Steroid Nation

WADA underwhelmed with MLB's HGH test plans

WADA boss John Fahey says major league baseball's new HGH testing program needs to grow some.  Fahey criticizes MLB hard for dragging feet on PED use. 

Not to mix apples and baseballs, MLB and other professional sports owner to different music than the Olympic sports.  Owner, unions, and local authorities all complicate the pro sports PED testing.

Major League Baseball announced plans last month to begin testing for HGH in the minor leagues, but that's not enough for the World Anti-Doping Agency. John Fahey, the head of the agency, said Monday that the sport's integrity was at stake, and that if the league doesn't bring their testing up to WADA specifications that fans will eventually stop coming to the ballpark.

"Baseball is the most recalcitrant (American sport league)," he said. "You had the Mitchell inquiry and clear and concise recommendations from it and they effectively did nothing."

Fahey's frustration seems to stem mostly from the fact that the NFL works fairly closely with the agency while developing it's drug policy, while baseball's rarely solicits the organization's advice. The truth is that the league has stiffened the policy greatly in the last 10 years and it will again come up for debate when the current collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2011 season.

World Antidoping Agency (WADA) to come down on International Cycling Union (UCI) for possible dope testing cover-ups

Before getting shoved off pager one by the Hewlett-Packard CEO sex-scandal the Wall Street Journal reported that WADA was looking closing at the international body governing pro cycling -- UCI.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said it has decided to step up its oversight of drug testing in professional cycling amid concerns that the sport has failed to aggressively police itself. David Howman, WADA's director general, said that in the last three weeks, the organization has taken steps to allow its staff to begin monitoring the blood and urine profiles of the sport's elite riders that are collected through the sport's Biological Passport program—and to push for sanctions when necessary. "Our job is to make sure the system isn't being sidestepped," Mr. Howman said. "We have the right of intervening if we think cases aren't being prosecuted appropriately."

The move reflects a growing concern in the antidoping community that the International Cycling Union, or UCI, the governing body of the sport which is charged with administering the Passport program, has not been following procedures correctly and is not doing a satisfactory job of cracking down on cheating.

WADA remains concerned that the UCI is shielding guilty cyclists from exposure when their biological samples test positive for drugs.  Shocking that anyone think pro cyclists would cheat, or that officials would look the other way.  (shocking if you are incredibly naive)

This person said antidoping officials are particularly concerned about the status of five professional riders who were flagged for doping in December but have not yet been sanctioned by the UCI. The riders, whose names are known only to the UCI, were determined to be doping by an independent committee of nine scientists and experts that was appointed by the UCI to review data from blood and urine tests.

The person said at least two members of the panel have voiced concerns that the UCI may be disregarding these positive tests or shielding guilty riders from punishment.

Play the Game 2009

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

Catch up with things later.

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

Justin Gatlin speaks about track and about steroids..a walk through someone's reality

Let's Run anchors a section on Justin Gatlin talking about track and roids.  Gatlin's recent interview, found here, meanders around a number of subjects, none of which include responsibility for Gatlin's positive testosterone test.

What was your immediate reaction when you found out the "A" sample was positive?

Shock. You’ve heard of somebody saying they were so in shock they fell out of their chair? That’s what really happened. I was in my house in my office, I was on the computer. I got the call and I remember breaking down and crying right there.

How long were you upset?

I was upset for almost a straight week. I was trying to get everything in order, trying to figure out why this is happening to me and if this is true. I remember breaking down in public at some points. This was my life. I feel like I’m a victim to the situation.

Worst moment of your life?

Worst moment of my life...

What do you feel bitter about?

A lot of misquotes from the press. Nike not standing up and saying anything. I fell they rode the fence and they still ride the fence until this day. I had a great rapport with Nike past a business relationship. I felt that when everything happened they kind of put themselves back into the crowd, slunk into the shadows. They suspended me while they fired Trevor and fired Chris Whetstine. That was their way of saying, ‘hey, we’re gonna hold this guy. And we’re gonna jump back on the bandwagon and if anything bad happens, we’ll just let him go’. Instead of saying ‘Justin, we believe in you, you know what the contract is, this is what it is.’

I was very upset with the sport about a lot of things. When everything was going good, everyone was patting me on the back. When things started going bad, everyone was shaking their finger in my face saying, see I told ya.

A lot of blame goes to Chris Whetstine and Trevor Graham as well. Obviously, they were there to be my inner circle and protect me. You discover a lot of things about different people. I found out Chris Whetstine could not get a credential to the (2004) Olympics because he had a criminal record.

Chris was more of a renaissance masseuse. He understood biomechanics, alignment of your body, muscle therapy, trigger points, how to stretch you, acupuncture. This guy had the total package.

When you have someone like that who has those kind of credentials to understand the body wholly, that eliminates you from working with three other masseuses or chiropractors. Though Nike wouldn’t do anything to hurt any of its athletes, if they’re going to pay this guy they knew he had some kind of record. That’s when I felt really upset. They put this guy on the payroll and they have got to do a background check on everybody you’re paying.

Gatlin appparently continues to blame his masseuse and Trevor Graham with sabotague.  In fact it was a conspiracy..somneone or oragnization was out to get him.

Do you thing it will ever come out how you tested positive?

I don’t know.

Do you think you should be looking into this more yourself?

I’ve been doing that from day one. I feel like (rappers) Biggie (Smalls) and Tupac (Shakur, both who were murdered in the late 1990s). Maybe I’ll never find my killer. That’s how things are.

Come on, man, do you really think people buy that you have no idea of PED use?  The referrals to Smalls and Shakur are unbelievable.

Intrigue revolves around almost-Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy, AdvoCare, and clenbuterol contamination

Remember USA swimmer Jessica Hardy?  She was set to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics when almost on the plane to China when she was 'sabotaged' by a positive urine test for clenbuterol, which of course is banned.

This led to much consternation for #3 swimmer Tara Kirk, who finished 3rd to Harding by a fingernail, however could not be included in the USA swim teams entourage as the doping results came to late to alter the roster.

The situation became even more entangled.  Hardy claimed the clen came from a supplement of the company AdvoCare, and two of the companies products:  Arginine Extreme and  Nighttime Recovery.  Now the plot thickens:

1. Hardy sued AdvoCare, a company she was retained as an athlete spokesperson.  Hardy claims Con Catlin's UCLA lab showed clenbuterol in testing supplement she took. (more here)

2.  AdvoCare sued Hardy for defamation.  Advocare says their product was tested at a Michigan firm, which showed it was clean. (from Swimming World)

The company's case says it "specifically tested the lots of AdvoCare products provided to Hardy," the tests performed by NSF International, a non-profit organization based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that certifies supplements as free from taint for the NFL, among others. Those tests "confirm that no clenbuterol is present in the AdvoCare products," the lawsuit says.

Hardy's lawsuit says she retained Anti-Doping Research in Los Angeles, the lab founded by Don Catlin, the former director of the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited lab at UCLA.

ADR "tested all of the AdvoCare products used by Ms. Hardy during and immediately prior to the Olympic Trials, using remaining samples from those she had with her at the U.S. Olympic Trials in July 2008, or samples from the same product lot or lots as those she used at the U.S. Olympic Trials in July 2008.

"After extensive testing, ADR detected the presence of clenbuterol in samples of Arginine Extreme and Nighttime Recovery."

So — one lawsuit says the tests didn't find anything, the other says the tests assuredly did.

Now, Olympic insider Ron Judd (at the Seattle Times) put together a column that says:

• An arbitration ruling from (?) the USADA reduced Hardy's mandatory 2 year suspension to 1 year.  The suspensions (counting back time) will end in July 2009, which makes her eligible for the 2012 London Olympics....except...
• There is mandatory exclusion of the subsequent Olympics game for any athlete suspended for doping for over 6 months.

Didn't Hardy serve a suspensions for 2008?  And wasn't her sentence reduced because she claims contamination (which was never proved?).  It wasn't reduced below 1 year, which would continue to support her 2012 Olympics suspension.

Furthermore Hardy claims this was a last minute contamination, however data indicates she actually dropped 3 dirty urines even prior to the US Olympic swimming trial:

But new evidence presented in the arbitration ruling sheds some new light. It discloses, for the first time publicly, that the same UCLA lab that tested Hardy's other samples informed USADA on July 23, two days after reporting the initial positive result, that two Hardy samples from July 1 (when she won the 100 breast) and July 6 (when she finished second in the 50 freestyle), initially reported as negative, "actually revealed the presence of 'suspect clenbuterol transitions.

This chain of events disturbs common sensibility on many levels.

1.  What about 'strict liability' for the athlete who is responsible for what goes into their Olympic body?  Athletes are frequently warned about supplements and other crap.  Judd comments:

The term means what it says: Athletes are responsible for what they put in their bodies. Intent doesn't matter. You can test positive by accident and still see your career -- and your Olympic dream -- go up in flames. It's happened already to other athletes. But the American Arbitration Association seems ready to literally take on the world to prevent it from happening to hapless victim Jessica Hardy. And USADA, which was party to this exercise in jurisdictional aggrandizement, apparently is right there with them.

2.  What about the conflicting claims of supplement contamination?  Hardy claims her lab tested the supplements, however there was no strict 'chain of custody' (obviously Hardy could have contaminated the supplement herself looking for an excuse).  Advocare says their product was clean.

3.  And how about the arbitration committee thumbing it's nose at the IOC and at WADA who maintains strict liability policies.

4.  Dana Kirk filed a negligence suit in the case too:

Nobody has bent over backwards to do anything for the now-retired Kirk, beyond urging her to go away. Her legal motion to be added to the squad was denied before the Beijing Games, but her claim that she was damaged by USA Swimming's negligence in the case remains alive, and will get its own arbitration hearing later this month.

This is a mess.  To conclude:

But what kind of thermonuclear mixed message does all this send to the nation's impressionable young athletes? Don't use supplements, wink, wink. But if you do (and to be multiple-medal material, you pretty much have to) just make sure you can afford a good attorney, and we'll be behind you 100 percent?

Sprinter Justin Gatlin settles with anti-doping agencies in civil lawsuit

Beleaguered American sprinter Justin Gatlin settled out of court in a lawsuit involving anti-doping agencies.  Gatlin sued because the agencies suspended him over Adderall (apparently the anabolic steroids he also used didn't enter into the suit).  From Universal Sports:

Suspended American sprinter Justin Gatlin has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), USA Track and Field (USATF) and the International Associations of Athletic Federations (IAAF) in a civil suit Gatlin filed claiming the four groups discriminated against him based on the Americans for Disabilities Act, Universal Sports has learned.

Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist in the 100m and the 2005 world champion in the 100m and 200m, is serving a four-year suspension for testing positive for  testosterone in 2006.

