This could be a calculated move on the part of federal authorities. As the 2008 Olympics was preparing to wrap up in Beijing former American track superstar Marion Jones is being relayed from one cage to another.

Remember that on July this year, the disgraced athlete has appealed to President George Bush to commute her six-month prison sentence for lying to prosecutors about her steroid use. Apparently, she did not get her wish granted.

The Belizean-born Jones shone in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 easily dominating the track and winning five medals there. She has been since disqualified and stripped of the medals, three of which were gold. She has also been disqualified at the IAAF World Cup in Athletics that took place in Madrid, Spain in 2002. The competition’s results were annulled where Jones participated in the 100m and the 4 x 100m relay, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively.

AP reports:

Former U.S. track star Marion Jones has been moved from a federal prison in Fort Worth and will serve the remainder of her sentence in San Antonio.

The disgraced Olympic star was sentenced to six months in prison in January for lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and a check-fraud scam.
Jones also was ordered to do 400 hours of community service in each of the two years following her release.

Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley says Jones was transferred to a community corrections center in San Antonio on Tuesday.

The Dallas Morning News reported Friday the transfer is part of the process toward the Sept. 5 scheduled release of Jones. She entered prison in early March.
President Bush has not acted on requests, on behalf of Jones, to commute her sentence.

For years, Jones denied using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. However, in October 2007, she pleaded guilty to two charges of perjury and was subsequently sentenced in January by a federal court in New York.

She admitted she had lied to investigators in 2003 when she denied knowing that she took the banned compound tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), known as “the clear,” before participating at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: athletics, disqualification, Marion Jones, steroid use, Sydney Olympics, THG

Posted in Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Olympics, Steroids in Sports, steroid nation | No Comments/Questions

I shouldn’t have made that phone call – must be what keeps repeating on Trevor Graham’s head for weeks now.

The former elite sprint coach is on trial for lying to government authorities in 2004 when he said he didn’t know Angel ‘Memo’ Heredia beyond that one phone conversation he had with the confessed steroid dealer. Heredia is now the prosecution’s ace witness against Graham.

It was Graham who blew the whistle on BALCO, a company headquartered in Burlingame, California, which has steamrolled the investigation of one of the biggest steroid scandal in the U.S. It all began when Graham made an anonymous phone call to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in June 2003. He divulged juicy details on doping activity of quite a number of athletes, and two things immediately caught USADA’s attention. First, that athletes were using a steroid that could pass detection. Second, the name Victor Conte. Conte was the founder and owner of BALCO, a sports medicine and nutritional supplement company. Conte also has ties with several professional sports organizations and popular athletes. Graham said Conte was the source of the undetectable steroid.

It was also Graham who brought a syringe with traces of the designer steroid, which was known as The Clear by its users. The Clear was later identified by investigators as tetrahydrogestrinone or THG. Subsequently, search and seizure were conducted by federal agents that uncovered the massive use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by American and European athletes from diverse competitive sports. MLB players Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi; cyclist Tammy Thomas; track and field stars Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones, and Kelli White; NFL’s Barrett Robbins, Chris Cooper, and Dana Stubblefield were just some of the those implicated in said steroid scandal.

Several of the personalities involved have already served their sentence, including Conte and BALCO’s chemist Patrick Arnold. It was Arnold who developed The Clear. Meanwhile, other personalities like Marion Jones are currently on federal institutions because of BALCO-related crimes.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: Angel Heredia, BALCO, Barry Bonds, steroids, THG, Trevor Graham, USADA, Victor Conte

Posted in Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Baseball, Steroids in NFL, Steroids in Sports, steroid nation | No Comments/Questions

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.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

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

Posted in Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Sports, steroid nation | No Comments/Questions

Seems like the world of cycling is now riding on bad publicity because of steroids. Lance Armstrong and Greg LeMond, two Tour de France winners many times over, are bickering. Lemond has been very vocal about his opinions of Armstrong, accusing the Tour’s seven-time winner of blood doping and steroids use. Apparently, Armstrong was not overjoyed by Lemond’s attitude and pronouncements, and decided to put a break on Lemond’s runaway mouth. Now, the row has gone beyond personal level. Reportedly, Armstrong retaliated by convincing Lemond’s business associate, Trek Bicycle Corporation, to drop Lemond’s high-end bicycle products. That would’ve hurt Lemond’s pockets more than his feelings. You’re not hearing the end of this, no doubt about it.

Second interesting and juicy item is Tammy Thomas’ recent guilty verdict on three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. Thomas was just one of the famous athletes implicated in the infamous BALCO affair. The 12-man jury convicted Thomas for lying before the grand jury back in 2003 when she denied that she had used steroids during her sprint cycling career. She also testified to the same jury that she had not received any performance-enhancing drugs from Patrick Arnold, BALCO’s in-house chemist.

Arnold, a one-time amateur bodybuilder, has pleaded guilty back in 2006 for supplying Thomas as well as some other professional athletes of the drugs norbolethone and tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), the latter more commonly known as The Clear. Arnold has already served his three-month sentence. Other elite athletes who were accused of taking the same steroids are slugger Barry Bonds and track queen Marion Jones.

Thomas’s sentencing is scheduled this July 18, and she may face a prison sentence of six months to several years, according to legal experts. Visibly upset by the verdict, Thomas shouted “I already had one career taken away from me,” she shouted, apparently referring to her lifetime ban from cycling. “Look me in the eye. You can’t do it,” she heatedly continued.

Bet you, few (if any at all) would attribute her aggression to steroids this time around.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: anabolic steroid, anabolic steroids, Barry Bonds, Greg LeMond, Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, norbolethone, steroid, steroids, Tetrahydrogestrinone, THG

Posted in Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Sports, steroid nation | No Comments/Questions

It seems that steroids produced via BALCO and Patrick Arnold netted him very little money, unlike the millions made by the NFL and MLB stars who took it.

A key witness in cyclist Tammy Thomas’s doping trial testified Wednesday that an illicit steroid lab in Illinois made little money because the potent performance-enhancers could be bought and taken in such small quantities.

The problem is that these steroids are extremely potent and need to be watered down. Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) is extremely potent and is usually provided in small vials which can last up to six months, making the revenue stream from these steroid sales non existant.

Holding her thumb and forefinger three inches apart to represent a small vial, Dalton said such a container would fetch $10-$20. “Marion Jones split it with C.J. Hunter and it lasted six months,” Dalton said, referring to the track and field stars later disgraced for doping.

The sums of money Arnold was making were “very low,” she said. “I think we should have charged more.”

This whole steroids in baseball investigatio, BALCO and Patrick Arnold, the millions of US taxpayer dollars spent and the thousands of man hours spent, are for this? An estimated $15,000 USD in revenue over 3 years! this is what all the steroid probes are about? you do the math!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: anabolic steroid, anabolic steroids, BALCO, baseball, Patrick Arnold, steroid, steroids, Tetrahydrogestrinone, THG

Posted in Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Baseball, Steroids in NFL, Steroids in Sports, steroid nation | No Comments/Questions