarrassing because she would have been open to more questions about her use.

Lucky for Jones, Angel Heredia's somewhat faltering testimony was enough for a conviction; further, Graham did not take the stand in his own defense.

Heredia testified in Graham’s trial that from 1997 to 2000, he provided growth hormone, a blood-enhancing agent and insulin for Jones and advised Graham and Jones’s husband at the time, C. J. Hunter, on their use. Heredia testified that he never talked with Jones directly, but he provided prosecutors with a fax from Graham’s home with Jones’s blood tests.

Testimony by Heredia and a statement by Hunter, which was described at trial by a federal agent, placed Jones’s drug use at least one year earlier than she has acknowledged. In addition, Dennis Mitchell, a sprinter who advised Jones in 1997, testified that Graham had talked with them about performance-enhancing drugs during that year.

The government prosecutors worked on the case long and hard, preparing briefings on Jones to rebut any possible Graham testimony.

Jeff Novitzky, the federal agent leading the steroid investigations, testified under cross-examination that he prepared a 29-page special agent’s summary report on Jones last year. The details and full extent of her involvement with banned drugs have never been made public.

Daniel C. Richman, a professor of law at Columbia University and a former assistant United States attorney, said that prosecutors always wanted to be prepared for the rare circumstance in which a defendant decided to testify.

“In an effort to rebut a defendant’s testimony, the government will often consider calling someone with the kind of baggage that Marion Jones brings to the stand in a last-ditch effort to attack the credibility of the defendant,” Richman said. “The government may also have brought her to the Bay Area just to try and deter Graham from taking the stand.”

Chess game isn't it?

Why is Usain Bolt lightning fast: Drugs, doping, genetics, diet, training, slavery, or the lack of NFL scouts?

A number of journalists, experts, academics, and other contributors chimed in last week as Jamaica's Usain Bolt dominated the track world with 3 gold medals 3 world records, as a ton of electrons and ink discussed his Beijing Olympics performance and antics.  Here are some of the candidates for performance enhancement:

1. Diet: Chicken nuggets, and yams.  (The Mirror)

After the race Bolt gave the credit for his incredible stamina not to a scientific high-protein regime meticulously planned by a team of dieticians - but plenty of chicken nuggets.

He said: "I woke around 11am and decided to watch some TV and had some nuggets.

"Then I slept for a couple of hours more. Then I got some more nuggets and came to the track." Bolt's diet is typical of his laidback attitude summed up by the slogan on his nation's yellow and green strip that reads "Jamaica - No Problem."

Bolt's father gave credit to a childhood diet of yams.  However, Coed magazine says Bolt enjoys a Red Bull and a beer too.

2.  Environment: Train at home (Jamaica) and do not train in the stinking corrupt USA.  The Jamaican Gleaner.

GOOD HOME training - like good home cooking - never hurt anyone. And veteran track coach Dennis 'DJ' Johnson believes that developing track talent in Jamaica is the main reason for the country's remarkable showing at the Beijing Olympics.

Most of Jamaica's successful track athletes at the Games, including triple gold medallist Usain Bolt, train locally. At previous Games, that was not the case; many athletes came up through the college circuit in the United States.

"Here, they have better instruction, we have resources, sponsors," Johnson told The Sunday Gleaner. "The most important thing is, they're home where they're comfortable."

So BALCO shut down those nasty US colleges (no one ever reported BALCO supplied drugs to NCAA athletes).  (Also note Merlene Ottey tested positive for non-BALCO steroids).  Furthermore,  MVP trains athletes outside of Jamaica.

Some of Jamaica's greatest athletes, including Herb McKenley, Donald Quarrie, Bertland Cameron, Merlene Ottey, Juliet Cuthbert, Grace Jackson and Deon Hemmings, came up through the competitive US college ranks.

But, Johnson pointed out, the stench of drugs in American athletics has alienated sponsors and administrators in that country.

"Track and field in the (United) States is not what it used to be. The drug thing has scared a lot of the colleges," Johnson said...

Traditional track powerhouses like San José State (Johnson's alma mater), University of Oregon, University of Nebraska (Ottey's old school) and New York Tech have either shut down or scaled back their programmes in the aftermath of the BALCO drug scandal that resulted in bans for high-profile athletes like Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

3.  Doping: Speaking of BALCO, Victor Conte suspects something fishy in those Island runners:

On December 12, 2007, I advised WADA's Dick Pound to routinely send disguised drug testers to Jamaica, and to begin doing so immediately. I had received information about a specific drug supplier - WADA received this person's name, address and phone number - who was allegedly working with elite track athletes. I also explained to Pound the importance of "offseason" testing and that testing at competitions is ineffective. The offseason is when athletes use anabolic steroids in conjunction with intensive weight training and develop the explosive strength base that serves them throughout the competitive season.

Bolt and the Jamaicans claim (complained) they have been extensively drug tested...at the Olympics Games.  Note that Jamaica didn't have  national drug agency until days ago.