Court documents show that Gatlin agreed to the settlement on Feb. 9 in the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Gatlin and his attorney, Joe Zarzaur, refused to comment about specifics of the settlement.

And some details:

It's unclear if the defendants admitted any guilt in the settlement.

“The fact that they settled has nothing to do with the merits of the case,” said John Collins, an attorney who has represented athletes against doping charges, including Gatlin. “You have to figure if the settlement is greater than the attorney’s fees, then there may be some admission of guilt. If not, than all they settle for is nuisance value.”

Gatlin filed a civil suit against the four groups on June 9, 2008, claiming they discriminated against him based on his disability, Attention Deficit Disorder. Gatlin tested positive for amphetamines from tests taken June 16 and June 17, 2006 during the U.S. Junior National Championships.

Gatlin claimed the drug Adderall, which he was taking for ADD, was the source of the amphetamines. He further claimed there were no forms to fill out at the junior national meet allowing him to declare that he was taking the medication.

Lance Armstrong accused of violating anti-doping protocol

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WADA chastizes soccer -- FIFA abd UEFA -- organizations for anti-doping stances

WADA boss John Fahey tosses out some barbs at the governing organizations of world soccer, accusing FIFA and UEFA of head butting anti-doping policies.  AFP reports:

World anti-doping chief John Fahey accused FIFA and UEFA of ignoring reality, after they rejected rules that ease out-of-competition drugs testing of individual footballers.

"One of the key principles of efficient doping control is the surprise effect and the possibility to test an athlete without advance notice on a 365 day basis," the World Anti Doping Agency President said in a statement.

"Alleging, as FIFA and UEFA do, that testing should only take place at training grounds and not during holiday periods, ignores the reality of doping in sport.

"Experience has demonstrated that athletes who cheat seize every opportunity to do so and dope when they believe they won?t be tested," he added.

FIFA rejected out of season testing:

The footballing bodies on Tuesday formally rejected the 'whereabouts' rule, arguing that team sport players should be treated differently.

UEFA chief Michel Platini and FIFA President Sepp Blatter had already signalled their opposition in recent weeks, reopening an old rift over the tougher global drive against doping in sports.

Blatter had been at loggerheads with WADA for years, mainly over the penalties for drug taking, and FIFA only came on board unified rules in May 2007 - the last Olympic-affiliated sports federation to do so.

While unsavory, out of season testig appears obvious if a sports league is serious about anti-doping.

Boulder climbing stumbles on steroid testing scandal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oxyhealth -- maker of hyperbaric oxygen chambers -- sues Japanese Antidoping Agency

An American hyperbaric chamber manufacturer -- Oxyhealth -- initiated legal action against the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) for outlawing their hyperbaric chamber.

The hyperbaric chamber drives more oxygen into the blood stream.  There is no consensus whether this treatment is effective in athletic training enhancement.  It seems odd that the company, which does not market the device as a performance enhancing device in sport, would care about the doping implications.  One would think the company would focus on the medical uses of the chambers, rather than unproven sports performance enhancement.

In fact looking at OxyHealth's web site is is difficult to determine how exactly the chamber could be useful.  Like many other gadgets, people are always trying them to find some performance edge.

The story is found at the Mainichi Daily News:

An American company that manufactures and sells high-pressure oxygen chambers, used by athletes to recover from fatigue, is poised to file a damages suit against the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) early next month for causing a sharp decline in sales, it emerged on Friday.

According to the Japanese arm of American company OxyHealth, sales of its portable hyperbaric chambers have dropped dramatically since the JADA in June expressed its view that use of the capsules should be avoided because they might artificially enhance the intake, carrying and supply of oxygen, which could be considered as doping.

OxyHealth, whose lost earnings from the previous year totaled nearly 1 billion yen, is currently bringing judicial proceedings against the JADA, its Japanese arm said.

JADA appeared to be acting as if the Oxyhealth chamber were a doping agent.  The theory goes that the hyperbaric chamber stimulates an atmosphere akin to high altitude training, and thus would increase hemoglobin and oxygen carrying capacity.  This would be artificial doping.  However the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) maintains there is no evidence that a hyperbaric chamber is effective to enhance sports training.

After the JADA recommendation in June, Japanese athletes did not use them during the Beijing Olympics, and schools belonging to the Japan High School Baseball Federation also refrained from their use.

The advisory stands despite a statement from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in November, which said they should be permitted since there is no evidence they enhance athlete performance.

The International Healthy Baric Association Japan, an industry association based in Tokyo's Bunkyo-ku, asked the JADA to retract the advisory. However, it refused on the grounds that the WADA didn't officially decide to permit the use of the capsules, and that there will be no change in its rules for the next year.

Hyperbaric chambers are used by many famous athletes, including English soccer superstar David Beckham during the FIFA World Cup in 2002.

As opposed to an oxygen tent, or to a reduced oxygen tent, a hyperbaric chamber would increase barometric pressure on the person to theoretically increase oxygen in the blood.  This would be useful for the treatment of CO2 poisoning; however no one apparently has demonstrated the usefulness for sports training. 

We include two studies on hyperbaric chambers in sports training with differing conclusions as to benefit, although the parameters are different.

Soccer players receive doping bans: Italian Eduardo Oliveira, and Liberian Melvin King

Two international football players will bite the dust for two years due to doping offenses.  The Italian player used nandrolone, and the Liberian player apparently used a substance like cortisone.

To the Webnewswire:

Italian player Eduardo Carlos Morgado Oliveira was suspended for two years after testing positive during a doping control after the match for third place at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008 between Russia and Italy on 18 October.

The substances found were the two major metabolites of the synthetic anabolic androgenic steroid nandrolone, which appear on the list of "Prohibited Substances" of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The sanction for such a case is two years and applies for all matches, whether friendly or official fixtures, at domestic and international level, from 6 November 2008, the date on which the player was first provisionally suspended by the chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.

Liberian player Melvin King was suspended for five months after testing positive for a banned substance at a doping control after the match of the preliminary competition of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ between Senegal and Liberia on 21 June 2008. The substance found was a glucocorticoid, which is a medication included in the list of specified substances of WADA.

The use of such a substance requires a therapeutic use exemption, something which the player did not have. The sanctions for such an anti-doping rule violation range from a warning to a two-year suspension, and the FIFA Disciplinary Committee decided to impose a sanction of five months starting on 2 October 2008, the date on which the player was first provisionally suspended by the chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee. The sanction applies for all matches, whether friendly or official fixtures, at domestic and international level.

Eric Holder -- Barack Obama's Attorney General nominee -- not a big hit with doping agencies

President elect Barack Obama nominated long time Washington lawyer Eric Holder as his cabinet's Attorney General (AG).  Holder's nomination prompted some critique of his time in the Clinton White House.  However the countries anti-doping enforcement agencies also hold opinions about the AG-in waiting.  They are not pleased.  Maybe Holder will treat steroid offenders the way he treated Clinton-era sleazeball Marc Rich.

Seems Holder wanted all the information top steroid-enforcement government agencies could gather, but didn't want to reciprocate.  Guess that's called 'diplomacy'...or 'stubborn self-interest''. Lester Munson writes a fascinating article at ESPN on the subject.

When the NFL grew tired of embarrassing disclosures and congressional hearings about performance-enhancing drugs and wanted to establish a voice in the federal government's investigations, league officials turned to Eric Holder, the man who is now President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general.

Holder quickly gathered senior executives from the other three leagues and their player unions and led them into a series of meetings in 2007 with top officials of, among others, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the agency that presides over the nation's "war on drugs." The sessions began with a measure of fanfare.

Holder was a natural choice to lead the effort. He served as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration and then became a partner in Covington & Burling, a powerful Washington law firm that has long represented the NFL. For seven years, Holder helped the NFL through a number of difficulties, including an investigation of the dog-fighting charges against Michael Vick, the implementation of the Rooney Rule that requires owners to interview minority candidates for head coach vacancies, and the league's personal conduct crackdown.  

Meetings began with all concerned hoping to develop a cooperative environment.

At the outset, hopes were high. After the first meeting in March of 2007, Scott Burns, the deputy director of the ONDCP and a participant in the sessions, said, "This is the first step in changing the way we look at the problem in the U.S. I hear more about human growth hormone and steroids and athletes than I do about crack cocaine. This is important to America."

Darryl Seibel, an official of the U.S. Olympic Committee, which also participated in the meetings, was equally hopeful. "You have, for the first time, a collaboration on an entirely new level on a national issue that requires a response such as this," he said.

But the efforts at cooperation ended badly when, led by Holder, the leagues and the unions refused to consider serious reforms in the way in which users of steroids were investigated and prosecuted and insisted on maintaining their own drug enforcement procedures under their respective collective bargaining agreements. The collaboration between law enforcement and sports organizations quietly fell apart.

"There was no substance to it," said one law enforcement official who participated in the meetings. "It was all for show."

Apparently some organizations, and their representatives, cannot play well with others:

"Holder and the professional leagues wanted us to share information with them," a top official of a law enforcement agency who participated in Holder's meetings told ESPN.com. "They wanted to know what players were involved. They wanted an end to leaks from our investigations. But when we asked for their information about players who used or where players bought their drugs, they didn't want to give us anything."

Might Holder's cooperating and stances with top Federal law enforcement agencies filter into the AG confirmation hearings?  Interesting questions, and ESPN responds after the jump.

George Mason University professors develop urine HGH test

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

History indicates the challenges to the CAS are incredibly futile.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Myostatin blocking gene therapy to be introduced for dogs; when will the first human athlete abuse it?

Prof Lee Sweeney of the University of Pennsylvania will be behind the introduction of a gene therapy approach to treat aged dogs who suffer muscular weakness.  Apparently elderly dogs who become progressively weaker (this is generally called old age) need treatments so their owners can take the canines on walks.  The therapy involves the injection of a genetically modified myostatin inhibitor that produces incredible muscular hypertrophy; the injection goes into the animal's liver.

Once this gene therapy reaches the public, h ow long will it be before an existing sports record becomes totally obliterated by newly enhanced and genetically modified athletes?

This raises several issues just in the vet use of the technique:

• Isn't aging natural?  Do elderly dogs -- as lovable as they are -- really need to be revitalized so the owners can walk them?  At what cost?
• Might counseling on the normal aging in biology be more effective?  Aging is part of every organism.  Why fight the changes that are inherent in the DNA of the animal, to protect the fragile emotional status of the owner?

To the Telegraph:

An American professor is preparing to market a form of canine gene therapy, which would see dogs injected with substances which switch off the genes that regulate their muscle growth.

