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   USADA cites steroid 'conspiracy'

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Topic: USADA cites steroid 'conspiracy' (Read 178 times)

Rhune
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USADA cites steroid 'conspiracy'
« on: Oct 17^th, 2003, 3:42pm »

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'This is a conspiracy'

Tipster says company linked with Bonds, track stars in doping probe

Posted: Friday October 17, 2003 3:45AM; Updated: Friday October 17, 2003 4:29PM

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- An anonymous tipster. A used syringe filled with a mysterious substance that arrives by overnight courier at a drug lab. Enough secrets to fill a good spy novel.

The latest scandal to hit track and field involves a designer steroid and could lead to the disqualification of several U.S. athletes from the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday that several track athletes tested positive in late June for the steroid known as tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, that until recently was undetectable.

Those athletes now face two-year suspensions.

USADA chief executive officer Terry Madden called it a widespread "conspiracy" involving chemists, coaches and athletes that was brought to the agency's attention by an anonymous tip.

"I know of no other drug bust that is larger than this involving the number of athletes involved," said Madden, who refused to reveal the names or genders of the athletes, or to be more specific about how many had tested positive.

Madden said the inquiry began in early June and expanded to other U.S. professional sports, but wouldn't give specifics. He said he believes international athletes also have used the steroid, which is taken by putting a couple of drops from a syringe under the tongue.

"What we have uncovered appears to be intentional doping of the worst sort," Madden said in a statement before a conference call from USADA headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. "This is a far cry from athletes accidentally testing positive as a result of taking contaminated nutritional supplements.

"Rather, this is a conspiracy involving chemists, coaches and certain athletes using what they developed to be `undetectable' designer steroids to defraud their fellow competitors and the American and world public who pay to attend sports events."

Olympic athletes face drug tests at major competitions, as well as random testing between events. Their samples are divided in two and stored for future reference.

The athletes whose "A" samples revealed THG have been notified and will now have their "B" samples tested. If those also are positive, a review process will begin. Appeals could last for months.

THG has a chemical structure similar to two banned anabolic steroids, Madden said, but was tweaked to avoid detection. Though THG is not specifically named as a banned substance in world track, it would be considered a related substance outlawed under the sport's doping rules.

"This is a serious warning for cheaters," said Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency. "It shows that supposedly undetectable substances can be detected as new tests are developed."

Madden said the USADA received a call from a man in June claiming to be a track coach. The caller named athletes he claimed were using a steroid that wouldn't be detected by tests then being used by the USADA. The man later sent the agency a syringe containing the substance, Madden said.

After determining the syringe contained THG, the USADA retested 350 urine samples taken from athletes at the U.S. track and field championships in June at Stanford, as well as 100 samples from random out-of-competition tests on track athletes and 100 random samples from non-track athletes.

Madden said the USADA, acting with extreme secrecy while it conducted the tests, contacted federal authorities with the findings.

The anonymous tipster, Madden said, identified the source of the THG as Victor Conte, founder of BALCO laboratory of Burlingame, Calif. The lab supplies nutritional guidance and supplements to athletes ranging from Barry Bonds to Bill Romanowski to Marion Jones.

"Everything that the coach has identified to us up to this time is true. We are fairly certain this substance came from Victor Conte and BALCO labs," said Madden, refusing to be specific.

But Conte, in an e-mail Thursday to The Associated Press and other news organizations, said BALCO was not the source of the substance.

"In my opinion, this is about jealous competitive coaches and athletes that all have a history of promoting and using performance enhancing agents being 'completely hypocritical' in their actions," Conte said.

Agents from the Internal Revenue Service and a San Mateo County narcotics task force went to BALCO last month. No arrests were made, and IRS spokesman Mark Lessler wouldn't comment on the unannounced visit.

As part of the retesting of the samples from the U.S. track championships, Madden said, officials discovered several positive tests for the stimulant modafinil -- which sprinter Kelli White says she took for the sleep disorder narcolepsy.

White tested positive this summer at the world championships in France for modafinil, and it could cost her a pair of sprint gold medals. Her case is being reviewed by the USADA.

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Rhune
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Anti-doping report reverberates through sports wor
« Reply #1 on: Oct 17^th, 2003, 3:29pm »

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Anti-doping report reverberates through sports world
Friday, October 17, 2003 Posted: 2:49 PM EDT (1849 GMT)

(CNN) -- If it proves true, a possible doping "conspiracy" involving previously undetectable steroids could shrink the field competing at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday that several track and field athletes tested positive for THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone -- a laboratory-created compound made with gestrinone, an anabolic agent that is on the prohibited substance list.

But Victor Conte, president of the California company that manufactures THG, insisted that the supplement was not an anabolic steroid or a banned substance.

"USADA has been reporting that the agent is a controlled substance and illegal and that is just simply not true," he said in a statement released to the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News. "Just because it may be structurally similar does not mean that it has anabolic effects."

If THG is determined to be a banned substance, athletes who test positive for its use face a mandatory two-year suspension from competition, making them ineligible for the Games.

The athletes, their governing bodies and the U.S. Olympics Committee were notified of the results of the study.

The International Association of Athletics Federations acknowledged Friday that the agency had notified it of the investigation and said that "cases are currently under due process."

