Two decades ago, the world witnessed Ben Johnson fall to disgrace, yellow-eyed, shame-faced and seemingly faster than light, The Canadian set the image for the public perception of a drug cheat but the Johnson model is close to obsolete today.

Today, anti-doping officials share unanimity about what the cheats are using. Blood-doping, erythropoietin (EPO) and its variants, growth hormone, testosterone and designer steroids are manipulated for avoiding detection.

From Guardian.co.uk:

The principal concern surrounds blood doping, the practice of boosting the body’s capacity to transport oxygen by increasing the number of red blood cells. Once thought to be the preserve of endurance athletes such as cyclists, long-distance runners and Nordic skiers, revelations about the methods used by the sprinters Marion Jones and Dwain Chambers demonstrate that, used in the right way, blood doping can be of benefit to any athlete.

Michael Ashenden, project coordinator for Science and Industry Against Blood Doping, a Brisbane-based organisation that has developed tests to identify blood dopers, is unequivocal about the threat it poses to the integrity of the Games.

“There is no question that there will be athletes that are using drugs going to Beijing, and no one close to sport should believe otherwise. I don’t see any indication that the underlying problem has changed in the four years since Athens, and it may even have got worse.”

It is believed that these modern doping techniques and products will be powering some athletes to glory in the Olympics.

Tags: Ben Johnson, blood doping, designer steroids, Dwain Chambers, EPO, erythropoietin, growth hormone, Marion Jones, modern doping techniques, testosterone

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Hurdler Duane Ross has been banned for a period of two years by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after evidence of drug use was uncovered.

The results of Ross since November 2, 2001 will be scratched from the records after new information emerged from the ongoing investigation into the BALCO scandal.

From Espnstar.com:

The North Carolina native, now 37, was one of a number of athletes to testify against disgraced coach Trevor Graham, from whose stable of athletes the likes of Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin received drug bans.

But a USADA statement confirmed Ross, who competed in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, has been banned “for using banned performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic agents and hormones, in violation of International Association of Athletics Federations Anti-Doping Rules“.

The statement continued: “Mr. Ross’s sanction resulted from information recently received by USADA during separate investigations arising from information obtained during the BALCO conspiracy.

“In addition to his suspension, which began on February 5, 2010, all of Ross’s competitive results will be disqualified, including forfeiture of all medals, points, and prizes since November 2, 2001.”

The ban means that Ross will keep his 1999 World Championship bronze medal, won in a personal best of 13.12 seconds in Seville.

Tags: anabolic agents, BALCO scandal, Duane Ross, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery

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A senior athletics official has revealed that Marion Jones was under suspicion for using performance enhancing drugs from 2000 onwards.

This statement was made by the officer after the sprinter was sentenced to six months in prison for perjury.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Marion Jones was under suspicion for using performance-enhancing drugs from 2000 onwards, a senior athletics official admitted after the sprinter was sentenced to six months in prison for perjury. It was during the Olympics in Sydney, where Jones won a record five medals, including three golds, that it emerged that CJ Hunter, her shot-putter husband, had tested positive for record levels of testosterone.

‘[There were] certainly no suspicions before,’ said Craig Masback, chief executive of USA Track & Field. ‘No evidence, no phone calls, no tests. Marion was someone who at age 15, 16 had made our Olympic team and so clearly was someone of extraordinary talent.

‘The fact that she had not done well in college and then made a remarkable comeback all seemed logical, within the arc of her career. Obviously, once the CJ news emerged we had concerns.’

It was during the Olympics in Sydney that her shot-putter husband, had tested positive for record levels of testosterone. Jones acknowledged in October 2006 that she took the steroid THG and admitted that she lied to federal investigators in November 2003.

Tags: Marion Jones, Performance enhancing drugs, steroid, testosterone, THG

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Seven members of the US relay team that won medals at the Sydney Olympics have won back the relay medals. The athletes were stripped of their medals after their team-mate Marion Jones was caught doping at the time.

The IOC decision to strip athletes from medals was overruled by the Court of arbitration for sport.

From Guardian.co.uk:

The court of arbitration for sport ruled today in favour of the women, who appealed against the International Olympic Committee’s decision to disqualify them from the Sydney Olympics.