Prof Lee Sweeney, from the University of Pennsylvania, has pioneered research into gene transfer technology, a field in which poorly functioning and abnormal genes are manipulated, switched off or replaced.

Ten years ago he created "mighty mice" in the lab with enormous muscles and strength in old age. Now he says experiments on dogs have been so successful that he is preparing to market the treatments to owners of ageing pets across the United States.

He said: "We are now in the final stages of getting all the approvals to offer this through the veterinary hospital as a treatment to try to improve strength in pet dogs.

"As the dogs get weak their owners get upset that they can't walk around any more. So we're hoping that within the next year we will begin the era of genetic enhancement in dogs."

Under the therapy, dogs would be given an injection into the liver of an inhibitor which switches off the gene which produces myostatin, a protein which inhibits muscle growth in animals and humans.

One would hope Sweeney has considered the implications of his genetic enhancement.  The first issue is the economic issue of enhancing an aging dog to mollify the owner.  Obviously an aging animal in the wild gets eaten, which is not a good outcome for a domestic pet.  Domestic pets decline gradually, with the resultant dysfunction experienced by all aging organisms; pet owners keep the animals comfortable until the inevitable sad day when the pet can longer function well.   But does this justify an attempt to allay the aging process in a canine?  At what price? 

Sweeney must consider that if the gene therapy is marketed to vets, that soon, genetically enhanced greyhounds will be winning the dog races.  Once the Schwarzenegger greyhounds win races, human athletes will take notice; actually they already have.  To the Telegraph again:

He (Dr. Sweeney) gets between five and 10 emails a week from athletes, some from Britain, and so many phone calls that his secretary has stopped putting them through.   And that is in a quiet week.

If he publishes an academic paper or does a media interview, a flurry of 50 or   more calls and emails usually follows, as it did 10 years ago when he first   revealed his 'mighty mice' to the world at a meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology – laboratory mice with enormous muscles that retained their   strength and regenerative ability even when the animals reached old age.

Sweeney's super-strong rodents were the product of his pioneering research   into gene transfer technology and the implications were clearly not lost on the athletes and coaches who got in touch, one of whom offered $100,000 for what the mice were getting.

Shockingly, Sweeney also received a request from a high school American football coach for his entire team to be genetically modified.

Sweeney told him what he is still telling everyone a decade later, that bulking up on gene therapy is not yet safe enough for humans and would require heavy-duty immune suppression. He always gets the same response.

"Even if I explain to them that to make it work might require all sorts of heroic measures, they basically say, 'Fine. I'll do it'. And if it's a matter of money, they'll get the money."

Sweeney has never been contacted by a name he recognises – "I don't get Barry Bonds calling me up" – and says most of the would-be guinea pigs appear to be young athletes trying to make the big time.

"Some of them are from Europe," he says. "I get quite a few   from the UK and Germany."

He says he would feel uneasy about passing on their names to the anti-doping authorities but is sufficiently concerned to have accepted a seat on the gene-doping panel of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), who are funding   eight research projects on gene-doping detection in a desperate attempt to stay ahead of the cheats.

Sweeney is bracing himself for another surge of calls and emails next year when his work moves from the laboratory to the commercial world with a muscle-building gene therapy for dogs.

Even though Sweeney knows the illicit demand for the mystatin inhibitor, he will market the drug anyway...ah the power of economic windfalls can outstrip the ethical considerations of the enhancements.

We have a chapter on genetic enhanced performance (GEP) or Performance Enhancing Genetics (PEGs) that looks at the issues. Sweeney has considered the issues too as summed up by the Telegraph:

Sweeney hopes his new canine anti-aging treatment will be just the start.  Humans have the same gene that Sweeney is manipulating in dogs and the nex  step will be to treat people with serious genetic diseases such as muscular dystrophy. Ultimately, he hopes to give the elderly, like the pampered  pooches of Pennsylvania, greater muscle strength and mobility in their final   years.

But any breakthrough will inevitably be seized upon by dope cheats in the same way that clinical drugs such as steroids, human growth hormone and the red blood cell-boosting EPO soon found their way into kit bags. With the prospect of as yet undetectable, lifelong enhancement, how could any drug cheat resist?

As gene transfer technology enters the medical mainstream as a treatment for numerous diseases from blindness to cancer, scientists are agreed it is only a matter of time before it crosses over into sport.

Some predict that London 2012 could be the first genetically modified Olympic Games. Others say the Beijing Games may already have that dubious honour.

Here is a therapeutic enhancement that may render all PEDs obsolete.  The results are shockingly dramatically impressive; the technology undetectable at present; and the technique will soon be available.

Performance Enhancing Drugs are simply amateurs when compared to the potential power of Performance Enhancing Genetics.  Looks like that brave new world of astonishing sports feats will be ushered in very very soon.

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.

Plenty of glitches revealed in 2008 Beijing Olympics dope testing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

International (un)cooperation with WADA dope testing

From this Philly Inquirer report on the cooperation of Olympics nations with WADA out of competition doping tests.

A report issued by independent observers for the World Anti-Doping Agency said 102 of 205 countries represented in the Beijing Olympics failed to tell organizers where their athletes were so they could be tested for drugs outside of competition.

Why are countries who do not cooperate with WADA testing allowed to participate in the Olympics?  And we think these Olympic results are clean?

Presidential candidate Barack Obama disses anti-doping and steroid efforts in Congress

Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama took a huge swipe at anti-steroid activists today, perhaps tossing out some baby with the John McCain bathwater. From the WaPo:

...Obama suggested this morning there were more important things on which the government should focus.

"Kids are watching sports. They're modeling themselves on athletes," Obama said. "It's a serious problem, but it's one that you want to see the leagues themselves handle in a more appropriate way. We've got nuclear weapons and a financial meltdown to worry about. We shouldn't be worrying about steroids as much as I think sometimes we do."

However the candidate apparently wants government time spent on the NCAA D-1 football playoffs:

Although he says government should be more hands-off on steroids, Obama did suggest other sports areas in which his administration might meddle.

"I would have my attorney general investigate the possibility of instituting a college football playoff system through executive order. I'm tired of this nonsense at the end of every college football season," Obama said.

There is a fine use of government time.  Where do these candidates come up with their ideas (that had to be said tongue in cheek)?  Or perhaps this is all about taking a swipe at opponent Republican John McCain.

Let's remind the candidate about steroids and doping involved in the Mitchell Report, the Roger Clemens case, the San Diego Tribune NFL steroid scandal sheet, the on-going saga of Lance Armstrong, and the Olympic scandals.  Let's remind the candidate that often not much happens to combat doping and steroid use in the professional leagues (NFL, MLB) until the Congress becomes interested.  Let's remind the candidate that the US derives so much from Olympic involvement (generally the most benefit from the Olympics goes to NBC TV or whomever is broadcasting the event) that the country needs to get with the program in meeting IOC and WADA anti-doping standards.  Baseball will likely be eliminated because the leagues cannot meet WADA doping standards.

In most progressive European countries there are national anti-doping ministers at a governmental level.  Not the United State.  Most European countries also have passed sports fraud laws.  We sure don't hope that under an Obama administration doping and steroid awareness returns to the good old days of benign neglect or active ignorance.

Appearing on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" program, Obama did not mention the Arizonan by name. But the Democratic presidential nominee did make clear that he would steer a different course than McCain has in the past when he was asked "how much government should be involved with sports and performance-enhancing drugs."

"I gotta admit that seeing a lot of congressional hearings around steroid use is not probably the best use of congressional time," Obama said.

McCain has long been closely identified with efforts on the Hill to expose steroid use in baseball. In 2004, when McCain was chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, his panel held a high-profile hearing on the subject, and McCain's scrutiny helped force Major League Baseball owners to implement a new drug-testing policy.  McCain said the following year that the league "can't be trusted" to handle the issue on its own, and threatened to write legislation cracking down on performance-enhancing drugs. A House committee also held highly publicized hearings on steroids in baseball in 2007.

It does sound like Obama agrees with the opinion that Congressional time is better spent on 700 Billion dollar bailouts, which occur every day.  In fact that sounds like the more potent steroids are getting injected right into Wall Street corporate America.

Wish Senator Obama would read here about why Congress should be involved in steroid and doping issues.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

San Diego Union-Tribune: Steroids in the NFL II

More on the San Diego Tribune's steroids in the NFL treatise.

1.  Why are 'roids not taboo in the NFL?

Baseball fans have loudly vilified Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and others in recent years for their alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

But where's the outrage for football users?

A study by The San Diego Union-Tribune found 52 former Pro Bowl players with links to such drugs, plus 133 others in the NFL dating to 1962. Many were caught by drug testing or outright admitted it. Yet there have been few public calls for asterisks by their names, records and championships. Why do few fans seem to mind compared with the outcry in baseball?

2. The detailed NFl 'Mitchell Report'.

The list of 185 names contains players at every position, from every team, and from virtually every year over the past three decades.

There are 52 players with “Pro Bowl” on their resumes, and four who have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

3.  A time line of Steroids and PED use in the NFL.

Milestone moments in the NFL's performance-enhancing drug history, along with baseball, NCAA milestones.

4. 1989 NFL PED suspensions.

It was the first steroids scandal in NFL history, and it remains the biggest. On Aug. 29, 1989, 13 players from eight teams were suspended for flunking steroid tests.

To this day, many of the 13 wonder why they were singled out.

 

Frankly, juicing in the NFL will not end until someone in the US government (sorry Libertarians) decides to investigate it, or someone like Priest Holmes sues a juicer like Shawn Merriman for prematurely ending his career.  How much did Holmes lose when a 'roided Merriman hit him in 2005?

San Diego Union-Tribune publishes 'Mitchell Report' on steroid and PED use in NFL players

A huge section in one of our favorite newspapers -- The San Diego Union-Tribune -- looks at steroid and PED use in the National Football League.  The index will be found at this link.

1.  The introductory section asks a well-discussed, but never answered question: Why does football (NFL) get a pass when it comes to steroids?  NFL PED use, never a secret, just does not resonate as an outrage in fans, even after a major scandal -- the Carolina Panthers Pre-Superbowl use of steroids and HGH.

With the nation's most popular professional sports league three weeks into a new season – and with several players serving suspensions for positive tests – The San Diego Union-Tribune sought to compile the most comprehensive list to date of NFL players linked to performance-enhancing drugs. It is the NFL equivalent of the Mitchell Report, the much-publicized assessment of performance-enhancing drug use in baseball released last December by former Sen. George Mitchell and mandated by Commissioner Bud Selig. That report had 85 names dating to about 1993.

How many NFL players actually enhance performance with doping?  (note in USA professional sports  the performance enhancing drugs are called 'steroids', or 'PEDs', whereas in Olympic sports 'doping' covers the issue.)