(More on the Jamaican Need for Speed after the jump:  Genetics, Slavery, and Choice of sport.  However we would note that the doping controversy will continue until the IAAF and the IOC actually schedule the tests (including random off-season testing), then publish the results for all competitors..which won't eliminate the untestable drugs like HGH)

USA government hands off Marion Jones from a Fort Worth prison to a San Antonio community center

Marion Jones is being relayed from the federal pen in Fort Worth to a more community based center in San Antonio.  Interesting that Jones's transfer occurs during the last few days of the 2008 Olympics.  Existentialists may reflect on the paradox that 8 years ago Jones enjoyed absolute adulation in Sydney during the 2008 Olympics. 

Over the course of her years she passed around 160 doping tests with only one 'A' sample positive.  Jones steadfastly denied use of performance enhancing drugs for years, even initiating lawsuits against accusers like Victor Conte.  However Jones apparently used anabolic steroids, HGH, insulin, T3, and EPO.

In the performance intensive world of Olympic sports we should all keep Jones's progression in mind, when thinking if certain athletes dope or use steroids.  In 2008 how many adults would have said Marion Jones was a doper?  To the AP.

Former U.S. track star Marion Jones has been moved from a federal prison in Fort Worth and will serve the remainder of her sentence in San Antonio.

The disgraced Olympic star was sentenced to six months in prison in January for lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and a check-fraud scam.

Jones also was ordered to do 400 hours of community service in each of the two years following her release.

Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley says Jones was transferred to a community corrections center in San Antonio on Tuesday.

The Dallas Morning News reported Friday the transfer is part of the process toward the Sept. 5 scheduled release of Jones. She entered prison in early March.

President Bush has not acted on requests, on behalf of Jones, to commute her sentence.

Jones repeatedly denied that she used performance-enhancing drugs, then admitted last October she lied to investigators in November 2003.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Steroids Dose

1.  Marion Jones wants to be forgiven for her sins; asks President Bush for pardon.  (AP)

2.  Editorial says media only cares about character if someone like Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens is involved, but not themselves.  (Red Orbit)

3.  New book on Don Catin's sleuthing out of Aranesp in 2002:  The Night Olympic Team.  (Market Watch)

4.  Inhaler helps triathlete breathe easier.  (NY Times)

5.  The Media figured out Katerina Thanou on Greek Olympic team (SI)

6.  Despite the taint currently over track, Gay, Powell, and Bolt look to pour excitement into the Beijing 100M.  (RTE Sport)

7.  Ex-White Sox slugger Eric Soderholm, ex-Cubs catcher Randy Hundley and pitcher Bill Campbell spoke to a "History of Baseball" class at Harper College: say no asterisk for Barry Bonds's Hall of Fame baseball.  (Daily Harald)

8.  Ukrainian boxer given the boot after doping violation.  (Independent ie)

9.  Tour de France leader Frank Schleck and his CSC team surprised by dope testing.  (Dallas Star-Telegraph)

Trevor Graham receives the ban of a lifetime.

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

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

To IHT:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Graham was nailed with these offenses:

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

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

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

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

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

Katerina Thanou is no Dara Torres: makes Greek Olympic team on 'B' standard

Katerina Thanou, now age 33, appears to have 'earned' a place on the Greek Olympic roster despite her checkered past.  The Guardian carries the story.  (photo of Sydney cheats at the left)

Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou, who was banned for two years after a doping scandal on the eve of the Athens 2004 Olympics, has made the team for next month's Games and could travel to Beijing, officials said on Tuesday.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) included Thanou in the Greece squad after she finished fifth in a 100 metres race on the island of Crete late on Monday with a time of 11.39 seconds.

Unlike Torres, who at 41 is swimming fast than she ever swam in younger years, Thanou sprints significantly slower times now.  Thanou's pr was set in 1999 at 10.93.  She finished second to Marion Jones first after Marion Jones DQ in Sydney at 11.12.  Her qualifying time of 11.39 seems pedestrian in 2008.  Does she require better 'supplements'? (another pic to the right; many of these female sprinters look heavily 'testosterone' at the time of peak competition)

Thanou's much celebrated berated 2004 Olympic tryst when she failed to show up for dope testing, then allegedly lied about an motor vehicle accident.  She and Greek male sprinter Costas Kenteris went through bans, reinstatement, trials (for lying), pleas, who who knows what else.

"She has made the B time for the team so she is on it," Greece's chef de mission Isidoros Kouvelos told reporters during the preliminary squad presentation.

The B time is the lower qualification mark that if beaten by another Greek athlete in the same discipline would force Thanou out of the team, although that is highly unlikely.

Whether Thanou, who also won the 100m silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Games, will travel to Beijing was unclear.

"Officially, she has now made the team but we do not yet know if she wants to go to Beijing," an HOC official said on condition of anonymity. "Her statements so far have not helped clear up her intentions," he told Reuters.

Hey take the free trip to China, and get in some sightseeing, but don't crash your scooter, Katrina.

Thanou and fellow sprinter Costas Kenteris were at the heart of the biggest Olympic doping scandal in years when they missed a drugs test and then allegedly crashed on their motorcycle hours before the Athens Games opening ceremony.

Thanou joins several Americans like Torri Edwards who once served a doping ban, but now show up to display that Olympic spirit of fairness.

