It seems like Greg LeMond is not alone in his crusade to expose Lance Armstrong for what he really is – a doper.

According to the news report by the Herald Sun, the famed Australian sports scientist Dr Michael Ashenden, is not happy (that’s putting it mildly) with the news that seven-time Tour de France champ is jjoining the Tour Down Under. It was Ashenden who has made analysis of Armstrong’s urine samples taken from the 1999 Tour de France, which allegedly contained the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO).

It is obvious that Ashenden is dismayed that all his hard work will be for naught.
“It surprises me that the Tour is willing to embrace such a controversial figure,” Ashenden said.

“It surprises me in the wider context that there hasn’t been more adverse reaction to his proposal to come back.”

More from the Herald Sun:

Armstrong’s camp pointed to procedural and privacy issues over the 1999 samples and no sanction was imposed, although Dr Ashenden’s findings remain the blackest marks on Armstrong’s career.

The International Cycling Union last week ruled Armstrong could take part in the Tour Down Under, despite the cyclist not complying with a six-month drug testing program in the lead-up to the January event.

“People are dazzled by the star factor and they are not pausing to really reflect on what this is all about and whether or not it would be good for the sport,” Dr Ashenden said.
He also questioned Armstrong’s motives in appointing prominent anti-doping scientist Don Catlin to his team.

“Everyone recognises that this is prone to abuse. If Don Catlin finds EPO he can’t do anything about it,” Dr Ashenden said.

The 2009 Tour Down Under will be a week-long sport spectacle to be held in January 18-25. The Tour Down Under started in 1999 and since then has been held annually in Adelaide, South Australia, and surrounding areas. This year’s overall winner is Germany’s Andre Greipel.

Tags: EPO, Lance Armstrong, Michael Ashenden, PEDs, Tour Down Under

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Sports

The upcoming intense presidential election is one of the reasons why Victor Conte’s book is not telling anything until 2009. Another intervention is Shane Mosley’s legal offensive against the former BALCO chief.

From the New York Daily News:

Nasty legal warfare has broken out over Victor Conte’s forthcoming tell-all book about his leading role in the world’s biggest steroid conspiracy.

Among the factors is an expensive barrage of defamation litigation launched against Conte by boxer Shane Mosley, one of the athletes whose BALCO doping regimens Conte promises to describe in detail, and Mosley’s threats to sue the book’s publisher.

Conte admits that Mosley’s defamation suits are a “distraction”. According to Conte, he has devoted anecdotal reports on Mosley regarding the boxer’s used of performance-enhancing drugs in Straight Dope. Conte says that Mosley knew “exactly and precisely what he was doing” and had used both “the cream” and “the clear”, both designer drugs then. Mosley, however, claims that he thought the products he was supplied with by BALCO were legal.

Mosley is represented by the notorious New York attorney Judd Burstein.

The most recent of Burstein’s actions against Conte is a motion filed Wednesday asking a U.S. District Court in California to sanction Conte’s defense attorney for submitting what Burstein called an “outrageous and entirely frivolous” motion to recover $75,654 in attorney fees from a defamation suit that Burstein initiated and withdrew.

Burstein rejected Lyons’ overtures. He has promised to sue Skyhorse and its insurers.

In early August, Mosley’s camp filed a $12 million defamation suit in a New York state court while pulling out a similar complaint in a federal court in San Francisco.

Conte’s attorney, James Wagstaffe, had argued that federal claim violated California’s anti-SLAPP statutes. A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation is a lawsuit or a threat of lawsuit that is intended to intimidate and silence critics by encumbering them with the cost of a legal defense thereby inhibiting their criticism or opposition.

Tags: “BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, “the clear”, “the cream”, BALCO, defamation suit against Conte, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports", PEDs, Shane Mosley, steroids, Victor Conte

Posted in buy steroids, Steroid Cycles, steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Baseball, Steroids in Boxing, Steroids in MMA, Steroids in NFL, Steroids in Olympics, Steroids in Sports, Steroids in UFC

David Jacobs may not be talking from the grave but he continues to drag more people into the mess he left behind. By mess we mean the steroid distribution network he created. His illegal activity also could have been the reason behind the murder-suicide he committed in June. Before he died, Jacobs had named names of individuals who are now under scrutiny, both from the public and the federal authorities.

Jacobs’ latest “haul” are two amateur bodybuilders who were sentenced for their involvement in said steroid distribution network.