The court said athletics rules in 2000 did not allow teams to be affected by one member’s doping.

In Sydney, Jearl Miles-Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander Clark and Andrea Anderson were part of the squad that won gold in the 4x400m relay.

Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson were on the 4x100m bronze medal squad. All but Perry joined the appeal.

It seems that luck was on side of the athletes truly because they were innocent and didn’t indulge into cheating like Jones.

Tags: doping, Marion Jones, Sydney Olympics

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The controversial US-based coach, Trevor Graham, was recently found on one of three charges of lying to federal investigators about his association with a steroids dealer. Graham could face a retrial after the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the other two counts.

Graham, who guided the careers of the sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, had been charged over false claims about his relationship with Angel Heredia who admitted supplying performance enhancing drugs.

From Guardian.co.uk:

The maximum he could receive for the one count of lying is five years in prison and a $250,000 (£127,000) fine, although a typical sentence for a first-time offender is less than one year.

It was the Jamaican-born coach who sparked the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (Balco) scandal in 2003 when he sent a sample of the anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) to the United States Anti-Doping Agency. He then found himself at the centre of the biggest drugs haul in track and field.

In the wake of the Graham trial, where the American 400m runner Antonio Pettigrew admitted using steroids since 1997, Britain’s relay team at the 1997 World Championships could be in for an unexpected gold medal. Led by Roger Black they finished second in Athens behind a US quartet who included Pettigrew. The IAAF’s president, Lamine Diack, wants to look into extending the limit on retrospective drug bans beyond eight years.

William Keane, the court-appointed attorney of Graham, said he would probably file a motion for an acquittal on the one charge that was found proved.

Tags: anabolic steroid, Marion Jones, Performance enhancing drugs, steroids dealer, Tetrahydrogestrinone, THG, Tim Montgomery, Trevor Graham

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Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, recently told Reuters that IOC will be looking at ways for closing any legal loopholes after seven teammates of disgraced U.S. sprinter Marion Jones won an appeal allowing them to keep their medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The IOC wants to introduce stricter new rules to prevent athletes from keeping their medals when one of their teammates is found committing a doping offence.

From in.reuters.com:

Jones was stripped of the five medals she won at the 2000 Games when she confessed in 2007 to using steroids.

The IOC and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) also ordered Jones’s team mates in the 4×100 and 4×400 metres relays to hand back their medals.

But they refused and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The court upheld their appeal on Friday, saying there were no rules in place at the time of the Sydney Olympics that allowed entire teams to be disqualified.

U.S. IOC member Anita DeFrantz told Reuters she sympathised with innocent athletes who were punished for the wrongdoing of others.

“I detest doping in sport. Those who dope are cowards,” she wrote in an email to Reuters.

Rogge said the IOC respects the judgment but will study the consequences to see how it can improve its actions.

Tags: doping, doping in sport, Marion Jones, steroids

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The Canadian coach, Charlie Francis, whose star sprinter, Ben Johnson, was the first Olympic champion to be stripped of a gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids died in Toronto at the age of 61 years.

Francis received worldwide criticism after he made an unapologetic admission that his athletes used performance enhancing drugs.

From NYTimes.com:

In 1989, Francis was barred for life from coaching in Canada when he told an inquiry that Johnson and 10 other athletes had used performance-enhancing drugs as part of training programs he designed.

Francis continued to advise runners from around the world, in books, on the Internet and in person. For a time in 2003, the American sprinters Marion Jones and her companion, Tim Montgomery, worked with him in Toronto. Responding to pressure from sponsors and track officials, Jones and Montgomery left Francis. Both later admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs.

“Charlie’s legacy is multi-layered,” said Dr. Steven Ungerleider, a psychologist and author of “Faust’s Gold: Inside the East German Doping Machine.” “He wasn’t just an isolated coach, with an isolated athlete; he left this legacy that contaminated some of the greatest track stars of the world.”

Richard Pound, a former vice president of the I.O.C., said Francis became increasingly frustrated in the late 1970s and ’80s with what he felt was a lack of response from international track officials to punish athletes using performance enhancing drugs.