Just who is the world's fastest woman...clean woman? Christine Arron?

A rambling discourse in the Times Online discusses women sprinters.  The article delves into Dwain Chambers, Flo-Jo and Flo-Jo's daughter, Christine Arron, and Marion Jones.  We will try to look at the Flo-Jo Christine Aron connection.

About 10 years ago Flo-Jo (Florence Griffith-Joyner) died secondary to a brain anomaly leading to a seizure, leading to aspiration.  Writers try to make a case for the deleterious effects of steroids or HGH, however that is likely to be an un-winnable argument.

Flo-Jo holds the world womens 100M record with an incredible 10.49.  That 10.49 stands well above any other effort on the track, thus leading to the PEDs speculation;  a wind-aid may be more important than steroids with that particular time.

In fact, the most illegal aspect of Griffith-Joyner's 100 metres that record-breaking day in the 1988 United States Olympic trials in Indianapolis was probably the wind. Or the faulty wind gauge. But even if we eradicate her work on that windy day in the quarter-finals on the Saturday, she would still have smashed the record in the semi-finals on the Sunday. And then done it again in the final. It was a handy weekend's work. They say that records are there to be broken, but that 10.49sec in the 100 metres is a stand-out exception. No one has come close. If you could line up the fastest women of all time in their fastest performances, “Flo-Jo” and her signature painted fingernails would be through the finish line more than a metre ahead of the rest. Next in line would be Marion Jones (10.65).

Marin Jones's career is clearly tainted.  Eliminate that 10.65.  Who is next in line with a low 100M time?  Christine Arron.  Might Arron be the world's fastest human female?

For it is exceedingly likely that Christine Arron, a French sprinter of particular elegance, is the fastest woman of all time. Arron will never be fêted for it, she will never earn the kickbacks from it and she will never be able to rewind to her European Championships triumph in Budapest in 1998 and go through the line to see with astonishment that her time, 10.73.

Might a 10.73 be the world's clean record?  Is Flo-Jo's 10.49 tainted?

We could start with the allegation in Stern, the German magazine, from another American sprinter, Darrell Robinson, that she (Flo-Jo) had once asked him to get her some human growth hormone. And that would just be the prologue. So it is a pretty good punt that Arron is the fastest clean woman ever. The flaw here, of course, is that we cannot know for sure that Arron is clean, but she has a physique that suggests that she is natural and, for a decade, she has run times that consistently leave her on the edge of the big-money pool. The dopers tend to dive right in.

Does Arron believe she is the Queen of the 100m?  Yes.  Arron takes on the 2nd place women, Jones:

    The strongest evidence in her favour, though, may be that she (Arron) is bitter as hell, as an interview in L'Equipe, the French magazine, at the start of the year made clear. On the realisation that Jones was going to serve a prison sentence, Arron said that the American deserved her fate. “She has lied for years,” Arron said. “She treated everyone as idiots. I'm not choked she is going to jail. Many people criticised me because I was always the one who lost in the Jones-Arron battle, even if I had very good results. We started running together in 1997. She has stolen my best years. Everything could have been different for me.”

Arron's "done with that guy".   And now Flo-Jo:

    On Griffith-Joyner, Arron long ago questioned her world record. The L'Equipe interviewer asked her if it was “malicious gossip” to suggest that the 100 metres record is hers by right. “Malicious gossip, no. Why?” she replied. “It is a very strange feeling. Deep in my heart I think, ‘Yes, I am probably the girl who ran the fastest and cleanly.' But there are two other girls better than me and we can't delete their records. It is very hypocritical. Although I will never get recognition, that would have made a difference for me.

So Arron believe she set the world's fastest female 100M.  As well she might -- clean.

(one more thought after the jump)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(more controversy after the jump)

Daily Steroids Dose, July 4th Edition

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

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

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

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

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

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

EPO doping tests questioned: Just when you thought it was safe

A very disturbing New York Times piece cited research to be published in Blood (oops goofed that one up) the Journal of Applied Physiology, that questioned the effectiveness of EPO testing.  Give 8 athletes EPO and how many will test positive: ZERO (this is wrong; Lab A found all 8 tested positive for EPO; Abstract here).  It looks like the Times did not exactly get the analysis correct.

Athletes who want to cheat by injecting themselves with a performance-enhancing drug that boosts their blood cell count can do so with little risk of getting caught, a new study indicates, possibly exposing another flaw in what is regarded as the world’s toughest anti-doping program.

A urine test that is supposed to detect the drug, and that will be used in the Tour de France next month and in the Olympics in August, is likely to miss it, the study says. The substance, recombinant human erythropoietin, known as EPO, stimulates bone marrow to speed up production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. And with more blood cells, endurance athletes like cyclists and distance runners can perform better.

"Likely to miss" EPO doping is like saying we are all likely to run at a speed a bit less than the speed of light.

We know Marion Jones used EPO, and was only positive on an 'A' sample.

Although athletes have said EPO is in widespread use, few have tested positive. Most of the athletes who have been linked to doping in recent years have been caught not through drug testing, but rather through criminal investigations. In the August 2006 issue of the journal Blood, the American lab accredited to conduct EPO testing reported only 9 positive tests out of 2,600 urine samples.

