The triple Olympics champion in 2000, Marion Jones, who is yet to recover from accusations of drug use, faced another crisis of her life after a positive test for erythropoietin taken at the US championships in Indianapolis.

Jones faces a two-year ban from athletics if the B sample confirms the A sample as revealed in the test conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

From Guardian.co.uk:

In 1999 Jones’s then husband, the world shot-put champion CJ Hunter, tested positive for record levels of the anabolic steroid nandralone which forced him to withdraw from the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where she won both sprints and a third gold in the 4x400m relay as well as bronze medals in the short relay and long jump.

After he was banned for two years Jones left him and started a relationship with Tim Montgomery, who like her was coached by the Jamaican-born Trevor Graham. Montgomery set a world record for the 100m of 9.78 sec at Paris in 2002, a mark subsequently annulled after he was banned for two years in December due to evidence given in a federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (Balco) in San Francisco.

A number of witnesses involved in the case claimed Jones, a former basketball player, was involved in taking banned performance-enhancing drugs. She has always denied the allegation.

The American sprinter left the hotel where the athletes were staying at 6am, reportedly “for personal reasons”.

Tags: anabolic steroid, BALCO, erythropoietin, Marion Jones, Nandralone

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For Darren Campbell, Britain’s highest-ranked sprinter at one time, a court appearance in San Francisco of Dwain Chambers‘ coach Remi Korchemny on charges of distributing performance enhancing drugs added further to his suspicion that his rival had not acted alone.

“Whether he knew [he was taking drugs] or not, I never believed Dwain was solely accountable. I like Dwain, but I’m upset with the whole thing . . . it’s just dirty,” the silver medalist in the 200 meters in Sydney.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Korchemny’s alleged involvement, with three other men, in what amounts to a conspiracy to provide banned substances and to deliberately circumnavigate the drug-testing programme is a severe setback in Chambers’ efforts to avoid a two-year banas a result of his positive test for the designer anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).

There is no doubt, though, that the announcement on Thursday by John Ashcroft, the Attorney General of the United States, that criminal charges had been brought against Korchemny, Greg Anderson, a personal trainer of the baseball star Barry Bonds, and two executives of the California-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) – the founder and owner Victor Conte and vice-president Jim Valente – was a watershed in the fight against doping. All have pleaded not guilty.

“Who’d have thought six months ago that you would see the Attorney General of the United States waving a 42-count indictment?” said Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Ex-President George Bush said, “The use of performance- enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message: that there are shortcuts to accomplishment and that performance is more important than character.”

Tags: anabolic steroid, BALCO, Barry Bonds, Darren Campbell, Dwain Chambers, Performance enhancing drugs, Steroids in Baseball, Tetrahydrogestrinone, THG

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Alvin Harrison recently created a unique but unwanted piece of history when he was suspended for a period of four years by the United States Anti-Doping Agency after admitting taking a cocktail of banned performance enhancing substances.

Alvin became the second half of the first set of twins to be banned for drugs. His brother, Calvin, was suspended for two years in August for a second doping violation involving the stimulant modafinil.

From Guardian.co.uk:

At least Alvin has done something his twin has not managed: he is the first male athlete to be banned without first failing a drug test.

Usada suspended him on the basis of a “non-analytical positive” after he admitted using a variety of banned substances since 2001 after being presented with evidence gathered by the agency during its investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

The list included anabolic steroids, insulin, human growth hormone, modafinil, erythropoietin (EPO) and tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), the designer drug for which Britain’s Dwain Chambers tested positive.

Harrison’s case is the second non-analytical positive involving an athlete linked to Balco, the San Francisco laboratory at the centre of the biggest drugs scandal in sporting history.

The American sprinter, Kelli White, was banned and stripped of her 100 and 200 metres gold medals from the 2003 world championship after admitting drugs offences. Like White and Chambers, Harrison had worked closely with the Ukraine-born coach Remi Korchemny, one of four men facing criminal charges in connection with their Balco involvement.

Usada said yesterday that 10 other athletes had received sanctions for positive tests for the steroid THG or modafinil, two of the drugs linked to Balco.

Alvin Harrison won 4x400m relay Olympic golds at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympic and is the third member of the US relay squad from Sydney to have either failed tests or been banned for doping, the others being his brother Calvin and Jerome Young.