“If I had to venture to guess, you're touching the tip of the iceberg,” said Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor emeritus and anabolic steroids expert. “Because of the secretive nature of all of it, it's very difficult to come up with any kind of solid handle.”

Estimates from players over time have ranged from widespread use for certain teams in the 1960s and '70s to as much as 75 percent of linemen, linebackers and tight ends in the 1980s. Washington Redskins offensive lineman Jon Jansen estimated in a 2006 HBO interview that 15 to 20 percent of players use performance-enhancing drugs. He later backed away from that guess. But if the estimates over time are accurate, the real number could be in the thousands, of which testing has caught a small portion.

Several other issues emerge including this: The NFL resists a WADA-type anti-doping program

The NFL also has resisted adopting the WADA testing program and protocols, considered to be far more detailed and at the cutting edge of anti-doping efforts. And first-time violators are suspended for four games by the NFL, compared with two years by WADA...

Wadler said he suspects the NFL wants to administer its own testing program the way it sees fit for one reason.

“It's a loss of control, particularly when it's superstars who fill their seats,” he said. “They're probably petrified of a two-year or four-year suspension of their superstars, given the monetary issues in these professional sports.”

The NFL disagrees. Adolpho Birch, the league's vice president of law and labor policy, notes that the NFL was testing for these drugs long before WADA was even formed in 2000. He notes that the league does 12,000 drug tests a year on about 2,000 players, compared with 4,500 by WADA and the International Olympic Committee at the Olympics, where there were about 11,000 athletes.

Birch said it would be difficult to do game-day testing because of “the nature of team travel” after games. He said NFL testing accounts for game-day stimulant use by testing the next day with a lower threshold for what would be considered a positive stimulant test.

As for the number of banned substances on the NFL list, Birch said, “What we have been able to do is determine what things are relevant and apt to be used by our players. We put those on our list.”

Birch also disputes that WADA could be any more of an expert on the issue than the NFL. “We have experts in the field, the same experts they consult, the same laboratories,” he said...

“We have a history, and we recognize that history particularly leading up to the time the policy came in,” Birch said. “That history is what led to the players' union and league coming together in determining we needed to have an effective steroid policy. We have been extremely proactive as it relates to any testing organization. We've banned things like ephedra before the government got to them. When we see issues, we deal with them.”

WADA chief focuses on steroid abuse at the local level

Like many before him, WADA head John Fahey recognizes that steroid and doping use by elite athletes while commanding the headlines, represents a small fraction of the illegal trafficking of the drugs.  The Age reports today that the WADA chief wants an effort on the ground to combat illicit steroid use.

WORLD Anti-Doping Authority chief John Fahey has called for sweeping research into performance-enhancing drug use in the Australian community and wants a public health campaign — similar to anti-smoking and binge-drinking efforts — to combat what he says is a growing problem.

"We have seen with things like smoking that … the more money you spend publicising the downside of smoking, the better your results are in getting people to give it up," he said.

Fahey was reacting to a spate of noted illegal imports of PEDs.

Mr Fahey's comments come as a senior customs official told The Age that the amount of performance-enhancing drugs being brought into the country had risen dramatically in the past five years and that the overwhelming majority was destined for community gyms and sporting clubs rather than elite athletes.

The WADA president has had talks with federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis to discuss an increase in government funding for research and education campigns. He has also met Professor Warwick Anderson, chief executive of the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Commonwealth body that allocates hundreds of millions of dollars each year for health-related research...

Mr Fahey said it was an important next step — a decade after the establishment of WADA — to take the fight against performance-enhancing drugs directly into the community.

"We really need to focus more generally and not just on elite (drug use)," he said. "Armed with better knowledge, we can make a better case for more attention and more funding to address the health of ordinary citizens who can suffer dreadful consequences of the problems they are creating for themselves."

Mr Fahey said governments were increasingly realising that abuse of steroids and other performance drugs was a serious public health issue and not just a problem for sports administrators

All true.  However those eleite athletes continue to serve as role models for the teeming masses of consumers...

"In most cases it is more about getting a better body or looking good for the opposite sex or the same sex," he said. "It comes down to the suburbs, the gyms and the schools. People will see a way of getting a short-term benefit in a way that in public health terms can cause extreme damage."

Recent research in South Australia indicates that body image is as important a motivator for steroid use as sporting performance and that teenage boys and gay men are big risk groups. Such substances are now referred to as performance- and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs).

Mr Fahey said athletes had to be competing at state or national levels before they were subject to drug testing. "We do miss out on the overwhelming majority of people who are taking these things," he said.

Will they be going door to door to survey doping in Sydney?

Triathlon Olympian tests positive for doping: Dmitriy Gaag from Kazakhstan positive for EPO

Dmitriy Gaag, an Olympic athlete in triathlon from Kazakhstan  tested positive for EPO prior to the Olympics.  Interesting that Gaag tested positive at a meet in Des Moines Iowa on June 20th.  Apparently results banned the athlete from Beijing, although we are checking on this (He was listed in the pre-Olympic program).  (from Tri24/7)

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) today announced it has imposed a two-year ban on Dmitriy Gaag (KAZ) after committing an anti-doping rule violation in an out-of-competition doping control test in Des Moines, United States on June 20th, 2008. The ban begins June 20th, 2008 and prohibits Gaag from entering or participating in any competition or activity authorized by ITU, its National Federations (NFs) and/or any other signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code.

Gaag's anti-doping rule violation was a result of an adverse analytical finding of recombinant erythropoietin (EPO), a substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List.

Following the notification of the adverse analytical finding of his "A" sample, Gaag exercised his right under the ITU Doping Rules to have the "B" sample opened. With the Olympic Games imminent, ITU opted to provisionally suspend Gaag, thereby forcing his removal from the men's triathlon competition start list.

The "B" sample was opened and analyzed using the ISO accredited methods. On August 19th, the analytical result confirmed the "A" sample and presence of recombinant erythropoietin (EPO) in the urine. In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code, ITU imposed the two-year ban on Gaag after he waived his right to a hearing. All of his results from June 20th to present will be removed. His prize money from the Tiszaujvaros BG Triathlon World Cup was blocked and ITU administrative staff is currently contacting all affected athletes to make necessary prize money upgrades and adjustments.

Gaag was well thought of in Kazakhstan, maybe not any more.

Kazakhstan's primary Olympic sports are wrestling and boxing, so the 1999 world title in triathlon earned Gaag considerable recognition back home. He was named the "best sportsman" in Kazakhstan that year. His coach, Yuri Solovyev, was named the country's "best coach." Gaag received a special award, the order of "Parasat," by the Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev. With the award came a new car and a new apartment.

The Tuesday Morning Steroid Dope: Joe Biden on steroids, WADA on Bolt, and life coaches on the Olympics

1.  Some people are not happy that anti-steroid crusader Joe Biden will be the Democratic candidate for Vice President (Anthony Roberts) (The New York Times)

2.  On the other hand some natural bodybuilder don't endorse steroid use.  (Natural Strength)

3.  The WADA general director David Howland, of New Zealand defends world record holder Usain Bolt.  (Stuff)

4.  This guy promotes HGH over anabolic steroids (Eumay.com)

5. Life coach says Olympic Games should ban any country with cheating athletes (Life Coaching)

It is for that reason that I propose drastic changes to the IOC policy on doping. I believe that the only way to ensure a clean, fair Olympiad is to disqualify any country who puts forward an athlete who tests positive for any drugs.

Some may call this idea extreme, but if having the responsibility for an entire nations olympic hopes being squashed is required to stop the ongoing problems of doping, then that is what what should be done.

6.  This ethicist is happy the Olympic are over. (Udo Schuklenk's ethics blog)

7. Marines selling steroids on base. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Working list of doping-banned athletes Pre-Olympics 2008

Steroid Nation presents the unofficial working list of elite athletes banned from the 2008 Olympics due to doping. We compiled the list from a number of sources which we will credit soon (such as the IAAF site for track and field).

Such a list is imperfect because some athletes are presumptive -- banned before tryouts.  Previous media reports put the number of banned athletes at 'over 40' and now 'over 50'.  We count 78 athletes here.

This is a first pass.  We will try to clean up the fonts and the spacing however this is a monumental task to investigate all the athletes around the world.  Media: if you use this data, please credit the site.

The list-- found after the jump -- is ordered to nation, sport, gender.

Addendum:

Jaqson Kojoroski, M, Brazil, Handball

Ioannis Drymonako, Greece, Swimming

Scientific views on doping

We present the links to recent scientific pieces on doping in sports.  These articles take some time to analyze, and thus no analysis from us right now, because franklyy we aren't smart enough.

1.  The Canadian Medical Association editorial.

It is almost 20 years since the Ben Johnson scandal at the Olympics in Seoul, Korea, drew attention to the issue of doping. Have we made progress since then in addressing this important sport and public health concern? Will the Olympic ideal survive, or will it be lost in a sea of hormone, steroid and stimulant abuse...

Athletes are now competing on an Olympic stage. Some performances may be suspect and proven to be illegitimate. But the overwhelming majority of athletes will compete fairly and cleanly. Sadly, their accomplishments are sometimes overshadowed by the debased conduct of a minority. Athletes from Canada and from other countries are the product of sport systems that work tirelessly to address the doping scourge. 

Antidoping programs in an Olympic setting ensure fair play and maintain public trust. A concern for drug use in community sport is equally important; the implications of such behaviour compel thoughtful, strategic interventions to ensure sporting integrity and public health.

2.  Donald Berry in Nature says that the anti-doping  labs are going down the wrong path.

In my opinion, close scrutiny of quantitative evidence used in Landis's case show it to be non-informative. This says nothing about Landis's guilt or innocence. It rather reveals that the evidence and inferential procedures used to judge guilt in such cases don't address the question correctly. The situation in drug-testing labs worldwide must be remedied. Cheaters evade detection, innocents are falsely accused and sport is ultimately suffering.

3. Nature editorial writers, agree.

Nature believes that accepting 'legal limits' of specific metabolites without such rigorous verification goes against the foundational standards of modern science, and results in an arbitrary test for which the rate of false positives and false negatives can never be known. By leaving these rates unknown, and by not publishing and opening to broader scientific scrutiny the methods by which testing labs engage in study, it is Nature's view that the anti-doping authorities have fostered a sporting culture of suspicion, secrecy and fear.

Detecting cheats is meant to promote fairness, but drug testing should not be exempt from the scientific principles and standards that apply to other biomedical sciences, such as disease diagnostics. The alternative could see the innocent being punished while the guilty escape on the grounds of reasonable doubt.

4. However, The Questionable Authority begs to differ about exposing all the pimples and warts...the charlatans will develop a blueprint to beat the testers.