The new study may help explain why: the test simply failed.

Oh yeah, the test failed...spectacularly in Lab B if the Times is to be believed.  However when we read the study, actually Lab A found all 8 EPO users to be positive, and Lab B found 7 samples to be 'suspicious'.

The study, to be published Thursday in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, was conducted last summer and fall by a renowned lab in Denmark, the Copenhagen Muscle Research Center. The investigators gave eight young men EPO and collected urine samples on multiple occasions before, during and after the men were doping. The men’s urine samples were then sent to two labs accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and EPO tests were requested.

The first lab found some samples positive and a few others suspicious. (A suspicious result does not bring sanctions for doping.) The lab also declared a sample positive, although the man had stopped taking the drug and it should have been gone from his urine. His previous urine sample, obtained when he was taking EPO, was negative in this lab’s test.

The second lab did not deem any urine sample positive for EPO and found only a few to be suspicious. The two labs did not agree on which samples were suspicious.

The anti-doping agency’s rules say that if an athlete’s urine shows traces of EPO, it must be tested again by a different accredited lab. The athlete is declared guilty of doping only if the second lab also detects EPO. By that rule, none of the subjects would have been charged with using EPO, even though their red blood cell counts rose and their performances on an endurance test improved.

Dr. Don Catlin uttered a conservative invective.  Something along the line of '*#@&%@# that worthless test" would have been more appropriate.

“The paper certainly is an eye-opener,” said Don Catlin, the chief executive of Anti-Doping Research, a nonprofit group in Los Angeles. “It’s quite remarkable.”

Charles Yesalis was a bit more pessimistic:

The findings in the latest study should be no surprise, said Charles E. Yesalis, a professor of sports science at Pennsylvania State University. For decades, he said, anti-doping authorities have claimed they have tests that work and for decades athletes have been taking drugs without getting caught.

The anti-doping authorities, he said, “remind me of little boys whistling in the graveyard.”

So here is where we are at with weeks to go before the Tour de France and the Beijing Olympics: the EPO doping test appears to be an utter failure at detecting EPO doping.   Disconcerting.

BALCO player Kelli White achieves MBA degree

Two runners tied together by BALCO PED drug  cheating traveled separate paths.  One - Marion Jones -- serves time in jail for lying to investigators; the other -- Kelli White -- graduated from with a MBA.  The Denver Post looks at them:

In meetings less than a week apart in 2004, officials of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency confronted sprinters Marion Jones and Kelli White with documentary evidence of their doping.

Jones chose to fight, calling USADA a "kangaroo court." She vowed to sue. White admitted her wrongdoing and chose to help USADA in its fight against performance-enhancing drugs.

"I have not only cheated myself, but also my family, friends and sport," White said after accepting her punishment, a two-year suspension in 2004 for using erythropoietin (EPO), anabolic steroids and modafinil (a stimulant) that ultimately led to her retirement. "If I can make a difference in cleaning up the sport, then I will have done more for the sport than anything I could have done on the track."

The evidence against Jones and White came from files seized when Victor Conte's Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) was raided in 2003. USADA obtained the files from the Senate Commerce Committee.

Today, Jones is serving a six-month prison sentence for lying to investigators. White, meanwhile, works in marketing for a California shopping center and received an MBA last month.

White, sucked into Victor Conte's operation, won races, big races, however also went down with the ship:

White won the 100 and 200 meters at the 2003 world championships, at which she tested positive for a stimulant. Two weeks later, the BALCO offices near San Francisco were raided.

"I knew it wasn't fair," White said of doping. "I knew other girls were doing things. That was never a secret. Everyone knew people were doing things. You can look at our bodies and tell. It just wasn't fair — what I had (from BALCO) was so great, and people were fighting, trying to get into BALCO. I felt guilty."

White weighed the humiliation of publicly admitting what she had done against the stress of stonewalling when she knew she was guilty.

"I took some time to think: Do I want the world to know this information?" White said. "I said, I think it's best for me and my sanity — and the situation I'm in, where there's so many people who know what was going on — why continue to lie?"

White has no hard feelings for USADA. "USADA is doing their job, and you have to respect that," she said.

She also declines to criticize Jones.  "I can't judge anybody," White said.

White documents the side effects of the anabolic steroids:

White said she continued to use steroids despite suffering adverse side effects. Her menstrual cycles were disrupted and her blood pressure was highly elevated.

"My voice was getting very raspy, starting to change a little bit, to the point where people were always asking me if I was sick," White said.

Now it's all passed, and she moved on...while some others haven't?

 

Antonio Pettigrew to return Olympic gold medal; Barry Bonds next?

Eight years later, and only after a federal investigation exposed the cheating, Olympic track star Antonio Pettigrew made the moral decision to return the tainted gold medal he won in the 400 x 4 relay at the Sydney Olympics.  (CNN with the story)

Don't hold your breath Barry Bonds gives back some home runs, or Roger Clemens returns a couple world series rings.

Former U.S. sprinter Antonio Pettigrew will return the Olympic relay gold medal he won in 2000 after admitting to doping during the Sydney Games.