USA Track & Field, the national governing body for the sport in the United States, lauded "the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's initiative to identify and pursue possible drug cheats."

"It is vital that we continue to proactively root out cheaters and those individuals who encourage cheating," the organization said in a statement Friday. "This sets a standard for other Olympic and professional sports to follow and helps protect the reputations of the vast majority of track athletes who are not cheating."

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said it also contacted the U.S. Justice Department "because this information pointed to potentially illegal activity by the distributor of a controlled substance."

"What we have uncovered appears to be intentional doping of the worst sort," according to a statement from Terry Madden, the agency's chief executive officer.

"This is a conspiracy involving chemists, coaches and certain athletes using what they developed to be 'undetectable' designer steroids to defraud their fellow competitors and the American and world public who pay to attend sporting events."

The agency identified THG from a syringe provided by a person said to be a high-profile track and field coach.

The coach told the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that the steroid was provided by Conte, president of BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) in Burlingame, California, near San Francisco, according to the agency.

BALCO could not be reached for comment.

In his statement to the California newspapers, Conte blamed "jealous competitive coaches and athletes" for the illegal doping accusations.

New York University professor Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency's Health, Medical and Research Committee, said Friday that lab tests used to detect steroids likely missed the THG "because they did not know it existed."

"Steroids have been around a long time, and athletes and chemists and those who want to cheat have been looking long and hard to try and get around various drug tests," he said. "This seems to be an example of that."

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said the positive results came from testing samples collected at the 2003 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships as well as samples collected out of competition by the agency.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, an independent group monitoring Olympic sports in the United States, has full authority for testing, education, research and adjudication for U.S. Olympic, Pan Am Games and Paralympic athletes. It is responsible for developing a comprehensive national anti-doping program for the Olympic movement in the United States.

The World Anti-Doping Agency, while not directly connected to the U.S. agency, serves a similar purpose on the international level.

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Rhune
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Re: USADA cites steroid 'conspiracy'
« Reply #2 on: Oct 17^th, 2003, 3:46pm »

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Wow...this could get ugly...

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Rhune
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Re: USADA cites steroid 'conspiracy'
« Reply #3 on: Oct 29^th, 2003, 10:01am »

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FDA formally declares new steroid illegal
Posted: Tuesday October 28, 2003 4:11PM; Updated: Wednesday October 29, 2003 3:21AM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The newly detected steroid that is casting a shadow on Olympic and professional sports is an illegal drug that may pose considerable health risks, the government warned Tuesday.

THG has been sold in the guise of a dietary supplement when it is in fact a drug that lacks federal permission for sale in this country, the Food and Drug Administration said. It is a drug derived from another steroid long banned in athletics, the agency said.

The FDA's official designation of THG as illegal, which had been anticipated since the scandal over the previously undetectable steroid emerged, puts manufacturers on notice that the government will crack down on anyone caught selling it.

It also is the strongest warning yet that using THG is risky. Anabolic steroids can have dangerous side effects, including liver damage, heart disease, anxiety and rage. While little is known about THG's specific effects because it is new, its close chemical similarity to other well-known steroids means it poses the same risks, FDA Associate Commissioner John Taylor said.

"The greatest importance is preventing exposure and trying to nip this in the bud," he said.

U.S. drug authorities first learned about THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone, this summer after an unidentified coach gave them a syringe containing it. THG apparently was designed specifically to be undetectable by the standard test given to athletes.

Now armed with a test, sports organizations are scrambling to re-examine athletes and to decide what penalties to impose for THG use. Four U.S. track and field athletes have tested positive for THG, and Europe's top sprinter has admitted taking it in nutritional supplements that he says he thought were allowed.

Exactly who developed THG is unclear. Dozens of top Olympic and professional athletes have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury probing a California lab that sells nutritional supplements. Its owner has denied supplying THG, and federal officials, including FDA's Taylor, refuse to comment on the scope of their investigation.

Troubling to lawmakers is that THG apparently was sneaked onto the market in the guise of a dietary supplement. It's not a supplement but an unapproved drug, making any sale or usage illegal, FDA's Taylor said.

Currently, however, "There's nothing to stop another group of folks in another lab from concocting another designer steroid that will circumvent this FDA ruling," said Joe Shoemaker, spokesman for Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

Durbin is pushing legislation that would give FDA broader oversight over dietary supplements to prevent steroids from being sneaked onto the market. He said he was unimpressed by the agency's move against THG and said it falls short of dealing with similar substances.

"It's sad that it takes a national controversy, a lawsuit and a lot of publicity to bring the FDA around to their core responsibilities," he said in an interview.

Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced similar legislation last week that also would outlaw steroid precursors like androstenedione, popularized by baseball's Mark McGwire.

Anabolic steroids are synthetic versions of the male hormone testosterone. Some are approved by FDA for prescription-only sale to treat certain diseases; athletes use them illegally to bulk up muscle and enhance performance.

FDA's testing of THG shows it was derived by simple chemical modification of gestrinone, a drug used in Europe to treat a gynecologic condition. It is explicitly banned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which monitors drug use by athletes in Olympic sports. THG also is very closely related to trenbolone, a controlled substance used to bulk up cattle.

THG "is a designer steroid in the truest sense," Taylor told a Senate committee.

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