From Berry's article:

Whether a substance can be measured directly or not, sports doping laboratories must prospectively define and publicize a standard testing procedure, including unambiguous criteria for concluding positivity, and they must validate that procedure in blinded experiments. Moreover, these experiments should address factors such as substance used (banned and not), dose of the substance, methods of delivery, timing of use relative to testing, and heterogeneity of metabolism among individuals.

In an ideal world, this is exactly the way things should work. Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world. There's a very real problem that will arise if the exact methods and criteria are publicized. As the folks at Nature point out in their editorial, there is an intense ongoing arms race between the people who make the drugs and the people who design tests. If the exact testing criteria are publicized, the drug makers will know exactly what they need to do to beat the tests.

That's a problem, and it's not an insignificant one.

If you provide all the testing details, it will stimulate the development of new methods for evading the testing, and make it much more difficult for the testing to achieve its goal. If you don't provide assurances that the testing methods are objective and reliable, it will continue to inject elements of distrust and paranoia into athletics. It's a delicate problem.

5. In another post, Mike Dunford takes on the Berry article on practical validity.

To put it another way, if the A and B samples both test positive for the same substance, there's very, very little chance that it's the result of anything other than something that is actually in the sample. At this point, the question becomes somewhat different - are the markers that the test looks for conclusive proof that a banned substance has been used? If they're not, they shouldn't be used in tests that can break someone's career.

That last is a harder question, and it's one where there really is the need for much more scientific examination of the testing procedures, as well as much more openness on the part of the testing authorities. That concern is very valid, and should be addressed. But on the whole, things are not as grim for athletes as Berry's article implies.

6.  A comment on The Questionable Authority concludes this:

After reading your comments, it seems that Berry's analysis is much more than misleading, it's downright wrong.

My understanding of Landis' number is: T/E ratios in normal folks are about 1:1. It takes a ratio of 4:1 to be guilty (so figure that includes 99.5% of folks). Landis was 11:1.

If 4:1 is 3 standard deviations, 11:1 is likely in the neighborhood of 12 standard deviations. To get this far away from normal without cheating would be a medical 'miracle'.

I'm not saying that it couldn't happen but you would think that something so extreme would have shown up in at least one of the numerous other samples he's given over the years.

                                 Posted by:                                  David C. Brayton  |                                  August 11, 2008  8:26 PM

    

Morning Steroid Dose: WADA, lab testing, Olympics

1.  The Boston Globe covers the WADA conference at Beijing.

...tempered expectations from sports governing bodies and testing agencies represent a philosophical shift in the ongoing fight against cheaters. Officials are focused on the deterrent effect provided by frequent testing and scientific advances in designer drug detection. In Athens, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) oversaw 3,500 drug tests and turned up 26 positive cases. In Beijing, the number of drug tests will increase to 4,500.

2.   The San Francisco Chronicle discusses doping control.

No Olympiad has ever seen as intensive a drug screening program as the Beijing Games. The China Anti-Doping Agency alone will conduct 4,500 tests, according to a comprehensive review of the testing program by Marc Reisch in Chemical & Engineering News' online issue being released today...

"Drug users and their assistants are working around the clock to beat analytical scientists," Dr. Don Catlin, an anti-doping leader on the scene in Beijing, told the chemistry journal.

3.  Reuters points a finger at Spanish cycling.

4.  The head of the UCI Pat McQuaid is looking at Spain too.  (Earthtimes)

UK heptathlon athlete Kelly Sotherton attacks Ukranian Lyudmyla Blonska for doping

The diva of the UK Olympic team, Kelly Sotherton launched into an attack on her Ukrainian competition, and surprisingly (or not) found allies. Sotherton and her allies point out the long term benefits gained form anabolic steroids, that may allow an athlete to improve even though he/she is clean from AAS.   The Daily Mail carries this one:

Britain's gold medal hope, Kelly Sotherton, has launched a fresh attack on her principal rival in the heptathlon, Lyudmyla (or Lyudmila) Blonska, insisting that the Ukrainian should be banned from the Olympic Games because she failed a drugs test in 2003.

Her ally: a heavyweight from the IOC:

And the most senior authority on anti-doping affairs in the Olympic movement, Dr Arne Ljungqvist, has backed her stance, saying that he hopes Sotherton wins the gold medal next weekend to put drug cheats in their place.

The logic follows from the UK banning Dwain Chambers.

Blonska failed a test for the banned steroid stanozolol in 2003 but, unlike British sprinter Dwain Chambers, she is allowed to compete in Beijing because only Britain, Norway and China ban drug cheats from their teams. It means the International Olympic Committee may be in the embarrassing position of honouring Blonska, whose offence was as serious as that of Chambers, with one of the first athletics gold medals to be awarded next Saturday.

Under current rules, which were toughened up last year, Blonska would not be allowed to compete in the Olympics, but the rules cannot be applied retrospectively.

Sotherton denounced Blonska, who has the best score of all the competitors in Beijing, after the Ukrainian beat her to the silver medal in the world championships last year in Japan, where Sotherton came third.

Further, Ljungqvist cites scientific work that suggests the anabolic effect from AAS persists long after the drug was excreted. Our reference here on the long term effects of AAS.

Under current anti-doping rules, Blonska would have received a fouryear ban from 2003 until 2007 and then would have been barred from the following Olympic Games in 2008. However, when she tested positive there was a more lax regime and she received a two-year ban from athletics and no ban from the Olympic Games.

Even more galling for Sotherton and her fellow competitors is that Ljungqvist believes that Blonska may still be benefiting from stanozolol - the drug at the centre of the Ben Johnson scandal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics - even though she took it five years ago.

A doctoral thesis published last year at the University of Umea in Sweden showed that the benefits of steroids last for at least four years and have resulted in the rule change allowing for a four-year ban.

'The scientific evidence shows quite clearly that the muscular changes in people on steroid regimes last well beyond the two years, even for three or four years,' said Ljungqvist.

The Ukrainian got better over time...interesting:

'I believe it may last for even longer but we don't know exactly. But with the scientific evidence, I could go to the World Anti-Doping Authority and ask for a four-year ban.'

It could explain why Blonska has improved since coming back from her drug ban.

Her legal best before testing positive was 6,316 points, but last year at the world championships she scored 6,832 points.

More from Sotherton and Ljungqvist after the jump

Gallup Poll: Majority of American sports fans do not think of doping taint in track and swimming records

The Gallup Pole looks at new survey data that inquires American attitudes concerning swimming and track records.  The sample included 626 sports fans.

As the Olympic games get under way in Beijing, most sports fans say they are not suspicious about the use of performance-enhancing drugs when they see or hear about an athlete breaking a world record. Just 35% say they are suspicious about record-setters in track and field, and even fewer, 22%, are suspicious about swimmers who set new world bests.

Here are our takes on the poll:

• It is encouraging that the public endorses confidence in athletes.  Although we see this confidence as naive, where would track's popularity be if the confidence in new records were about zero.
• On the other hand, how much attention does the public pay to track and field?  Does the general sports fan know about the sad recent history of doping in the 100M dash, for instance.
• Swimming receives a 'relative' free pass here.  Does the public know anyone in swimming beyond Michael Phelps and Dara Torres?  Does anyone remember that record holder Amy Van Dyken participated in the BALCO schemes?

The  next question shows a partial naivete on the part of sports fans:

The poll asked sports fans to say how widespread they think the use of performance-enhancing drugs is in each of five popular Olympic sports. In general, fans believe athletes' use of such drugs is not that common. Majorities or near-majorities of sports fans say "only a few" or "no" athletes in track and field, cycling, swimming, and gymnastics use performance-enhancing drugs. Fans are more likely to believe that use of these drugs is common in weightlifting, a sport that has long been plagued by steroid abuse.

We offer the following:

• Fans recognize that lifting is pervaded by PEDs.
• However cycling, and track receive partial passes, which is interesting.

The last question deals with confidence in drug testing: this shows about a 50/50 split.

The International Olympic Committee began drug testing of athletes in 1968, banned the use of steroids by athletes in 1976, and has regularly tested athletes since, adding tests for new performance-enhancing drugs as they become available. Those who have been found to use banned substances are stripped of their medals. However, the testing is far from sufficient to catch all cheaters, because it takes time to develop tests to identify newer steroids, and some of these are designed to be invisible to the tests available at the time.

Sports fans are generally divided as to whether the IOC is doing enough to deal with the use of performance-enhancing drugs by Olympic athletes, with 50% saying it is doing enough and 44% saying it is not.

The Olympics, WADA, doping, Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, and Winny: On the 20th anniversary of the '(Winstrol) shot felt round the world', words of caution

On the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, much going on with the administration of anti-doping measures.  To think it all burst into the public consciousness 20 years ago when Ben Johnson shocked the world twice: he dominated Carl Lewis on the track, and in the pharmaceutic aisle.

Sentana Sports discusses the mistrust the public has in WADA in 2008.  John Fahey -- head of WADA -- on the issue (and The Guardian)

The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency [Wada] believes that the Olympic Games has lost credibility with the general public because of drug scandals.

Seven Russian athletes were suspended for alleged doping offences just a week before the opening ceremony of the Beijing games, and John Fahey feels that the Olympic 100m race has in particular become blighted by doubt.

Twenty years after the Ben Johnson scandal at the Seoul Olympics, the 100m has seen subsequent champions Linford Christie, Justin Gatlin and Warren Gatland all subject to allegations of drug misuse...

Mr Fahey believes that Wada’s anti-doping fight has a moral dimension.

"We have to restore faith, otherwise we are morally bankrupt and saying to our kids 'fill yourselves up with a mouthful of pills if you want to succeed'," he continued.

Meanwhile, Jacques Rogge head of the IOC expects 30-40 new positive doping tests.  (AFP)

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge admitted on Thursday that the Beijing Games could yield up to 40 positive drugs tests.

"I expect there to be between 30-40 positive tests based on an extrapolation from Athens in 2004 where there were 26 from 3,500 tests and here there will be 4,500 tests," said Rogge.

"If we have fewer I will be extremely glad because that would suggest that with all the testing over the past four years there is a deterrent effect."

Rogge said he was disappointed that drug use in sport was still a major problem but recognised that there will always be cheats.

"I hate doping, but it would be wrong for us to be Utopians. There will always be criminality in the world. There are 500 million people practicing sports in the world; there are not 500 million saints."

[More here from the Times Online.]

The original New York Times Olympics Story on Ben Johnson's 100M 1988 Seoul Olympics victory:

Ben Johnson of Canada won the Olympic 100-meter final today in a stunning 9.79 seconds to lower his world record and defeat his greatest rival, Carl Lewis of the United States, the defending Olympic champion.