Tags: Alvin Harrison, anabolic steroids, BALCO, Dwain Chambers, EPO, erythropoietin, human growth hormone, insulin, modafinil, performance-enhancing substances, Tetrahydrogestrinone, THG

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The founder of BALCO, Victor Conte, who has been convicted in a steroid distribution scheme, is reported to have said that baseball star Barry Bonds knew he was taking designer steroids.

An ESPN website report, citing an unnamed source close to Conte speaking to ESPN magazine, said Bonds took a major interest in the composition of the substances he used to bulk his frame.

From Foxsports.com.au:

The source said Conte told him Bonds sought BALCO’s services to “get jacked” and knew exactly what he was taking.

Bonds has denied knowingly taking steroids even though his trainer, Greg Anderson, joined Conte and two other men in being convicted in the BALCO steroid probe.

Conte has said he had no dealings with BALCO baseball clients and denied the source’s story to ESPN on Friday.

Bonds testified to a grand jury in 2004 that he did not think items he received from Anderson were steroids, even though prosecutors believe they were, according to testimony uncovered by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The report said Patrick Arnold, who pleaded guilty in April to distributing steroids, made a similar admission.

Tags: BALCO, BALCO steroid, Barry Bonds, designer steroids, steroid, Victor Conte

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Federal authorities are considering whether they can expand the investigation beyond traditional drug distribution to investigate allegations that Lance Armstrong and other top cyclists engaged in doping.

The authorities are striving to identify whether Armstrong, the managers and owners of his cycling teams in the past and his teammates entered into a conspiracy for defrauding their sponsors by doping in order to garner more money and prizes besides improving performance.

From NYTimes.com:

The authorities will also closely examine the contract between Armstrong and S.C.A. Promotions, a company that refused to pay a $5 million bonus in 2004 after a book that alleged Armstrong engaged in doping, one of the people said. Armstrong sued S.C.A. Promotions, and the case — which resulted in hours of testimony by Armstrong and others under oath — was later settled out of court. S.C.A. was forced to pay $5 million and about $2.5 million in penalties.

“Federal fraud charges are fairly straightforward; they apply to any scheme to acquire money or property through deceit or misrepresentation,” said Daniel C. Richman, a professor of law at Columbia University and former federal prosecutor. “In this case, the authorities would have to prove that Armstrong was misrepresenting himself to sponsors by saying that he was clean but was actually using performance-enhancing drugs and profiting from it.”

The federal agent Jeff Novitzky, who has been the lead investigator on the major doping investigations since the BALCO case began in 2002, is playing a direct role in the investigation.

Tags: BALCO, doping, doping investigations, Lance Armstrong, Performance enhancing drugs

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According to a lawyer representing the American baseball superstar, Barry Bonds, steroids in the form of unknowingly used creams and oils may have been used by Bonds.

It is being claimed that Bonds made use of these substances out of blind faith on Greg Anderson, his personal trainer and long-time friend.

From News.bbc.co.uk:

Anderson faces steroid distribution charges after an investigation into the Balco laboratories.

The firm is at the centre of a wide reaching probe into doping in the US.

“Barry had no reason to believe he was taking anything illegal, administrated by his best friend in the world,” said attorney Mike Rains.

Rains said that Bonds used the cream on his arm and what was described as flaxseed oil on his tongue.

It seems that there is no respite for the game of baseball, which has been haunted by accusations of steroid use by some of the biggest names in history of the game.

Tags: BALCO, Barry Bonds, flaxseed oil, Greg Anderson, steroid distribution, steroid use, steroids

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BALCO founder Victor Conte said that the recently developed anti-doping fight characterized by collection of blood samples from minor league players is fundamentally flawed.

Conte remarked that players will know in advance when they will be tested and said this appears to be ‘announced’ or ‘IQ’ testing instead of drug testing”.

From NYdailynews.com:

“A baseball player could possibly inject HGH as soon as leaving a ballpark and test negative from a blood sample collected ‘post-game’ the following day,” says Conte, who taught BALCO’s customers in Olympic sports how to evade supposedly strict anti-doping programs.

“HGH injections are routinely done at night before bed, so a morning blood sample would be the target,” says Conte. “The available test for HGH requires a random blood collection protocol to be considered anything more than a PR move by MLB.”

Growth hormone is believed to have replaced steroids as the muscle-builder of choice in baseball since the league began testing for steroids. HGH has been banned by MLB since 2005.

Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of the prohibitive list of the World Anti-Doping Agency, expressed a different view by telling to the Daily News that this is a big step in conceptual terms.

