Huge doping scandal in US sport.

[Fidel]

I didn´t find anything about it in the US media so far, but it seems like the US sport is in for a big big doping scandal. There is a drug called Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG, a steroid) that was produced in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. Appearently all of the customers of that company where tested and 40 - 50 of them seemed to be positive. Among the athletes that were tested are Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Kelli White and Bill Romanowski. No telling so far who was tested positive but since there where so many positive cases the names mentioned might have been positive as well. Sorry I don´t have any more info so far but the story is fairly new and that´s how it is passed in the german and the whole eurpean media.

Not trying to stirr up anything here. It´s just that I allways thought something like this would happen. I said it here more then once. Right now the names are just rumors (I didn´t make them up though, I just posted the names that were mentioned in the media) but the testing did happen and there were 40 - 50 positive athletes most of them stars and superstars out of the pro leagues, track and field and cycling.

Here are two links to a german newsmag where the drug the testing and the names are mentioned:

Link
Link

[Fidel]

Just wanted to say again that I don´t want to stirr up anything here (the guys who´ve been around a little longer probably know what I mean). Only passing on some news that I thought were interessting and that I couldn´t find in the US media.

By the way, it seems like that drug was used heavily for a pretty long time. The athletes were feeling safe cause there wasn´t a test for this drug so far. Then a couple weeks or months ago a US laboratory developed a test and caught alot of athlestes on the wrong foot.

[Murphy3]

will be interesting to see how this turns out..
but, one way or another, this type of crap needs to be taken out of sports

[thebac]

It was on the first page of the sports section in the Washington Post on Friday. I think that once it's confirmed who is guilty of doping, and once the World Series is over, we'll see a lot more on this, b/c it is HUGE if true.

It's just right now the media are reluctant to accuse anyone yet without concrete evidence, and NFL and Baseball Playoffs are overshadowing all other sports here (and Kobe should be grateful for that, otherwise it'd be Kobe 24/7).

[grbh]

Link

MLB All-Star, sprinter clients of BALCO

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com news services


SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds and sprint champion Kelli White were among the 40 athletes subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in the budding steroid scandal, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday.

According to the report, Victor Conte, the president of under-investigation BALCO Laboratories, told the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle that his top clients are being asked to testify about tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG.

Conte told the newspapers that seven professional football players and five Major League Baseball players were among those compelled to testify in hearings on the West Coast that are expected to begin next week.

"I do know that Barry has received a subpoena," Conte wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle. "There are at least seven NFL players that I know of, plus at least four professional baseball players, that have received a subpoena. Most of the other athletes are from track and field. My understanding is that 40 elite Olympic and professional athletes have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury."

In the June issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine, Bonds enthused about Conte's physical fitness regimen and nutritional advice, saying, "I'm just shocked by what they've been able to do for me."

Bonds' agent, Scott Boras, told The Chronicle last week that the investigation "really doesn't involve Bonds."

White confirmed to the Mercury News that she was subpoenaed but denied a role in the steroid inquiry.

"I really don't have anything to do with that situation," she said. "That's not me."

The doping scandal erupted earlier this week when news broke that three track and field athletes who flunked drug tests had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury that is investigating what one anti-doping official calls "an international doping conspiracy."

The three athletes were tested at the U.S. Track & Field Nationals in Palo Alto, Calif., in June and one of the athletes was a client of BALCO. The controversial nutritionist boasts of a roster of professional and Olympic sports stars as customers, and one source close to the case said Thursday that "the names I've heard are some of the biggest names in sports."

"I know of no other drug bust that is larger than this involving the number of athletes involved," anti-doping official Terry Madden, director of the U.S Anti-Doping Agency, told The Associated Press on Friday. He refused to reveal the names or genders of the athletes, or to be more specific about how many had tested positive.

On Thursday, Madden identified Conte as the alleged supplier of the previously undetected steroid THG, which was detected in the three athletes -- a charge Conte has denied.

"What we have uncovered appears to be intentional doping of the worst sort," Madden said during a news conference. He called the case "a conspiracy involving chemists, coaches and certain athletes to defraud their competitors, and the American and world public who pay to attend sporting events."

In September, agents for the Internal Revenue Service raided BALCO, in Burlingame, Calif., carting out boxes of records and raising suspicions that federal agents are interested in its finances. By then, Madden said, they already had been told about USADA's findings. Besides Bonds and White, BALCO's clients include, Bill Romanowksi, and Olympic stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.


Conte said Thursday that BALCO was not the source of the substance.

"In my opinion, this is about jealous competitive coaches and athletes that all have a history of promoting and using performance-enhancing agents being completely hypocritical in their actions," he said.

[Fidel]

Seems like Jason Giambi is in it too. He definitly looks like it.

[dallas_esq]

Originally posted by: Murphy3
will be interesting to see how this turns out..
but, one way or another, this type of crap needs to be taken out of sports

insightful. Did you read that somewhere or just now make it up?

[Fidel]

The IAAF anounced today that they´ll retest every sample from the track and field world champs on THG.

Also all 32 IOC sanctioned laboratorys will test all the samples they still got reaching back 3-4 months. Which means that nearly every big sporting event and every major sport will see retests.

[grbh]

Norm talking about this on the ticket. Evidently Shane Mosley evidently will be testifying next week. There are questions about this companies accounting, and a two month treatment of GHB costs $20,000. Definately not for the amateur athlete.