Excerpts from the Dallas Morning News:

SHERMAN – A federal judge sentenced two amateur bodybuilders involved in the Plano steroids trafficking conspiracy to three years probation today and postponed final judgment on the third and final defendant until next month.

“I had to do it to be competitive in the sport,” he told the judge. “I’ve taken responsibility for what I’ve done. I’ll never go that way again.”

The case of Jacobs gained substantial media coverage because his illegal trade had NFL ties – he implicated several NFL players when he was arrested in April 2007. Jacobs, also a former bodybuilder, killed himself and his on-again, off-again fiancée, Amanda Jo Earhart-Savell in early June this year. The tragic incident took place at his Plano home shortly after he was sentenced to three years in probation and fined $25,000 on May 1.

After his sentencing, Jacobs stated that he wanted to make amends with his past misdeeds, saying he was ready to help clean up NFL. During his meeting with NFL’s security officials, he identified players he had supplied with PEDs. Jacobs also alleged that he taught some players on how to outsmart the league’s anti-doping programs.

The name of Matt Lehr came up and Jacobs had been very vocal about Lehr’s involvement with the steroid distribution ring. It was reported that the former Dallas lineman was romantically involved with Earheart-Savell, which caused some to speculate that jealousy played a part in the murder-suicide incident.

Lehr, who was already handed out a four-game suspension on October 17, 2006 due to violation of the NFL Substance Abuse Policy, had denied the steroid-related allegations of Jacobs. Lehr, however, admitted that he and Earheart-Savell had a romantic relationship.

Jacobs had provided NFL security officials with e-mails, cancelled checks and other documentary evidence from players he had dealings with, and thus conspiracy theories abound about the circumstances of his death. Many ask if it’s really a case of murder-suicide or a double homicide. According to police reports, Jacobs died of two self-inflicted gunshot wounds to his head and stomach. Multiple wounds, many say, are “uncommon” in suicide cases.

In April 2007, federal agents raided Jacobs’ home in Plano and yielded large amounts of PEDs, including 146 vials of steroids. Reportedly, Jacobs imported raw materials from China.

Tags: Brandon Mark Smith, David Jacobs, Jamie Mongeau, Juan Carlos Ballivian, Matt Lehr, NFL, PEDs, raw steroid materials from China, steroid distribution network, steroids, two bodybuilders sentenced for steroid trafficking

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in NFL, Steroids in Sports

President Bush has signed an agreement against use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in sports. The agreement has, in fact, been adopted by UNESCO in 2005 and whose purpose is “to promote the prevention of and the fight against doping in sport, with a view to its elimination.”

From Los Angeles Times:

It took the approach of the Summer Olympic Games to provide the spark, but the United States has ratified the international agreement against sports doping. President Bush signed the ratification papers just before leaving for Asia and a trip to the Games in Beijing, the White House announced.

The agreement, known formally as the International Convention Against Doping in Sport, was adopted by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on Oct the International. 19, 2005. The Senate did not ratify U.S. participation until two weeks ago.

Bush had taken a very public stand against doping and said in a written statement announcing that he had signed the ratification instrument that the pact would be “a valuable tool in protecting the integrity of international sport and the health of athletes.”

“Doping sends to young people the message that performance is more important than character and health,” he said.

Under the agreement, anti-doping violations include:

•    use or attempted use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method; possession of prohibited substances or methods;
•    tampering, or attempting to tamper, with any part of the doping control; and
•    administration of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method to any athlete, or assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, covering up, or any other type of complicity involving an anti-doping rule violation or any attempted violation.

With just a few months to go before he leaves the White House, we just hope that this pact does not constitute a legacy in President Bush’s vocabulary. If it does, we’d say: WHAT THE PACT? WE WANT SOMETHING MORE THAN THIS, SIR! We mean, come on, an anti-steroid agreement?

Tags: International Convention Against Doping in Sport, PEDs, President Bush, steroids, UNESCO

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Baseball, Steroids in Boxing, Steroids in MMA, Steroids in NFL, Steroids in Olympics, Steroids in Sports, Steroids in UFC

Here’s just one of the news items that illustrates baseball’s alliance with steroids. From Miami Herald:

Major League Baseball suspended Cincinnati Reds minor league pitcher Renny Amador and Arizona Diamondbacks minor league shortstop Bernardino Jimenez for 50 games after each tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance.

Amador tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol and Jimenez tested positive for Boldenone.

Both players are members of their organization’s Dominican summer league teams.
The suspensions are effective immediately.