Tags: BALCO, doping, growth hormone, HGH, HGH injections, Olympic sports, steroids, testing for steroids, Victor Conte

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A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court heard arguments from lawyers and prosecutors for Barry Bonds on whether the prosecutors should be allowed to use positive steroid drug tests as evidence at perjury trial of Bonds.

Bonds was indicated in 2007 on charges that he lied before a grand jury about his use of performance enhancing drugs during BALCO investigations.

From Nytimes.com:

The prosecutors are appealing a ruling in February by United States District Judge Susan Illston, the judge presiding over Bonds’s perjury case, that excluded the drug tests from 2000 and 2001, as well as doping calendars and logs. The judge said the evidence could not be authenticated without the testimony of Bonds’s former trainer Greg Anderson, who spent more than a year in prison refusing to cooperate with the government’s investigation.

At issue on Thursday was whether the evidence could be authenticated without Anderson’s testimony. Prosecutors want James Valente, a former executive at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, to testify that Bonds authorized Anderson to have the samples tested. The defense said that drug tests are often wrong because of forgeries and lies, and that secondhand information from Valente should not be admissible.

Peter Keane, a professor at Golden Gate University School of Law, remarked that the government has a “stiff climb” since appeals courts are generally reluctant to overrule a trial judge ruling on evidence admissibility, especially before a trial.

Tags: BALCO, Barry Bonds, Performance enhancing drugs, steroid drug

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Floyd Landis, a former teammate of cycling champion Lance Armstrong for three years, is persuading other riders to confess to doping, as per the New York Times. Landis has been struggling to resurrect his career after he was tested positive for testosterone after his win at the 2006 Tour de France.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) welcomed admission of Landis that he used a cocktail of doping products such as steroids, growth hormone, and EPO after four long years of denials.

From Guardian.co.uk:

With Landis so far the only witness to his allegations, it is this question that seems likely to hamper any investigation. The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) welcomed the 34-year-old’s admission, after four years of denials, that he used a cocktail of doping products and methods, including EPO, growth hormone, steroids and blood-doping, from 2002, the year he joined Armstrong’s US Postal team.

Wada also pledged to look into his allegations concerning Armstrong and others, and a federal investigation remains a possibility, with reports that Jeff Novitzky, who helped expose Marion Jones and others in the Balco case, has interviewed Landis.

The reaction of Wada and the US Food and Drug Administration – for whom Novitzky is an agent – stood in stark contrast to that of the International Cycling Union (UCI), with the world governing body’s president, Pat McQuaid, quick to dismiss Landis as “a guy seeking revenge”, and claiming that his allegations followed a failed attempt to “blackmail” the Tour of California organisers into inviting his new team.

Late last night, the affair took a surreal twist with Armstrong’s decision to publish private emails allegedly sent by Landis to Messick and others, which – claimed an accompanying statement – “reveals a troubling, angry and misplaced effort at retribution by Landis for his perceived slights”.

Pat McQuaid, the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), dismissed Landis as “a guy seeking revenge”.

Tags: BALCO, doping, Floyd Landis, growth hormone, Lance Armstrong, steroids, testosterone

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Garfield Ellenwood, the former Bethune-Cookman head track and field coach, has accepted a two-year suspension imposed on him by the United States Anti-Doping Agency that was announced on January 28, 2010.

This suspension will mean that Ellenwood will not be allowed to coach in any meet governed by USA Track and Field or get involved with any national Olympic committee during the two-year period.

From News-Journalonline.com:

The suspension stems from Ellenwood’s testimony in May 2008 at the perjury trial of track coach Trevor Graham relating to the federal BALCO probe. Ellenwood testified Graham introduced him to a steroids dealer and he used steroids for a short period as a track athlete.

“That was 12 years ago,” Ellenwood said this week. “We live and learn. (Graham) was my track coach for six months in North Carolina. Since then I’ve dedicated myself to make sure kids don’t make the same mistakes I made.”

Ellenwood, who coached former B-CU hurdler Ronnie Ash to two national championships last year, was fired by the school Sept. 8, 2009, for “violations of university policy as well as (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) and NCAA rules,” according to a statement released by the athletics department to announce the firing of Ellenwood and assistant coach Kia Davis.

Ellenwood, however, remarked that the USADA suspension would not keep him away from the job of coaching elite athletes or making a return to college coaching.

Tags: BALCO, steroids

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