During last month's trial involving former athletics coach Trevor Graham, Pettigrew came clean about using EPO and human growth hormone from 1997 to 2003.

Graham was found guilty of lying to federal investigators about his relationship to a steroids dealer.

Pettigrew's decision to give up the gold for the 4x400-meter relay was expected, considering his testimony in the Graham trial.

After brief negotiations with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the agreement was made public. Pettigrew gave back the medal and all the other prizes he'd earned since 1997, including world championships in the 4x400 relays in 1997 and 1999.

Interesting that Pettigrew returned medals won since 1997.  Although this decision appears a moral choice, remember that it took a drug investigation and a perjury trial to bring to light the PED cheating.

The 40-year-old assistant track coach at University of North Carolina also accepted a two-year ban from athletics, though that point is largely symbolic given his age. He retired from track in 2002.

Pettigrew's decision came a day after one of his relay teammates at the Sydney Olympics, Michael Johnson, said he would voluntarily give his medal back in the wake of Pettigrew's testimony.

"I feel cheated, betrayed and let down," Johnson wrote in a column in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph.

IOC officials said they will seek official verification of Pettigrew's admission and wait for the International Association of Athletics Federations to nullify the U.S. gold medal result.

After that, the IOC could officially disqualify the team and strip all the medals.

Will the Nigerian team be upgraded to the gold, once the Americans abdicate the thrown?

 The IOC would then also consider whether to upgrade the Nigerian team, which finished second, to the gold medal. Jamaica is in line to be bumped up to silver and the Bahamas to bronze.

"Disqualifation of those who have admitted (doping) is one thing," IOC vice president Thomas Bach said in Athens, Greece. "Redistribution of medals to other people is another issue."

The IOC must act soon to get within the eight-year statute of limitations rule. The Sydney Olympics started on Oct. 1, 2000.

So now 3 of 4 sprinter on that 4 by 400 team have admitted to cheating:

 Pettigrew's testimony means that three of the four runners from the U.S. relay team in the 2000 Olympic finals have been tainted by drugs.

Twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison both were suspended for doping violations. Alvin Harrison accepted a four-year ban in 2004 after admitting he used performance enhancers. Calvin Harrison tested positive for a banned stimulant in 2003 and was suspended for two years. Like Pettigrew, they were coached by Graham.

American track: taking quite a hit lately due to the PED cheating of a few...Putting the 'i' in illicit.

 

Daily Steroid Dose

1.  Great run-down of the Trevor Graham trial (and much more on this site, which is one of the best on the Web) (Science of Sport)

2.  Myth busting on Oscar Pistorius (Science of Sport)

3.  Jim Rice says steroids tainted baseball, but players are cleaner now. (Watertown Daily Times)

4.  Big Brown's human partners are just a bit sleezy  (SI Live)

New 100M world record: Usain Bolt sprints into controversy

Might is be possible that a sprinter delivers two of the fastest three 100M times in his only 5 100M races, running clean?  Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt faces that controversy following his world record time over the weekend, prompting papers like the New York Times to raise the issue.  Bolt ran an incredible 9.72 100M in New York, lowering the world record previously held by Asafa Powell.  (Link to Bolt's WRs 100/200 at the Olympics; get some Kryptonite)

When Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a world record of 9.72 seconds at 100 meters Saturday night, two questions became urgent:

Was the supporting tailwind legal?

Was Bolt himself legal?

Track and field has become so compromised by doping that any startling performance brings immediate suspicion. Even before the race at the Reebok Grand Prix meet on Randalls Island, Bolt and his top challenger, the 2007 world champion Tyson Gay, faced inevitable questions from reporters about performance-enhancing drugs. The pre-race inquiries have become as routine as the postrace drug screens.

Who to trust?  Some of the biggest marquee names in track and field now call prison home.  Almost every star of the past 25 years faces questions about his/her legitimacy.  Is this Bolt from the blue legitimate?

Bolt has denied taking performance-enhancing drugs and has not failed a drug test. Yet, his coach acknowledges, it will be impossible for Bolt to avoid skepticism given the sport’s clouded history. A number of Olympic champions, world champions and record holders have been stripped of their sprint medals, records and reputations, including Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, Tim Montgomery and Kelli White. And now Maurice Greene, too, has come under increased scrutiny, though he faces no formal charges.

“We know questions are inevitable given the revelations in the sport,” said Glen Mills, who coaches Bolt. “But that doesn’t trouble us for two reasons. One, there is a thing called conscience. Two, Usain doesn’t even want to take vitamin C. We know he is as clean as a whistle.”

Interesting that Ben Johnson cast serous doubt on modern track records -- except his of course (Daily Mail)

The irony is not lost on Johnson that Bolt came out of nowhere in the week he blew the lid off the extent of the steroids culture in athletics.

The exclusive interview Big Ben granted me in his adopted Canada sent seismic shockwaves through the Olympic movement just weeks before the Beijing Games, claiming that virtually all the top athletes use drugs...

Ben Johnson: 'Whatever anyone says about me and steroids, I would never have done that, never have risked the damage that could do to your body.'...