Ben Johnson of Canada won the Olympic 100-meter final today in a stunning 9.79 seconds to lower his world record and defeat his greatest rival, Carl Lewis of the United States, the defending Olympic champion.

The time also broke the 20-year-old Olympic record of 9.95 seconds, set by Jim Hines of the United States in the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

Lewis finished second in 9.92 seconds to break the American record of 9.93 he shared with Calvin Smith.

And the shocking announcement that the glamor event of the Olympics -- the 100 M Dash -- was horribly tainted by doping:

Ben Johnson of Canada, who won the Olympic 100-meter final Saturday in the world-record time of 9.79 seconds, was stripped of his gold medal and today was disqualified from the Games after drug tests showed he had used an anabolic steroid.

Ben Johnson of Canada, who won the Olympic 100-meter final Saturday in the world-record time of 9.79 seconds, was stripped of his gold medal and today was disqualified from the Games after drug tests showed he had used an anabolic steroid.

The International Olympic Committee announced the test results this morning, and later in the morning, the International Amateur Athletic Federation, the world governing body for track and field, banned Johnson from competition for two years, the maximum penalty. The Canadian Government banned him for life from receiving a monthly payment he had been receiving from it.

So much has happened since...(check out the photo of the Seoul finish where most of the 100M athletes were dopers)

 

Tipped off: Were Russian track athletes tracking the dope tests?

A report from the BBC claims the suspended Russian track athletes including world record holder and super-woman Yelena Soboleva received inside tip on the dates of dope testing.  Perhaps that's why the athletes peed scented pristine urine.

Seven Russian athletes provisionally suspended for doping offenses were tipped off ahead of visits from the testers, BBC Sport understands.

The International Association of Athletics Federations grew suspicious because the athletes were always available when the testers arrived.

Athletes are not normally immediately available for out-of-competition tests based on the whereabouts system.

"But the Russians were always waiting," said BBC Sport's Gordon Farquhar.

So, if you are too hard to find the IAAF becomes suspicious; if you are too easy to find the IAAF  becomes suspicious.  Cops are always cops.

Five of the seven - Yelena Soboleva, Tatyana Tomashova, Yulia Fomenko, Darya Pishchalnikova and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva - were bound for the Beijing Olympics but they will now not compete at the Games.

The other two athletes are Svetlana Cherkasova and Olga Yegorova.

And Farquahar added: "IAAF sources say they began investigating the seven suspended athletes when testers expressed surprise at their unfailing punctuality.

"The athletes have an hour to show up at the specified location and give a sample, but the Russian athletes were always ready.

"The IAAF sources also say the Russian Federation knew of the problem more than two weeks ago, and they're confident the suspected tip-offs haven't come from within their own organisation."

(more after the jump)

Russian track and field: Urine trouble

The almost unprecedented suspension of 7 Russian elite Olympic track athletes of world record caliber has drawn international attention to the Russian doping control...and it looks like Russia, urine trouble. From The Age in Australian:

Russian track and field officials may face sanction and their athletics body deregistered as the International Olympic Committee demands answers about seven of the country's top female athletes who are suspected of manipulating drug samples.

The International Association of Athletics Federations has provisionally suspended the women, six of whom are listed to compete in Beijing, and who include leading 800 and 1500 metres runner Yelena Soboleva and Athens Olympics silver medallist Tatyana Tomashova.

The timing of the announcement by the IAAF, just days after the cut-off time to replace the athletes, and on the eve of the Olympics, has added to the embarrassment of Russian authorities.

The glamour girl of the Russian (and possible entire 2008 Beijing) Olympic effort is was Soboleva who says she is astonished at the sanctions:

Soboleva told Russian newspaper Sport Express: "I was informed of this today. I totally disagree with this verdict as I have absolutely no reason to consider myself guilty. Naturally I will contest this. I'd like to apologise to the fans that we have ended up in this position, albeit through no guilt of our own."

Apparently there are suspicions of systematic urine testing fraud.

The IAAF said the Russians were under investigation for more than a year and an IOC-accredited laboratory had compared recent urine samples with others given more than 12 months ago using DNA comparisons.

Drug-testers had been suspicious of the urine given by the Russians since 2006 because it regularly appeared too pure...

"To have seven track and field athletes test positive is putting that particular sport at risk," Australian Olympic Committee president and IOC member John Coates said. "Certainly, the executive board will look at it and if it is established that there was some involvement of officials, then that could constitute trafficking under the rules and they could face a life sanction."

Yelena Soboleva and Russians push back at doping charge: 'They drew first blood'

A maelstrom brews in Russia.  World record holder Yelena Soboleva starts to push back on the accusations that she manipulated a urine doping sample.  The Russians are hitting back with a Stallone cliche of 'First Blood'  Here goes Reuters:

Yelena Soboleva denied on Friday she had manipulated her doping samples after the world indoor 1,500 meters champion and six other leading Russian women athletes were banned ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

"I call what is happening now a provocation staged deliberately to knock out the potential medalists right before the Olympics," Kommersant business daily quoted Soboleva as saying.

"All of us had the best chances to win medals in Beijing. I stress once again that I reject the accusations brought against me by the IAAF (athletics' world governing body).

"I also ask my fans to forgive me for being charged with what I am actually not guilty of.

Russian newspapers take aim at the IAAF too:

Russian newspapers said the bans appeared to be a foreign plot to deprive the national team of at least five golds in Beijing. The Games start on August 8.

"Five of our golds have already been flushed down the drain," daily Izvestia said.

The seven banned are: twice world 1,500 meters champion Tatyana Tomashova, Soboleva, distance runners Yuliya Fomenko and Svetlana Cherkasova, European discus champion Darya Pishchalnikova, former hammer world record holder Gulfia Khanafeyeva and former world 5,000 meters champion Olga Yegorova. All except Cherkasova had qualified for the Olympics.

This looks like a Western conspiracy to knock out those incredible Russian athletes.

The athletes were charged with fraudulently substituting urine during the doping control process, and suspended by the IAAF. The Russian media alleged the athletes' samples had been manipulated by a western company.

How good is Soboleva?  Here are the world's best times this year, and the US best times:

USA:

800	1:59.82 (twice) H. Clark (Nike)
1500	4:00.33 S. Rowbury (Nike)
Mile	4:27.18i C. Wurth-Thomas (Nike)

World:

800	1:54.85 Y. Soboleva (Rus)
1500	3:56.59 Y. Soboleva (Rus)
Mile	4:20.21i Y. Soboleva (Rus)

Does 'blow away the competition' describe the superwoman?

Read more about the Great Russian Push Back of 2008 after the jump, as Sylvester Stallone rushes to Moscow.

       

Science now develops 'exercise in a pill'; sport soon to abuse it

Scientists, seemingly moving forward with discovery at all costs, have developed two molecular manipulations of metabolism. The LA Times carries the story.

One is known as AICAR, and the other as GW1516, a drug increasing PPAR peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors.  PPAR-d binds to regions of DNA.

Scientists have discovered what could be the ultimate workout for couch potatoes: exercise in a pill.

In experiments on mice that did no exercise, the chemical compound, known as AICAR, allowed them to run 44% farther on a treadmill than those that did not receive the drug."You're getting the benefits of exercise without having to do any work," said David Mangelsdorf, a pharmacologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who was not connected with the research.

Great, no exercise and all benefits.  Welfare cardio.

 

His team started not with AICAR but with another compound known as GW1516, which drug maker GlaxoSmithKline is trying to develop to raise levels of HDL, or good cholesterol. The drug is known to stimulate the production of a protein known as PPARd, which in turn activates the genes that boost endurance in muscle cells.

In sedentary mice, the drug had no effect on endurance. Only when the drug was combined with exercise did it give the mice an advantage. After five weeks of training, mice that got the drug were able to run for an average of three hours and 24 minutes, a 68% improvement over mice that received only training.

When the researchers dissected the test mice, they found that the number of high-efficiency muscle fibers had increased 29%. "That's a huge increase," Evans said. "That's the kind of stuff that Lance Armstrong and endurance athletes aim for."

The lab turned attention to AICAR.  5-amino-4-imidazolecarboxamide ribonucleoside (AICAR) markedly activates cellular AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK).  The drug also enhances insulin action.

Evans decided to try AICAR because it closely resembles a nucleotide that prompts the production of an enzyme that activates the high-endurance genes.

To Evans' surprise, the experiment worked. When sedentary mice were fed the drug daily for four weeks, they were able to run an average of 1,795 feet on a treadmill, 44% farther than mice that had received a placebo.

It is nice the lab thought of doping...

In the meantime, Evans said, his team has developed detection protocols for both compounds and their breakdown products and turned them over to the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal.

He said it was unclear whether the tests would be in place for the Olympics.

Frederic Donze, a spokesman for the association, said in an e-mail that the organization "does not indicate when it implements new detection means or methods."

But, he added, it is not crucial for the tests to be in place now.

"A number of anti-doping organizations, including the International Olympic Committee, store doping control samples of their events for eight years for potential future retesting and detection as anti-doping science advances," Donze said.

Someday these drugs, probably meant for muscle wasting disease will be appropriated for illicit uses.  And so it goes.

Daily steroid injection: The doping suspensions come dripping in; top women's 1500M super-athlete Russian Yelena Soboleva goes down

1.  The Italian Olympic commission suspends cyclist Ricco.  (The Age)

2.  Romania drops 2 1500M athletes.  (Reuthers)

Two female Romanian 1,500-metres runners have been dropped from the country's Olympic team under suspicion of doping, the head of the national Olympic and Sport Committee (COSR) said on Thursday.

"Elena Antoci and Cristina Vasiloiu were dropped from the Romanian Olympic delegation as both are under suspicion of doping," COSR head Octavian Morariu told reporters.

3.  Five top Russian track athletes banned from Beijing.  (Yahoo Sport)

The athletes banned are Yelena Soboleva (pictured), Tatyana Tomashova, Yulia Fomenko, Darya Pishchalnikova and Gulfiya Khanafeyeva.

A sixth athlete, former Olympian Svetlana Cherkasova, has also been banned.

Soboleva had produced the fastest 800m and 1500m this season; Tomashova is a former world champion at 1500m and Fomenko won a silver in the 1500m at the last World Indoors.

Pishchalnikova is the European discus champion while Khanafeyeva is a former world record holder in the hammer....

Russian Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev explained to All Sport that the reason why IAAF suspended the athletes was because of possible tampering with the samples.

"Tampering with the samples".  Two days in a row...

   

Reports say Austrian triathlete Lisa Huetthaler (Hutthaler) tried to bribe lab assistant to doctor EPO test

Wow, will wonders ever cease?  Or will cheating ever stop?