Use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball grabbed national attention starting in the 1990s, when the record-breaking era of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire took place.

During the 1998 season, Sosa hit 66 home runs while McGwire McGwire earned the single season record by hitting 70 home runs as Major League fans watched in open-mouthed disbelief.  It was alleged that these two players had been getting some help from performance boosters – androstenedione for McGwire and creatine for Sosa. Then Barry Bonds came, easily breaking the home run record established by McGwire. Bonds’ sensational performance had caused many to speculate on his possible use of steroids.

In 2003, the Balco Affair exploded implicating Bonds of use of steroid and PEDs along with other elite athletes in diverse sports. Subsequently, the Major League and its affiliates (including the Minor League) have adopted stricter anti-doping policy.

The organization has implemented harsher penalties for steroid users, commencing at its 2005 season.

A first positive test results in a suspension of 10 games. A second and third positive test result in a suspension of 30 and 60 games, respectively. A fourth offense results in a one-year suspension. A fifth offense results in a penalty at the commissioner’s discretion, which could mean saying ta-ta to the game permanently.

Prior to this implementation, a first-time offense would only call for the treatment of the player and the player would not even be named.

Tags: androstenedione, baseball, boldenone, creatine, Major League, Minor League, PEDs, penalty, stanozolol, steroids, suspension

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Baseball, Steroids in Sports

With the recent upsurge of steroid-related news making it to the mainstream media, it is now obvious how the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids has become prevalent in the world of competitive sports.

Despite the much publicized crackdown of China on steroids and performance-enhancing drugs recently, don’t expect a chemical-free Olympic Games.

And don’t let John Fahey and WADA assure you that this will be the cleanest Olympics ever, because it would not be so. To say that winners of events that require strength, endurance, and speed are steroid-free is to say that China is a totally democratic country.

And the more juiced-up athletes are caught, the more the public would think that winners are likely fueled by PEDs.

Well, we’re putting it rather mildly here.

Here’s a sterner view on China and the Olympics from Mail Online:

No one with a grain of intelligence will question that such diverse sports as cycling, in which Britain anticipates a medal haul, and weightlifting are rife with steroids.

It requires a leap of faith – of which not even the amazing Hildreth would be capable – to predict that the Beijing Games will not be blighted by drugs.

Even if that were to happen, the only rational conclusion would be that the organisers had cooked the tests to avoid killing the Peking duck. Catch 22 for the IOC is that the more cheats they reel in, the more doubting the world’s population becomes.

Even athletes who deny all guilt are acutely aware of the implications.

Top sprinters Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt acknowledge that whichever of them wins Saturday week’s 100m dash to be crowned fastest man on earth will be the subject of suspicion.

Our unlikely world 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu and triathlete Tim Don – both of whom managed to overturn their British Olympic Association life bans for missing three drugs tests – complain that no matter what they achieve in the next two-and-a-half weeks they will still be stigmatised. Too right they will.

Public perception of the Olympics will not be improved by the number of convicted drugs cheats coming back from suspension around the world to compete in these Games. Beijing has more problems than termites in rotting wood . . . air pollution, Tibet, human rights, Darfur, media freedom, dog-meat on restaurant menus and typhoons threatening the sailing events, to name but a few.

Tags: anabolic steroids, Asafa Powell, Beijing Olympics, China, Christine Ohuruogu, PEDs, Tyson Gay, Usain Bolt

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Olympics, Steroids in Sports

The disqualification of the United States 1,600-meter relay team comes four years after the team’s victory at that Olympic event in Sydney. The International Olympic Committee officially issued the disqualification on Saturday after Antonio Pettigrew, a member of the said team, publicly admitted steroids and PEDs.

The entire team is required to give back its gold medals to the United State Olympic Committee which will be turned over to the IOC offices in Switzerland.

The New York Times reports:

The International Olympic Committee officially disqualified on Saturday sprinter Antonio Pettigrew and his entire United States 1,600-meter relay team from the 2000 Sydney Games because Pettigrew admitted using performance-enhancing drugs at those Olympics.

Pettigrew, who never failed a drug test, admitted in May to using the blood booster EPO and human growth hormone before, during and after the 2000 Olympics. He returned his medal in June.

His teammates — Michael Johnson, Angelo Taylor, Jerome Young and the twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison — will also lose their medals. Johnson, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in individual events, voluntarily gave up his relay gold medal in July.