There are echoes of Johnson's claim in these pages on Saturday that the Americans set him up in Seoul, lacing his drink with a near-lethal dose of one steroid he never used because they knew he would beat their own Carl Lewis to gold.

Few realists - never mind the cynics - will doubt that Johnson is justified in denouncing 'virtually all the top runners' as drugs cheats. Athletics, tainted as it is by those suspicions, will pray that its new 100m world record holder is as innocent as he seems.

Modern athletic records appear so tainted, that any lowering of world track marks (or raising of home run record totals) will raise eyebrows that someone is beating the dope testers.  And so it goes (evidence that Bolt is a clean prodigious talent after the jump...)

Trevor Graham: BALCO liar liar pants on fire...who's next?

Trevor Graham -- "the original whistle blower in BALCO"  --  was convicted of being one more liar (pants on fire) in the BALCO investigation today. 

Graham lit the BALCO fire by throwing an anonymous syringe on Victor Conte's steroid kindling in 2003.  As the track and field, baseball, and steroid-dealing worlds blew up during the BALCO probes and trials, several participants appeared to be less than truthful including Tammy Thomas, and now Trevor Graham...are you listening Barry Bonds? (AP Update late afternoon)

The jury convicted Graham on one count of the charges, with a mistrial on 2 others.  To the AP:

Track coach Trevor Graham was found guilty Thursday of one count of lying to federal investigators about his relationship to a steroids dealer.

Jurors could not reach a verdict on two other counts.

Graham, who coached former star sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, is the second person from the BALCO doping scandal to be convicted at trial. Former elite cyclist Tammy Thomas was found guilty of lying to a federal grand jury when she denied taking steroids.

Graham was charged with three counts of lying to two IRS agents about his relationship with Angel "Memo" Heredia — a Laredo, Texas, discus thrower who bought performance-enhancing drugs in Mexico and sold them to many star track athletes.

Graham's official pronouncements appear to differ with the subject views of others involved in the business.  For example:

In an interview in North Carolina in June 2004, Graham denied setting up his athletes with drugs obtained from Heredia, said he never met Heredia in person and that he last contacted Heredia by phone in about 1997.

The jurors convicted Graham on the charge relating to the phone calls, but a mistrial was declared on the other two. Prosecutors, who can retry Graham on those charges, had no comment on their next move.

However, there is the public service side of Coach Graham:

Graham's attorney William Keane portrayed his client as "the original whistleblower in BALCO" who later was made a scapegoat. In 2003, Graham anonymously sent the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency a vial of "the clear," a then undetectable steroid.

Prosecutors countered that Graham only sent the vial because he was "diming out another drug dealer."

Investigators traced the vial back to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and used that information to help determine the company was distributing performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes.

The federal government steroids probe has ensnared a number of athletes, including home run king Barry Bonds. Investigators are also looking into whether pitcher Roger Clemens lied when he told Congress he never used performance-enhancing drugs.

Graham is the latest BALCO figure to be convicted. Others, including Jones and BALCO founder Victor Conte, have pleaded guilty to various charges of perjury, drug and money laundering charges.

Jones is serving a six-month prison sentence, and Montgomery recently was sentenced to four years after pleading guilty to writing bad checks. He also faces heroin distribution charges.

Any comments from former San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds, who is next up on the BALCO docket?

Preliminary reports on Trevor Graham verdict indicate deadlock on 2 counts as of Thursday night

Reports from the AP leaked out of the Trevor Graham trial indicating the jury leans toward 'convicting' Graham on one count, however remains deadlocked on others. To the AP:

Federal jurors deliberating the fate of track coach Trevor Graham reached a verdict Wednesday on one of three counts that he lied to investigators probing steroid use in sports, but told the judge they are "hopelessly deadlocked" on the other two.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston read the panel instructions for a deadlocked jury and sent it back for further deliberations. Less than an hour later, the 12-person jury wrapped up their first full day of deliberations without coming to a conclusion on the other counts.

Interesting development considering the testimony presented in the media appeared to be convincing that Graham was an enabler of doping and steroid abuse from way back.

The jury was set to resume deliberations Thursday.

"I don't think the amount of deliberations so far is sufficient for the jury to be deadlocked," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Finigan told the judge before she read the instructions.

The jurors began deliberations late Tuesday afternoon, meeting for about an hour before going home. Defense attorney William Keane objected to the reading of the instructions, saying they had deliberated long enough.

Graham is charged with three counts of lying to two IRS agents about his relationship with Angel "Memo" Heredia, a Laredo, Texas, discus thrower who bought performance-enhancing drugs in Mexico and sold them to many star track athletes.

In an interview in North Carolina in June 2004, Graham denied setting up his athletes with drugs obtained from Heredia, said he had never met Heredia in person and that he last contacted Heredia by phone in about 1997.

The jurors told Illston they reached an unanimous verdict on the charge relating to the phone calls but were deadlocked on the other two. If they are unable to reach a verdict on those, prosecutors can choose to retry Graham on those charges regardless of whether he is acquitted or convicted of the third charge.