Reports leaking out of Europe indicate world renown triathlete Lisa Huetthaler (Or Hutthaler, Hütthaler) attempted to cover a positive EPO doping test by bribing the lab tech.  (Earthtimes)                      

Vienna - An Austrian athlete attempted to bribe a laboratory assistant to ensure that the B-sample from a dope test returned negative, it emerged Wednesday. Triathlete Lisa Huetthaler offered the lab worker 20,000 euros (31,400 dollars) to ensure the positive May result for the blood- booster EPO wasn't confirmed.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirmed the report by the Austrian Kurier newspaper that it had been informed of the incident in June by the Austrian government. "The laboratory informed us and the head of the laboratory confirmed the bribery attempt to us," the Kurier cited the letter as saying. "This appears to be a criminal act."A spokesperson for the Austrian prosecutor's office confirmed that the incident was being investigated while WADA confirmed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Huetthaler tested positive in May (and also caused a crash in July).  She apparently was an Olympic candidate athlete.

Jamaican runners to take center stage at Olympics: Checkered drug doping past

A story in the Jamaica Observer today looks at the prominent Jamaican athletes busted for drugs.  From the piece, one can read Jamaica is proud of the Olympic heritage (Update, Usian Bolt sets two world records at the Beijing 2008 Olympics)

Despite being a small island, Jamaica regularly gets more Olympic medals than countries many times its size and wealth. Jamaica has produced this year's four fastest women at 200 metres, four of the top six at 100 metres and the fastest man in both events in the sensational Usain Bolt. But modern athletics has been overshadowed by doping scandals, and even Jamaica is not free of suspicion.

Jamaica's prowess in athletics is no recent phenomenon. In 1948, Arthur Wint won Jamaica's first Olympic gold medal in the 400 metres. Herb McKenley won four medals from 1948 to 1952, and the incomparable Merlene Ottey won nine medals from 1980 to 2000.

However the drug-cheats abound on the island:

The list of those barred from competing is long and includes Jamaica-born sprinters who trained elsewhere, for example Ben Johnson in Canada, Linford Christie and Dwain Chambers in England. Jerome Young and Patrick Jarrett (who were coached in the United States by another Jamaican expatriate Trevor Graham) also fell foul of the authorities. Merlene Ottey failed a steroid test in 1999, while training in Europe. But this was later ruled a laboratory error. Patrick Jarrett failed a steroids test in 2001 and Steve Mullings tested positive for testosterone in 2004.

Trevor Graham (a 1988 relay silver medallist for Jamaica) started a track camp in North Carolina featuring Marion Jones, who had passed more than 160 drug tests before finally acknowledging steroid use. In San Francisco in May, Graham was convicted on one felony count of lying to federal agents and awaits sentencing September 5.

Marion Jones is due to be released from prison in September after serving a six-month sentence for lying to federal investigators.

Other Jamaican stars, including Asafa Powell's older brother Donovan, have tested positive for stimulants.

There are drug and PED testing difficulties in Jamaica, which lead to skepticism.  However, the Jamaican athletes will be soon be showcased in Beijing.  Interesting to see what will follow on and off the track.

The problem is that Jamaica is not a signatory to the Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (RADO) and has not yet set up its own national anti-doping agency.

However, Jamaica Olympic Association boss Mike Fennell and Dr Herb Elliot have refuted recent criticisms that Jamaica is not doing enough testing. In fact, Mr Fennell last week revealed that 90 drug tests were carried out in Jamaica since the start of the year with another six done out of competition.

In addition, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) does come to Jamaica and tests its athletes regularly. Despite all this, sceptics insist that Jamaican athletes are less likely to be tested out of season than others, that some local officials may collude with athletes to protect them from visiting testers, and that illegal stimulants either do not show up in tests or disappear from the bloodstream in a matter of weeks.

Saturday Steroid Injection: Dara Torres, Jessica Hardy, Lance Armstrong

1.  Dara Torres's coach diagnosed with emergency aplastic anemia.  (Miami Herald)

2.  IOC President Jacques Rogge expects 30-40 doping cases.  (LA Times)

3.  The Pittsburgh Pirates lose minor league players to steroids.  (UPI)

The players, both pitchers, are 20-year-old Roman Carrasco and Luis Figuera, 17. Their suspensions carry into 2009 because there are fewer than 50 games remaining in the 2008 season.

Major League Baseball said Friday night that both were tested positive for anabolic steroids -- Carrasco for nandralone and Figuera for stenozolol metabolites.

Um, thats stanozolol (winny) and nandrolone.

4.  THe BBC looks at Jessica Hardy.

5.  These bloggers don't really like Lance Armstrong.  (Drunk Cyclist)

6.  Broward County, FL, doctors implicated in supplying steroids...one a pretty aggressive dude.  (Miami Herald)

Robert Hunt once grabbed a female police officer by the throat during a barroom brawl. It took several bouncers to release his grip, according to state records.

Just two months back, Michael Kenney was stopped by officers who suspected he was driving drunk. Instead of agreeing to a DUI test, he fought back, his criminal charges indicate.

Yet up until this week, Hunt still was a practicing doctor and Kenney a licensed pharmacist.

That changed Thursday, when federal and local agents arrested them both, accusing them of helping people illegally obtain prescription drugs, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Hardy has "...no idea how this positive test happened"

Jessica Hardy took her no-doping case to the public, as documented by the LA Times.  Hardy is the US swimmer who was headed for the Olympics until she delivered a positive urine test for the ''other anabolic' -- clenbuterol.  Apparently the positive test is both shocking and devastating for the swimmer, who holds at least one US swimming record, which was once a world record.

U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy took to the airwaves this morning to proclaim her innocence after a positive doping test that is threatening to derail her Beijing Olympics bid. Speaking on CBS' "The Early Show," the 21-year-old swimmer from Long Beach described the past few days as "heartbreaking and devastating....It's literally a nightmare."

Hardy, who tested positive for a prohibited drug, told the show's hosts that "in my heart I know I'm 100% clean and I've never done anything different my whole career. I've been clean my whole career and to have this huge setback...it's just heartbreaking."

Hardy’s attorney, Howard Jacobs, said Thursday that the swimmer tested positive for the stimulant clenbuterol after her second doping test at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials. Her first and third doping tests that same week, Jacobs said, both came back negative.

Clenbuterol is a beta-adrenergic agonist (dilates bronchioles) which is also felt to be somewhat anabolic, and somewhat lipolytic (cuts fat).  The LA times is a little off calling it a 'stimulant'.  WADA calls it 'other anabolic'.

“I have my attorneys and my experts looking into it, but honestly we have no idea how this positive test happened,” Hardy said.

Hardy qualified to compete in the Olympic 100-meter breaststroke and the 50 freestyle. She told CBS that she heard the bad news when she awoke on Monday at the U.S. training camp in Palo Alto: "I was actually napping when I got the phone call. USADA, the U.S Anti-Doping Agency, called and said that I tested positive and I had never even heard of this drug before.

“I was taking notes right when she called, to write down my information and everything and I spelled the drug name wrong even....I was devastated."

Hardy holds out hope that she'll be able to clear herself and compete in the Beijing Games. "We’re going to have a hearing before the start of the Olympic Games, and as soon as possible to try to make sure that I can compete, because I know that I’m innocent and we just have to prove this.”

Does Hardy have enemies?  Sabotage?

No stealth molecule in CERA EPO: Roche denies WADA claim

Apparently WADA didn't understand the science, or WADA president John Fahey misspoke.  Roche, the manufacturer of the new CERA variety of EPO denies claims of a stealth molecule embedded in the drug to catch dopers. (Science Blogs)  (Update on how Roche helped WADA with CERA EPO detection)

Roche Holding, which makes a version of a stamina-building drug illegally used by some athletes, said it didn't plant a molecule in the substance to help identify it in doping tests, spokeswoman Martina Rupp said, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

Riccardo Riccò, a Tour de France rider, tested positive for erythropoietin, or EPO, and was ejected from the cycling race last week after winning two stages. The Saunier Duval-Scott team fired the Italian and withdrew from the race.

John Fahey, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Roche planted a molecule in its red-cell boosting product CERA, or Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator, during its manufacture to help anti-doping authorities detect its illegal use. Roche sells the drug as Mircera.

"The information that a special molecule has been added to Mircera is wrong," Rupp said in an e-mail.

WADA clarified the situation on Wednesday:

WADA issued a statement Wednesday saying that Fahey's remarks had been misinterpreted. The agency said the drug can be detected because Roche and accredited sport-doping laboratories worked with the agency early.

"WADA received the molecule well in advance and was able to develop ways to detect it, including through the current EPO detection method," the agency said in the statement.

So apparently no stealth molecule in the CERA drug allowing detection.  A good idea not implemented.

Apparently no 'fingerprint': Roche helped WADA with CERA EPO tests

Where is the truth on this issue?  Did the pharmaceutics company Roche help WADA develop a test for CERA EPO or not?  Is there a stealth molecule in Roche's CERA EPO or not?

Last summer when the Tour de France ran anti-doping tests for the new CERA EPO, there was a story that the drugs manufacturer -- Roche -- embedded a chemical fingerprint on the compound.

WADA is lips sealed on this, but leaks say that Tour de France EPO drug cheat Riccardo Ricco fell to a stealth molecule attached to the drug by the manufacturer (Roche).  The new EPO preparation  -- CERA, a pegylated version of EPO  -- appears to have a trojan horse embedded somewhere that can be detected in WADA labs.

Roche denied the claims at the time:

Apparently WADA didn't understand the science, or WADA president John Fahey misspoke.  Roche, the manufacturer of the new CERA variety of EPO denies claims of a stealth molecule embedded in the drug to catch dopers. (Science Blogs)

Now Roche is saying that the company did cooperate with WADA in enabling lab detection of CERA EPO.  (IHT)

The maker of a drug at the center of a new Tour de France scandal says it collaborated with anti-doping experts to help catch cheats in sports.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding AG teamed up with the World Anti-Doping Agency since 2004 once clinical trials showed that the blood-booster CERA could become a doping drug of choice.

"We were very pleased that this collaboration with WADA has been productive," Roche spokeswoman Claudia Schmitt said Wednesday.

The new test was implemented at the Tour de France and will be utilized in retesting Beijing 2008 Olympics samples.

With an effective laboratory blood test finally available, three stage winners in the 2008 Tour — Stefan Schumacher of Germany and Italy's Riccardo Ricco (EPO gets you kisses, photo at right) and Leonardo Piepoli — have been caught cheating with CERA, an advanced version of EPO. Schumacher and Piepoli were exposed Monday.

On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee announced it would retest samples taken from athletes in all sports at the Beijing Games in August to search for traces of CERA.

