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Last September, Balco Labs, a small supplement company in Burlingame California, was raided by federal agents. Balco is probably best known for their testosterone boosting supplement ZMA a formulation containing zinc and magnesium. Supposedly, dozens of agents were seen carrying boxes of documents and equipment from the lab\'s headquarters, but no arrests were made. The raid was led by the Internal Revenue Service\'s Criminal Investigation Division and included members of the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force.
The raid on Balco has now exploded into the biggest steroid scandal in history and rocked the world of sports. The height of the scandal was reached when President Bush attacked doping by sports figures in his State of the Union address.
A little over a week ago, federal grand jury testimony resumed in the Balco Lab case that turned sports doping into a front-page story. In early September, Balco Labs, its president, Victor Conte Jr., and the condominium of Greg Anderson, the personal trainer to Giants\' slugger Barry Bonds, were raided by law enforcement officials - including IRS agents. Balco President Conte and Anderson are targets of a federal probe in which a who\'s-who list of prominent athletes has been subpoenaed. Among those who have testified are Giants slugger Bonds, New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi, swimmer Amy Van Dyken, Raiders linebacker Bill Romanowski and gold medallist track stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery. |
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Also connected to Conte, according to Balco\'s Web site, are bodybuilders Ronnie Coleman, Flex Wheeler and Mike Ashley. Coleman, a former Mr. Olympia, claims he never received banned substances from Balco. "It was a vitamin and mineral supplement," he said.
The event that led to the raid however was not a zinc and magnesium supplement. Rather, the controversy was touched off when a mysterious syringe was sent via overnight mail to Colorado Springs, and then on to UCLA pharmacology professor Don Catlin, the director of the Olympic Drug Testing Center.
"Nobody has ever brought us a syringe before and said \'Here, find out what\'s in it,\'" Catlin says. "It\'s a chemical whodunit, a needle in a haystack."
Catlin\'s team of eight scientists used a mass spectrometer to create a molecular map of the substance and determine if it was in fact a drug. One of their first tests was positive for testosterone leading them down the anabolic steroid path. Once the mapping was completed, Catlin\'s team named the drug tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG. It was similar in structure to two other anabolic steroids already on the banned substances list, gestrinone and trenbolone -- which I\'ve written about extensively in my articles on Fina conversion. Fina Conversion Article 1 - Fina Conversion Article 2.
"We are fairly certain that the substance came from Victor Conte and BALCO Labs," said Terry Madden, CEO of USADA (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency). "We are not sure of their exact role - there may have been many other people involved."
To be more specific, creating a new designer steroid would require bio-chemists sophisticated enough to create a new anabolic, molecularly close to existing steroids, yet remain undetectable by current doping tests.
USADA officials then rechecked 350 urine samples taken at track and field events over the summer for THG. Madden would not provide a number, but said, "I know of no other drug bust that is larger than this involving the number of athletes involved." Rick Collins, famed Anabolic Steroid Attorney wrote on the Discussion Boards: "THG (tetrahydrogestrinone) is a steroid substance bearing similarities to gestrinone, a banned Olympic substance but not a controlled substance or "anabolic steroid" as defined by federal law. However, the FDA has formally declared that THG meets the definition of an unapproved drug. Therefore, it cannot at this time be purchased for human consumption in the U.S. and would now be illegal to sell for that purpose." Read the thread... The World Anti-Doping Agency is catching up. Athletes participating in this year\'s Athens Olympics were warned last week that tests for previously undetectable substances would be developed in time for the Games. |
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"We are working on final tests. We are working on equipment. They will be distributed to laboratories."
Rabin said tests for GH (growth hormone) were almost complete as well as tests for blood doping. Back in 2001, I was one of the first to report on elite athletes use of Modafinil for training. Now there is a test for Modafinil.
But even with all the new drug tests coming online, ironically, the existence of the THG steroid would undoubtedly not be known if a track coach who has not been identified had not stepped forward. He gave the syringe to anti-doping officials in Colorado, who sent it to Dr. Catlin.
According to Catlin, there are many undetectable steroids also made in underground labs and currently being used by Elite athletes today. THG is just the tip of the iceberg.
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