The juror's 3 questions to the judge after the jump:

Not all Trevor Graham's athletes doped: No Country for Clean Athletes, Duane Ross

Last week before the Memorial Day break, the Trevor Graham BALCO/perjury trial in San Francisco chilled track and field fans as the athletes spun tales of EPO, HGH, and other hormonal PEDs  However, one athlete appeared clean above the fray --  Duane Ross.  Ross appears notable for two reasons: he ignored the Graham dope pushing, and he didn't win big.  The Telegraph tells the story:

Although the charge focuses on his alleged dealings with Heredia, five of Graham's former athletes testified last week about life inside his camp. They said the regime's pressure to dope was allegedly so intense, it was almost impossible to stay clean. One of the witnesses was Duane Ross

Ross is not one of the star names of athletics. He was what Americans call a "stand-out athlete" as a student, just like Harry, but his best result as a senior was in the 110m hurdles at the 1999 World Championships, where he won bronze. Perhaps that's because he didn't do as he was allegedly told.

Ross said he knew that when the packages of unmarked vials started arriving from an address in Texas to his home in 1998, he was meant to inject them in his buttocks. Instead, he stashed them under his kitchen sink.

Interesting -- Ross did not use everything except the kitchen sink.  Other Graham coached athletes like Marion did use plenty of hormonal performance boosters.

Marion Jones and others in the camp were not, according to the evidence in court, so reluctant. Jones's particular tipple was EPO for endurance, human growth hormone (HGH) for strength, and insulin to help the HGH work more efficiently.

Antonio Pettigrew, the 1991 400m world champion, also injected EPO and HGH and was amazed by his "incredible times" in training.

The story leads to Grahams coaching of the young athlete, which included counseling about PEDs he needed to use to lower his time, and to become competitive at an elite level.  Graham knew how to beat the dope testers too.

Calls from dope dealer Angel Heredia followed.  Packages arrived, that went unopened.  As Ross ignored the dope, Graham started ignoring the athletes.  No Country for Clean Athletes...original piece continue after the jump.

Blueprint for running sub-10 100M: HGH and EPO

Coach Trevor Graham's sprinting prodigies seem to be running the ex-coach down these days.  Or perhaps they are running on empty.

During the Graham perjury trial Thursday and Friday, former sprinters like Dennis Mitchell provided insight into Graham's coaching technique: use HGH and EPO.  Lance Williams give his insight from the SF Chronicle:

Three former stars of Trevor Graham's world-renowned Sprint Capitol track club accused their onetime coach Thursday of helping them to become drug cheats.

In somber, sometimes halting testimony in Graham's trial on charges of lying about distributing banned drugs, sprinters Antonio Pettigrew, Jerome Young and Dennis Mitchell - each a former U.S. champion, each a winner of Olympic gold medals - told similar stories.

The three athletes claimed Graham had advised them to use human growth hormone, steroids and the blood doping product EPO - drugs the coach allegedly guaranteed would kick their performance to a higher level.

Very damning testimony.  Doubt there will be much talk that Heredia isn't a credible witness anymore.  This testimony further corroborates the rather tawdry collusion Graham's operation became.

"If you want to run 9-8 (9.8 seconds), you need to do these things," Mitchell, four-time U.S. 100-meter champion and winner of three medals at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, quoted Graham as saying.

The coach said drugs "would help me compete," testified Young, twice the U.S. 400-meter champion and a relay gold medalist in the 2000 Olympics.

The three said their coach referred them to his drug connection - Angel "Memo" Heredia of Laredo, Texas, who earlier told the jury in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that he had often bought steroids in Mexico and express-mailed them to Graham and his athletes.

The former track stars also claimed Graham had monitored their drug use and its effects. Pettigrew, four-time U.S. champion in the 400 meters and also a relay gold medalist at the 2000 games, testified that Graham would quiz him on whether he was "taking what he needed." Mitchell claimed Graham had injected him with growth hormone on two occasions.

The more testimony comes out, the greater the depth of Trevor Graham's involvement in doping his athletes: Advised the athletes; connected the athletes with the steroids dealer; monitored the drugs and the doses, and injecting the athletes.  Why didn't Graham just put the drugs on his Master-card too?

(more after the break

Who's who in the Trevor Graham BALCO perjury trial

A brief look at some of the track and Olympic cast of shady characters who won tainted glory for the US track team in Olympic games and world championships.  This cast appears dirtier than an old cinder track.

Marion Jones: arguably the greatest female tack track athlete of the past decade.  After denying PED use for years, she is now serving hard time in a Texas prison for lying about PED use to federal investigators.

 

Tim Montgomery: Once world record holder in the 100M dash, he was recently sentenced to hard time for a fraud scheme, and was recently arrested on heroin charges.  The IAAF stripped Montgomery's world record like a thief would strip an old car when his BALCO connection became public.

 

Trevor Graham: coach of elite track athletes at Sprint Capital USA in North Carolina.  Should have been 'Dope USA' considering the athletes he coached now enshrined in either the doping hall of fame, or federal prison or both.

 

Andrew Pettigrew: owner of several 4x400 gold medals (see below), now a coach at University of North Carolina.  Hired for his vast knowledge of sprinting, and perhaps vast experience with HGH and EPO.

