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USADA Scores Major Track and Field Drug
Bust by Catching Athetes Using an 'Undetectable' Drug with the Help
from an Unidentified Coach USADA did not release the number of athletes who tested positive or the names of any of the athletes and will wait to do so until the athletes' "B" samples come back positive (athletes' urine samples are tested twice to confirm the presence of performance enhancing drugs) which could be in December. However, Amy Shipley is reporting in today's Washington Post, that one of the athletes is 2003 US shot put champion, Kevin Toth (Toth won his first USA outdoor title this year, and threw the shot 74 feet, 4.50 inches, the farthest throw in the world since world record holder and convicted drug cheat Randy Barnes' throw in 1990). USADA did say that all of the athletes who tested positive were track and field athletes. The drug positives came about thanks to a lucky tip from an unidentified coach, scientific work by Dr. Don Catlin and the UCLA drug testing lab, and diligence by USADA. The tip came when an unidentified coach called USADA in June and gave the names of U.S. and international athletes who were using an "undetectable" steroid. The coach then sent USADA a used syringe containing some of the substance. USADA sent the syringe to Dr. Don Catlin and the anti-doping lab he leads at UCLA (Catlin is an anti-doping expert and headed the drug lab at the Salt Lake City Olympics). Dr. Catlin determined that the drug in question was a designer steroid (THG) (a designer steroid is a steroid very similar to known steroids that has been slightly altered at the chemical level to avoid detection in drug testing) and developed a test to detect it. USADA, anticipating the development of a test by Dr. Catlin, had kept the 350 urine samples it had from the 2003 US Track and Field Nationals in June at Stanford and not declared them to be negative samples. It then retested these 350 samples for THG. It also conducted some out of competition tests on random athletes and athletes named by the unidentified coach for THG. Some of these samples came back positive for THG. Also in retesting the samples, some of the samples, according to the Associated Press, came back positive for Modafinil, the new stimulant that US sprinter Kelli White tested positive for at the World Championships in August. The fact that USADA retested the samples for Modafinil, likely indicates that this retesting took place after the World Championships in August. Also, LetsRun.com's Weldon Johnson, who was selected for drug testing at the US Nationals, only received notice from USADA that he tested negative at the nationals within the last 2 weeks, indicating that the retests were likely fairly recent, likely in late August or September. USADA in a statement yesterday said that the track and field coach who contacted them said the provider of the designer steroid was Victor Conte of BALCO (Bay Area Laboratories Co-Operative) Laboratory in Burlingame, Calif. USADA then believing this to be a law enforcement matter involving a controlled substance turned this information over to the Department of Justice. The Balco lab was subsequently raided by IRS agents, FDA agents, and local law enforcement agents in September. Victor Conte and the Balco Lab list many prominent athletes, both inside and outside of track and field, as clients. Baseball home run king Barry Bonds is the most prominent and has praised Conte's nutritional products in the past. (The home of Bond's personal trainer was also raided by authorities) Prominent track athletes listed as clients include Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Regina Jacobs, Kelli White, Zhanna Block, and Dwain Chambers, in addition to football linebacker Bill Romanowski. (Kelli White told the San Francisco Chronicle, "I've gotten all my tests back from USADA, and all my tests are fine") Conte emailed a few media publications yesterday including Knight Ridder denying he was the source of the drug, THG, or that it was illegal. He told Knight Ridder, "USADA has been reporting that the agent is a controlled substance and illegal and that is just simply not true. There is not a single shred of scientific information published on this substance. Just because it may be structurally similar, does not mean that it has anabolic effects." He added, "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." He went on to tell the San Francisco Chronicle in an email, "As many will soon find out, the world of track and field is a 'very dirty business' and this goes far beyond just the coaches and athletes. Fasten your seatbelts!" Yesterday's news was a major breakthrough for the US Anti-Doping Agency. The agency was created in 2000, in response to the need for an independent agency to oversee drug testing for Olympic sports in the US, after alleged coverups in the past when sport federations (who many rightfully said had a conflict of interest) oversaw the drug testing process. Yesterday's busts indicate that USADA was actively attempting to catch drug cheats, by holding up the drug samples from the track and field nationals, not declaring them clean, and then retesting them once a test for THG was created by the UCLA lab. Both USA Track and Field (USATF) and the World Anti-Doping Agency had praise for the work of USADA. USATF issued a statement that "lauded the U.S. Anti-Doping Agencys (USADA) initiative to identify and pursue possible drug cheats in track & field and other sports." WADA chairman Dick Pound said, "this is a serious warning for cheaters. It shows that supposedly undetectable substances can be detected as new tests are developed. However, anti-drug authorities expressed some words of caution and concern yesterday because this case shows to what extent athletes, scientists, and coaches will go to create and use undetectable drugs. And without the very fortunate tip by the unidentified coach, this doping would have been able to go on presumably for years since the drug in question was unknown and 'undetectable'. As USADA CEO Terry Madden said, "What we have uncovered appears to be intentional doping of the worst sort. 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. WADA expressed "extreme concern" at this conspiracy and WADA director general David Howman said, "This case shows the degree of ingenuity that some cheaters may have developed with the assistance of support personnel in order to intentionally get an unfair advantage".More new on this story (some of them are
linked to above):
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