The drugs crisis in athletics deepened when Calvin Harrison, America’s Olympic and world gold medallist, joined Britain’s Dwain Chambers in testing positive for a banned drug.

Harrison like Chambers is coached by the Ukrainian Remi Korchemny.

From Independent.ie:

Harrison tested positive for the stimulant modafinil when scientists reviewed 350 samples taken at the United States Championships in June. Samples were retested after the discovery of a new designer anabolic steroid which until recently was undetectable.

Sources close to the case claim Harrison is just the beginning and many more top names will emerge during the next few days. They believe as many as ten top American athletes may have tested positive for the drug used to treat the sleep disorder narcolepsy.

Doping experts are suspicious that so many athletes are suddenly testing positive for the drug and believe it may be linked to the fact that they were also taking the anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG). It is possible they believed that modafinil would act as a masking agent in case laboratories could test for THG.

Sweden’s Arne Ljungqvist, the anti-doping chief for the International Olympic Committee as well as the International Association of Athletics Federations said, “Apparently, there’s an epidemic among track athletes of narcolepsy in the United States.”

Tags: anabolic steroid, Calvin Harrison, designer anabolic steroid, Dwain Chambers, modafinil, Tetrahydrogestrinone, THG

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Victor Conte, the founder of the designer drugs pharmacy BALCO, has revealed that Marion Jones, the greatest female athlete of her generation, was provided with insulin, growth hormone, EPO, and ‘The Clear’ (users’ slang for THG) as well as nutritional supplements.

Conte also said Jones was on a cocktail of drugs including insulin, growth hormone, EPO, and THG when she won three gold medals and two bronze at the Sydney Olympics.

From Independent.ie:

“People have asked me: ‘Do you feel guilty about what you did? Are you ashamed?’ The answer is no. I got to a point where I realised elite sport is about doing what you have to do to win. My clients didn’t come to BALCO to learn how to do drugs. Most were already using (drugs) before they came.

“I’ve seen athletes being forced to decide whether to use or not use, and it’s much more painful for them to entertain the idea of giving up their dream than to use anabolic steroids. That’s what’s really going on. That’s the choice athletes face when they get to the very top.”

Conte’s interview contains extraordinary detail about Jones and the drugs regime that he oversaw, beginning with the build-up to the Sydney Olympics.

“CJ (Hunter, the shot-putter and her husband at the time) had called me six weeks before the Olympics to ask me to work with Marion,” he says. “I started providing her with insulin, growth hormone, EPO and ‘The Clear’ (users’ slang for THG) as well as nutritional supplements. She was on all of it at the 2000 Games. I tell you this knowing Marion passed a lie-detector test saying it’s not true. All that shows me is lie detectors don’t work.”

Conte also said, “Soon I was working with their (Jones and Montgomery’s) rivals,” he says. It is here that Dwain Chambers, of Great Britain, enters the story, another who, despite being banned, continues to profess his innocence. Conte says he gave Chambers “the full enchilada”: ‘The Clear,’ insulin, EPO, growth hormone, modafinil and a testosterone cream.

Tags: BALCO, EPO, growth hormone, insulin, Marion Jones, modafinil, nutritional supplements, testosterone cream, THG, Victor Conte

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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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Several US athletes have tested positive for a new anabolic steroid, according to American anti-doping chiefs.

The positive A samples were obtained at 350 doping tests at June 2007 US championships and 100 later out-of-competition tests.

From News.bbc.co.uk:

“What we have uncovered appears to be intentional doping of the worst sort,” said USADA chief Terry Madden.

In what is described as the largest drug bust in athletics history, the USADA said a number of international athletes had also tested positive and there had also been positive samples for the stimulant modafinil.

The substance tetrahydrogestrinone was initially found during analysis of the contents of a syringe handed in, under anonymity, by a “top” athletics coach.

“This is a conspiracy involving chemists, coaches and certain athletes using what they developed to be undetectable designer steroids,” said Madden.

“This is a very sophisticated designer steroid created by very sophisticated chemists.

The International Association of Athletics Federations and the athletes involved have been notified of the findings by USADA.

Tags: anabolic steroid, designer steroids, drug bust, intentional doping, modafinil, steroid, Tetrahydrogestrinone

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Those who repent will see the light. In Dwain Chamber’s case, it seems like he’s very particular with the kind of light he wants to see – the Olympic torch’s light. The repentant British sprinter also has plans to resort to legal action to challenge his lifetime Olympic ban so that he can be eligible to run again at the Beijing Olympics.

Chambers was awarded a two-year ban due to his use of performance-enhancing drugs. He was tested positive for the designer drug tetrahydrogestrinone, known also as THG or ‘The Clear’. However, in a letter written by Victor Conte, it was apparent that Chambers was not only using The Clear, but several other substances. (Chambers decided to buy steroids from BALCO at some point)
According to the letter, the sprinter was also using human growth hormone, the blood-boosting drug EPO, a testosterone/epitestosterone cream, modafinil (a drug that combats tiredness), insulin, and liothryonine, a synthetic thyroid hormone. Conte was the founder and owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative or BALCO. BALCO is a California-based firm, which was reportedly the source of anabolic steroids used by numerous professional athletes. In 2003, this illegal activity was exposed resulting to what media referred as the BALCO Affair.

Conte’s letter was handed over to UK Sport’s anti-doping chief John Scott on Friday in a repentant move that Chambers hopes will help demonstrate that he’s letting everything out in the open. Further, he wants the sporting world to see that he is serious in cleaning up his act. The details of Chambers meeting with Scott have not been divulged.

Regarding the sprinter’s move to challenge the ban, his lawyer said in a statement: “We can confirm that Dwain Chambers will be taking proceedings to secure his eligibility/participation in the Olympic and National trials in Birmingham from 11-13 July.”

Chambers is just one of the several popular professional athletes who have been implicated with steroids use. Several personalities involved in said case have been in legal quagmire including sprinter Marion James and cyclist Tammy Thomas. BALCO’s now infamous organic chemist, Patrick Arnold, has already served his three-month sentence in West Virginia. Conte has also spent four months in jail for selling steroids.

Tags: BALCO, Beijing Olympics, Dwain Chambers, EPO, insulin, liothryonine, modafinil, Patrick Arnold, steroids, THG

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