Tags: anabolic steroids, Ben Johnson, Charlie Francis, Marion Jones, Performance enhancing drugs

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The former sprinter, Marion Jones, has signed for the Tulsa Shock, Women’s National Basketball Association team, and expressed hope for launching a new career after she lost five Olympic medals for using steroids and being jailed for lying to federal prosecutors.

Jones spent six months in a federal prison after she lied about steroids and her role in a cheque fraud.

From Guardian.co.uk:

Jones, who was awarded gold medals for winning the 100m, 200m and 4 x 400m relays at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and two bronzes in the long jump and 4x100m, admitted two years ago that she had taken steroids before, during and after the Games and was stripped of her five medals. She also spent about six months in a Texas federal prison for lying about doping and her role in a cheque fraud.

Jones said playing for the Shock is not about her past but instead fulfils her dream of playing basketball against some of the best players in the world.

“The word redemption is not in my vocabulary,” Jones said at a news conference, flanked by the team’s president, Steve Swetoha, and coach Nolan Richardson. “I’m a competitor, I want to play against the best in the world, and I know that I will be doing that.”

Jones may have been successful with athletics but her professional stints affected with serious doping charges are bound to have a negative impact on how sport fans accept her.

Tags: doping, Marion Jones, steroids, Tulsa Shock

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The disgraced American sprinter, Marion Jones, opened up on The Oprah Winfrey Show but still does not find it easy to take the complete responsibility for the drug use episode that had tarnished her career and the Sydney Olympics.

It is worth noting here that Jones lied before the investigators when shown a phial of “the clear” denying use of drugs but partially made a confession when she was about to be sent to prison.

From Foxsports.com.au:

In the interview, Jones said she would have won gold medals at the 2000 Games even if she had not taken the designer steroid, “the clear”.

“I’ll ask myself, ‘Well, if you hadn’t been given ‘the clear’ do you think you would’ve won?”‘ Jones said in her first interview since her release from a Texas prison, where she served time for lying to investigators.

“I usually answer, ‘Yes’.

“When I stepped on that track, I thought everybody was drug-free, including myself.”

Jones won both the 100m and 200m races in Sydney by substantial margins. In the 100m, she clocked 10.75sec, beating Greek athlete Ekaterini Thanou (who has since been banned for avoiding a drug test) by 0.37sec, a margin of around three metres.

In the 200m, Jones trounced the field by almost half a second, hitting the line in 21.84sec, while second-placed Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas clocked 22.27sec. But the benefits of the steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs she was taking were not just evident on race day.

Jones maintained that she did not suspected anything illegal in the substance given to her by Coach Trevor Graham and considered it as flaxseed oil.

Tags: designer steroid, drug use episode, flaxseed oil, Marion Jones, Performance enhancing drugs, steroids, Trevor Graham

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The International Olympic Committee has stripped the US women who won the Sydney Olympic 4×400-metre relay and came third in the 4x100m relay along with drug-tainted Marion Jones of their medals.

This extreme step was taken by the committee’s executive board after Jones admitted doping during the games. IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said that the US Olympic Committee had been asked to return the medals won by the two relay teams, 4×100 meters and the 4×400 meters.

From Foxsports.com.au:

Jones had already been stripped of three gold medals and two bronze medals by the IOC after admitting taking performance-enhancing drugs and is currently serving a six-month prison sentence for lying to investigators over steroid use and a cheque-fraud scheme that involved her former partner, Tim Montgomery.

Although the other team members were innocent parties and only Jones was implicated in doping, an IOC official who asked not to be named said that they were seen to have benefited from the doping episode.

Davies said that the US Olympic Committee had been asked by the IOC to return the medals won by the two relay teams.

No decision has been taken on the reallocation of medals won by Jones and the US relay teams, she said, adding that the step would be taken by the next board meeting in June or the one following that in August.

US Olympic officials were unavailable for comment and it was unknown whether they intended to appeal the IOC decision.

Jones was the toast of the US women’s track team in Sydney and her humiliating fall from grace did not come until October last year when she admitted lying to federal agents during the course of the BALCO steroid distribution probe.

All results of Jones since September 1, 2000 have been cleared from the records and she has been banned from competition by governing body of the sport even though Jones made an announcement of retirement.

Tags: BALCO steroid distribution, doping, Marion Jones, Performance enhancing drugs, steroid use, Tim Montgomery

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