“We fully support the action taken today by the I.O.C.,” Darryl Seibel, spokesman for the U.S.O.C, said. “Athletes must understand that if they make the choice to cheat, there will be consequences and those consequences can be severe.”

At a news conference on Saturday, Giselle Davies, spokeswoman for the I.OC., said the board would wait on that decision, so they could see if any more information comes out of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroids case.

Some of Pettigrew’s teammates have already been swept up in doping scandals of their own.

Alvin and Calvin Harrison have both served suspensions from the sport for violating doping rules. Young was barred for life.

Antonio Pettigrew’s admission took place when he was subpoenaed to testify in the trial of his former coach Trevor Graham in May this year. Graham was subsequently found guilty of lying to federal investigators during their investigation stemming from the BALCO Affair.

In his testimony, Pettigrew admitted that he had used steroids and PEDs as far back as 1997.

His statements surprised many, including his co-winner Michael Johnson, since he was never tested positive for any banned compound.

Johnson had given up his gold medal right after Pettigrew’s testimony. He said he felt ‘betrayed’ with Pettigrew’s admission.

Pettigrew has been retired from the track since 2002.

Tags: Antonio Pettigrew, disqualification, International Olympic Committee, Michael Johnson, olympics, PEDs, relay team, steroids

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Olympics, Steroids in Sports

Top female Russian athletes are facing a seemingly insurmountable obstacle in the track ahead – a possible ban from their sport of athletics.

This arises when they were suspected of attempting to manipulate drug results. And one of the tell-tale signs, according to a report, is their showing up promptly during out-of-competition tests. The athletes reportedly were there even before the testers from the IAAF arrived. And this aroused suspicions from IAAF, the governing body for athletics worldwide.

According to BBC Sports, “athletes are not normally immediately available” for such testing. Because of their “unfailing punctuality”, the seven athletes were targeted for more than a year after the testers became suspicious.

Subsequently, they were charged for “fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process”, according to a statement from IAAF.

Two of the seven suspects are track superstars Yelena Soboleva and Tatyana Tomashova.

Soboleva currently holds the 1500 m-indoor world record. She was supposed to participate in both the 800 m and 1500 m events at the Beijing Olympics. Tomashova, meanwhile, is a double world champion in the 1500 m and has garnered a silver medal in this event in the 2004 Olympics.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now, because of doping irregularities, their chance of getting another shot at the Olympic glory is dashed.

More from BBC Sports:

Seven Russian athletes provisionally suspended for doping offences 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.

“…the Russians were always waiting,” said BBC Sport’s Gordon Farquhar.

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.”

The athletes have up to 14 days to request a hearing with the national member federation.
If a hearing is requested, it must be held within a period of two months but the ARAF has said that they will not take place until after the Olympics.

Tags: athletics, doping, IAAF, PEDs, Russian athletes, steroids, Yelena Soboleva and Tatyana Tomashova

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Sports

What now for Trevor Graham?

The once admired track coach is now facing an insurmountable obstacle – a prison term. He was found guilty last month of one count of lying to federal investigators about his relationship with steroid dealer turned prosecution’s witness Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on two other counts because at least one juror had doubts about the star witness’ credibility.

Prosecutors, who can retry the Graham on the other two charges, had no comment on their next move. Graham’s attorney William Keane said he is hoping the government would not retry Graham.

“The jury obviously had problems with the government’s case on the other two counts, including the allegations that Mr. Graham instigated and facilitated the use by a few of his athletes of performance-enhancing drugs supplied by Angel Heredia,” Keane said. “As we maintained all along we did not believe that the government could prove that case. It simply was not true.”

Graham sentencing hearing is set on September 5 before US District Judge Susan Illston. The maximum penalty for Graham’s guilty verdict on one count of perjury is five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. However, he is expected to receive much less than that.

Graham has consistently denied his relationship with Heredia – a Laredo, Texas, discus thrower who testified that he bought steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in Mexico and sold them to many star track athletes who trained under Graham.

Heredia narrated for the jury in U.S. District Court in San Francisco his business dealings with Trevor Graham. He said their association began in 1996 when Graham wanted a reliable supplier of steroids and PEDs. Graham, according to Heredia, also wanted someone to teach him the tricks of the trade, including how to beat steroid screening. He said he taught the Graham many things, including about clearance times of steroids and what kinds of drugs were undetectable that would boost performance.

Tags: Angel Heredia, PEDs, steroids, Trevor Graham

Posted in steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in NFL, Steroids in Sports