Roche, who says it monitors worldwide distribution of the drug gives this overview:

"At that time it was in clinical development and WADA was thinking it could be a new doping product," Schmitt said. "We immediately jumped in to help. We provided data and sent them samples of Mircera so they could work and develop the test."

Mircera is effective for longer periods than EPO and requires patients to inject themselves less often.

Half the active substance still works in the body 134 hours after a dose, compared with 40 hours for EPO.

"This is also the reason why it has helped WADA to detect it more easily," Schmitt said.

As the first commentator suggests, Roche did not embed a fingerprint moiety on the CERA EPO; however Roche did assist with lab detection techniques.

Daily Steroids injection

1.  Doped up Tour de France cheat Ricco tried to flee dope testers. (Can you blame him?)  (SI)

2.  THe University of Utah improves testosterone dope testing.  (Daily Utah Chronicle)

3.  Arizona might not let you dope up your greyhounds.  (KOLD)

4.  On-going task of finding the golden witness in the Roger Clemens investigation.  (NY Times)

5.  Big stash of drugs uncovered in Bakersfield.  (KERO 23)

6. Louisville man and wife indicted for steroid sales.  (her unfortunate name: Krystal Knuckles) (WHAS)

Gene doping at the Olympics: be afraid, be very afraid

On the eve of the Olympics, the Times Online ran a story looking at disconcerting trends developing in the doping world.  Numero Uno on this list was the offer of 'gene doping' (actually stem cell doping) by a Chinese physician at a Chinese hospital.  (sports stem cell doping may be the second best use of the technology)

Startling new evidence of a burgeoning underground doping culture in China emerged last night as a hospital doctor said that he was prepared to give illegal performance-enhancing gene therapy treatment to an Olympic swimmer. The doctor was caught on camera by a German television investigator saying that he wanted £12,000 for a two-week treatment that would help to strengthen the lungs of a fictitious American swimmer.

The opening paragraph refers to gene doping, however the German story develops more aspects of illicit sports doping for 2008:

The documentary, broadcast by ARD on Germany’s main channel last night, went on to show evidence that drugs firms in China are prepared to sell steroids that have not passed full clinical trials, as well as erythropoietin (EPO), the blood-boosting drug, at a price far cheaper than in the West. In the case of one steroid, 100g was sold for €150 (about £120) when the price in Europe would have been more than €6,000.

...With the Olympics beginning in Beijing in a little more than two weeks, the documentary evidence of cheap, on-demand gene therapy alarmed David Howman, the director general of the World AntiDoping Agency (Wada). “This is worse than my worst fears,” he said.

When the head of a hospital gene therapy department in China was approached by a fictitious American swimming coach seeking stem-cell treatment for one of his swimmers, the doctor replied: “Yes. We have no experience with sportspeople here, but the treatment is safe and we can help you.”

That's doctor in whom to entrust confidence:  "no experience with sportspeople".

Asked how it would work, the doctor said: “It strengthens lung function and stem cells go into the bloodstream and reach the organs. It takes two weeks. I recommend four intravenous injections . . . 40 million stem cells or double that, the more the better. We also use human growth hormones, but you have to be careful because they are on the doping list.”

And the price? “Twenty-four thousand dollars,” the doctor said.

Ouch, expensive, but then again swimmers spend 100,000 in trainers and coaches.  Here is a paragraph from a consensus panel of international experts on the "Molecular basis of connective tissue and muscle injuries in sport "

[Arne Ljungqvist, Martin P. Schwellnus, Norbert Bachl,et al, Clinics in Sports Medicine,  27, Pages 231-239 (Jan 2008)]

Mesenchymal stem cells are adult tissue-producing cells that have been isolated from various parts of the body, including cartilage, bone marrow, synovium, adipose tissue, articular cartilage, muscle, and tendons ^{[70], [71], [72]}. Potentially, mesenchymal stem cells can be used for tissue-engineering strategies through implantation of scaffolds and gels, for gene delivery, and for production of growth factor to stimulate tissue repair or inhibit tissue degradation ^{[73], [74], [75]}. Most studies have been conducted in animal models. Some studies of human bone, cartilage, and tendons have produced positive results ^{[76], [77], [78]}. Further controlled clinical trials in musculoskeletal injuries in humans are warranted, however. Reasons for the lack of progress in this field include the need to find the optimal sources of and methods for the differentiation of cells and for the development of optimal surgical delivery materials and methods ^{[79], [80]}. Although some studies have shown negative effects, including ectopic calcification and connective tissue overgrowth [78], further clinical trials should be undertaken to determine whether long-term complications exist.

The Chinese doctor appears to have the protocol down a little better than one would think after reading the paragraph above.  How did this happen?  If practiced would the protocol lead to serious complications or death?

Will the 2008 Olympics be the first to see 'stem cell doping'?  (more later)

Daily Steroids Injection

If the news isn't about Brett Favre it's about Dara Torres.  Good review of her career. (Orange County Register)

2.  South Africa remember a drug-riddled Marco Pantani, Riccardo Ricco's idol.  (IOL)

3.  Ricco remembers Floyd Landis;  doubts the validity of the EPO test.  (The Guardian)

4.  The New York Times picks up on suspicions about Jamaican runners.  (NY Times)

5.  Missouri's swimmer Max Jaben could be in trouble with the NCAA because of positive drug test.  (Swimming News)

Daily Steroids Dose

1.  Simon Vroemen tested positive on the B test too.  Says D-bol doesn't benefit Steeplechase.  (Dutch News)

2.  Kentucky horse racing committee wants ban on steroids.  (Kentucky.com)

3.  Morgan Hamm's use of  Triamcinolone acetonide, prescribed by his doctor will not bar him from Beijing in 2008.  (AFP)

4.  Vancouver to build new WADA doping lab.  (Globe and Mail)

5.  Judge delays decision on Chambers until Friday.  (The Guardian)

D (dope) Day for UK's Dwain Chambers

Today, the UK's premier sprinter Dwain Chambers learns whether his appeal to the country's Olympic committee will allow the tainted sprinter to compete at Beijing in 2008.

Chambers case is particularly disturbing.  Chambers worked with tainted coach Remi Korchemny who obtained drugs from BALCO.  Chambers did not just use a little nandrolone from supplements; he doped with the cream, and the clear (anabolic steroids) HGH, insulin, and modafinil.

Chambers legal case stems from the BOA (British Olympic Association) lifetime ban for drug-cheats.  Chambers contends this is restraint of trade (interesting; couldn't any common criminal in prison claim this?).  The BOA fears a protracted battle.

A formidable array of opponents line up against the disgraced sprinter.  The Telegraph for instance.  A long list of UK Olympic athletes including Chambers sprinting foe Craig Pickering, oppose the sprinter's Olympic dreams.  Famous UK track coach Frank Dick also opposes the sprinter.

Chambers is seeking a temporary injunction against the British Olympic Association's rule that prevents athletes who have committed a serious doping offence from representing Team GB at future Games. As Chambers becomes the first athlete to challenge the BOA rule in court Jo Pavey, Martyn Rooney and Goldie Sayers, three leading British track and field athletes, have joined the large contingent supporting the 16-year-old bylaw.

Two weeks ago, when the British Athletes' Commission revealed more than 100 members had signed its petition to keep the bylaw, only Craig Pickering, the sprinter, and 800 metres runner Becky Lyne were among Chambers' contemporaries to have put pen to paper. But since then Beijing-bound Pavey, the Commonwealth 5,000m silver medallist, the 400m runner Rooney and javelin thrower Sayers have said yes to the bylaw remaining in place. Helen Clitheroe, Andrew Steele and Will Sharman are among others who have signed the petition along with the former Olympic champions Sally Gunnell and David Hemery.

The Times Online discusses the Chambers legal challenge:

Dwain Chambers will sit in Court 76 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today and await a verdict that could define his career or end it. If the sprinter is successful in gaining an historic injunction temporarily lifting his Olympic ban, he will be added to Great Britain’s modest list of medal contenders for the Games in Beijing. If he fails then, subject to an appeal, he may have nowhere left to run.

Jonathan Crystal, QC, will argue that the BOA bylaw banning convicted dopers for life is “an unreasonable restraint of trade”. The irony is that Chambers’s trade has been restrained by Euromeetings, an umbrella group of leading promoters who decided last year not to issue invitations to drugs cheats. Chambers has been able to run only at low-level meetings this year and remains excluded from the grand-prix circuit.

Crystal will say that it is unfair that the sprinter has served a two-year doping ban, in accordance with the rules of the IAAF, the sport’s world governing body, but still has an Olympic ban. He will state that other countries do not have such a bylaw and a number of former offenders will be competing in Beijing. Robert Englehart, QC, for the BOA, will ask why it has taken Chambers four years to present his case.

However the Birmingham Post offers a spirited defense of Chambers:

To describe the issue as difficult does not even begin to untangle the many threads that have become so twisted. The High Court will decide on the legal position, whether Chambers can go to Beijing, but there is no one to arbitrate the moral case. Should he be allowed?

The answer to that depends on an individual’s beliefs about the what is good for athletics and what is good for Dwain Chambers the person.

Clearly as a human being Chambers knows he has done wrong and is contrite but more importantly clean of the seven banned substances he once used to cheat himself, his friends and his rivals.

There may be a physiological legacy of the drugs he has taken and some mental benefits having experienced certain high pressure situations he might not otherwise have reached. Both are valid concerns but as things stand neither can be proved - or disproved.

What we are left with, therefore, is a series of related issues each of which seem to point towards Chambers being allowed to run in Beijing.

There is apprehension about the message it would send out, a fear that other, younger athletes would look at his case and deduce that a two-year ban is a small sacrifice to pay for a shot at an Olympic gold medal.

That theory breaks down because if they serve a ban they will have been caught and will have been stripped of their medal.

The Telegraph calls Chambers regimen of drugs (he admits to) "The Magnificant Seven"  Chambers drug cocktail is typical VIcto Conte PED use.

Dwain Chambers took the following seven drugs, according to Victor Conte, of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), who supplied him:

• Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG): Once undetectable, this is the designer steroid, nicknamed "the clear", that Chambers tested positive for in 2003.
• Testosterone cream: Used in winter to work alongside THG.
• Erythropoietin (EPO): Boosts the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells and once thought to be used solely in stamina-based sports.
• Human Growth Hormone: By injection and used during the winter to aid recovery from heavy weight sessions.
• Insulin: Another one used during heavy winter training and used in conjunction with dextrose, whey protein and creatine.
• Modafinil: The American sprinter and drug-cheat Kelli White tried to get away with this stimulant as a treatment for narcolepsy. One tablet is taken an hour before competition.
• undefined: Used to accelerate the metabolic rate before races. Two tablets taken one hour before competition.

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.