 

CJ Hunter: once husband of Marion Jones, was one more Olympic thrower who doped.  He got caught.  Hunter left the Sydney Olympics in disgrace (he says to cover for then wife Marion).  Hunter implicated Graham in doping as far back as 2005.

 

Angel "Memo" Heredia: in the word's of the SF Chronicle's Gwen Knapp: Heredia, the Mexican athlete-turned-dealer-turned-witness, got help with a work visa in the United States because of his testimony. His most relevant remark on the case came not in court, but in an interview with the Sunday Times of London:  "Conte was sent to jail, I don't know what is going to happen to me, but I could go to jail, too. But I can tell you, nothing is going to stop. Athletes are still going to South Africa to train; they're still doping."

Jerome Young: (ESPN)    Young, the 2003 world champion in the 400 meters, was banned for life last year by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency following a second doping offense. He tested positive for EPO at a Paris meet in July 2004. He is believed to be the first sprinter to test positive for EPO, popular with endurance runners and cyclists.  Young's 4x400 Gold in Sydney remains controversial. The other members of the 4x400 team retained their gold medals on appeal (how ironic) while Young lost his.  Multiple positives for things like nandrolone.

 

Dennis Mitchell: (from the USAToday): Young ran in the opening heat and semifinal round of the relay in the 2000 Olympics. Michael Johnson anchored the team in the final to win the last of his 14 Olympic and world championship gold medals. Other members of the team were Antonio Pettigrew, Angelo Taylor, and twin brothers Alvin and Calvin Harrison. 

Justin Gatlin:  Another world record holder in the 100M, this Tennessee sprinter tested positive at a Kansas meet in 2006 for testosterone, a finding which completely baffles him (SI).  His early career mysterious positive for a stimulant, led to an another apparently baffling 4 year suspension from track.  Gatlin wants back in for the 2008 Olympics, which may have motivated him to record damning phone conversations with his old coach Graham.  That's probably not going down well at the Sprint Capital USA/Trevor Graham reunion parties in the future.

Twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison (USA Today): The Harrisons also were punished in subsequent doping cases. Alvin Harrison agreed to a four-year ban after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency obtained doping evidence from the U.S. Senate. Calvin Harrison, who still had a 1993 doping positive on his record, tested positive for modafinil in 2003 and was banned for two years

Heredia testimony says Trevor Graham wanted Marion Jones's doping to be 'untraceable': HGH, EPO, and Slin

In the last bit of intrigue/corruption, Angle "Memo" Heredia continue testimony at the Trevor Graham/BALCO perjury trial in San Francisco today.  The juiciest bit of testimony today discussed Marion Jones's Sydney 2000 Olympics doping regimen: EPO, HGH, and insulin.  This corroborates what "Game of Shadow's wrote concerning the  disgraced Jones.  (from the AP)  The courtroom also heard the charges unfold against other USA Olympians such as Tim Montgomery.

An admitted steroids dealer testified Wednesday that he set up Marion Jones with a three-drug cocktail of banned substances to boost her bid to win five medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Angel "Memo" Heredia said he mailed the oxygen-boosting EPO, growth hormone and insulin to Jones at the behest of her then-coach Trevor Graham, who faces federal charges of lying to federal agents about his relationship with Heredia. Graham has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Heredia testified for the second day at Graham's trial that, at the coach's behest, he also sold banned drugs to Olympic gold medal sprinters Antonio Pettigrew, Jerome Young, Tim Montgomery and Dennis Mitchell. Elite runners Ramon Clay, Duane Ross and Garfield Ellenwood also were customers, Heredia said.

Jones's illicit drug regiment appears to be carefully considered in the conspiracy:

Heredia said he counseled Graham against allowing Jones to combine the three drugs he mailed her into a single injection in the weeks before the Sydney games. Jones won gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600-meter relay. She also won bronze in the 400-meter relay and the long jump.

"The main point for her was to make the team in the 400 event in order to win a fifth medal," Heredia said. "He wanted to have everything untraceable."

Heredia also implicated Olympic gold medalist Antonio Pettigrew, and recanted an earlier detail on Graham:

Heredia testified Tuesday that he obtained a litany of performance-enhancing drugs from Mexico and sent them directly to the athletes or to Graham to distribute. Heredia testified that several of the athletes met him in Mexico, but conceded he wrongly testified earlier to a grand jury that he met Graham in Mexico.

"It has been 12, 13 years since this happened, and I can't remember every detail," he said.

Yet Heredia was able to recall with great detail the origins of several Western Union receipts issued almost eight years ago. He testified, for instance, that two July 2000 receipts for a combined $1,000 were for growth hormone and EPO sales to Pettigrew.

No mention of Maurice Greene...

A Jones for Trouble

Marion Jones, again in the limelight.  She has been associated in the ongoing Check-cashing fraud for which her husband, former 100M world record holder Tim Montgomery, was indicted.

Jones apparently deposited a 25,000 laundered check from a Norfolk businessman.

The Seattle Times story is here.

Of course both Montgomery and Jones are implicated in the BALCO investigation.  Jone's ex, known steroid user CJ Hunter has also implicated her with steroid use.