Steroid Nation

Afternoon Steroids Injections

2008-07-23T17:12:44-05:00

1. 'WADA' scientists working on HGH urine test. Pisses off some. (USA Today)

2. The Italian Olympic authority will schedule a hearing for Ricco and Piepoli (Canadian Press)

3. Why do cyclists dope? Maybe to win? (AP)

4. Mark Spitz was not on steroids. (USA Today)

WADA traps Tour de France drug cheats with stealth EPO/CERA molecule

2008-07-23T10:46:17-05:00

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh, WADA is lips sealed on this, but leaks say that Tour de France EPO drug cheat Riccardo Ricco fell to a stealth molecule attached to the drug by the manufacturer (Roche). The new EPO preparation -- CERA, a pegylated version of EPO -- appears to have a trojan horse embedded somewhere that can be detected in WADA labs. And WADA isn't telling what or how -- and we bet lawyers will be suing.

The Sydney Morning News is outing CERA.

A MOLECULE was the undoing of Tour de France drug cheat Ricardo Ricco, World Anti-Doping Agency chief John Fahey revealed yesterday.

Fahey said the war on drugs was stepping up, with WADA uniting with drug manufacturers to trap cheats. Italian rider Ricco, who had won stages six and nine of the Tour, tested positive for the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). It's believed Ricco thought there was no test for the red-cell booster he was using called Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator (CERA).

A molecule placed in the drug during its manufacture caught Ricco out last week, and Fahey said that more cheats would be sprung like this.

"I can't tell you the details of how he was detected," Fahey told ABC Radio. "[But] I can indicate the particular substance is called CERA … which is a perfectly legitimate substance to deal with anaemia.

Interesting data; however we can see legal challenges coming down the pike. How can one be convicted on evidence that is not public? Is this the secret doping police?

"In the development of that particular substance close cooperation occurred between WADA and the pharmaceutical company Roche Pharmaceuticals so that there was a molecule placed in the substance well in advance that was always going to be able to be detected once a test was undertaken."

Fahey said it was likely more drug companies and scientists would co-operate to ensure drug cheats across all sports would be caught.

"There's more and more of this occurring," he said.

"The more co-operation the scientists can have with the drug companies in the detection of performance-enhancing drugs the greater the likelihood is they will be detected when tests are undertaken."

OK, the stealth molecule catches drug cheats, but shouldn't an athlete have due process including information and data about the evidence against him? Will the stealth EPO test show up in the Olympics?

Daily Steroids injection

2008-07-23T06:54:28-05:00

1. Doped up Ricco tried to flee dope testers. (Can you blame him?) (SI)

2. University of Utah improves testosterone dope testing. (Daily Utah Chronicle)

3. Arizona might not let you dope up your greyhounds. (KOLD)

4. On-going task of finding the golden witness in the Roger Clemens investigation. (NY Times)

5. Big stash of drugs uncovered in Bakersfield. (KERO 23)

6. Louisville man and wife indicted for steroid sales. (her unfortunate name: Krystal Knuckles) (WHAS)

Chief executive of USA Track & Field exhorts President Bush not to pardon Marion Jones

2008-07-23T06:38:29-05:00

Marion Jones, tacked away snuggly in a Texas federal prison, wrote to President Bush asking for a pardon. The head of the track federation who witnessed her drug-cheating drew up a counter-proposal: DON'T.

Doug Logan -- cheif executive of US Track and Field -- wrote an open letter to President Bush exhorting him not to wipe off Marion Jones's fast sins. The New York Times elaborates:

“Our country has long turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of our heroes,” Doug Logan wrote in an open letter to President Bush. Logan was named chief executive of the sport’s national governing body last week. “If you have athletic talent or money or fame, the law is applied much differently than if you are slow or poor or an average American trying to get by. At the same time, all sports have for far too long given the benefit of the doubt to its heroes who seem too good to be true, even when common sense indicates they are not.

“To reduce Ms. Jones’s sentence or pardon her would send a horrible message to young people who idolized her, reinforcing the notion that you can cheat and be entitled to get away with it. A pardon would also send the wrong message to the international community. Few things are more globally respected than the Olympic Games, and to pardon one of the biggest frauds perpetuated on the Olympic movement would be nothing less than thumbing our collective noses at the world.”

Jones, as we all recall, vehemently denied use of PEDs even to the point of a defamation suit against BALCO executive Victor Conte, whose ring distributed steroids to Jones. Jones was also involved in fraud with her partner drug-cheat Tim Montgomery.

Jones is among about 2,300 offenders seeking pardons and commutations during the final months of President Bush’s term in office. Her lawyer, Henry J. DePippo, did not respond to a request for comment.

The letter sent by Logan was a striking departure from the often-timid remarks made by leaders of various Olympic sports federations. It reflected the anger that many antidoping officials felt after Jones called into question the legitimacy of drug-testing procedures before acknowledging that she had taken illicit substances.

Will the President pardon an Olympian who used weapons of mass enhancement?

Carl W. Tobias, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Richmond School of Law and who has tracked President Bush’s pardons, said the chances that Jones would receive a pardon appeared “pretty long and may be getting longer,” in light of Logan’s letter.

Tobias said that Bush had been “extremely stingy” in granting pardons, compared with other recent presidents, and that Jones’s high profile could work against her.

“I just think she would somehow be perceived as getting some slack because of who she was,” Tobias said.

“So much attention is trained on her, and maybe that makes it more difficult than if she were someone who is less well known.”

Louisiana steroid bust catches high school athletes, as Texas laments high school testing

2008-07-23T06:04:16-05:00

Several weeks after many Texas newspapers decried high school steroids testing, Louisiana law enforcement uncovered a huge distribution ring including several high school athletes. (To the Daily Advertiser)

News of a St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Department bust of an alleged steroids ring that identified approximately 100 users - including several high school football players - caught area coaches by surprise Tuesday as they were preparing to head to Baton Rouge for the annual Louisiana High School Coaches' Association clinic.

"I'm floored," Opelousas High coach Mickey Autrey said. "I'm caught off guard. I think it's been suspected that some kids do it, but I think it was wishful thinking on our part that it wasn't happening in our schools.

"I hope it's not any of our kids. That could be devastating for any program."

Actually people should be surprised that coaches are surprised that cheating goes on. If there is an edge to be gained, legally or illegally, athletes are not isolated in grabbing any advantage, even -- gasp -- steroids.

Port Barre coach Mac Mistric was startled to hear about the investigation, but said it doesn't come as a big surprise.

"In this age, it's all about instant gratification," Mistric said. "For a lot of kids, it's about getting bigger, faster and stronger the easiest and quickest way. They want results now, and you don't see those kind of quick results by jogging three miles, or putting the time in the weight room.

"As far as wondering if anything like that is taking place (at our school), you never say never. I strongly stand against any of that stuff and every chance we get we warn the kids about the dangers."

Lafayette Parish athletic director James Simmons said investigations like this involving high school athletes will only grow until state-wide steroid testing is implemented in high schools.

"You know what, it doesn't surprise me," Simmons said. "I had an idea that it was going on, but I didn't know it was this widespread. Until we start drug-testing student-athletes for steroids, that's going to always be lingering out there.

"If the legislature really wants to do something good, do what Texas did, earmark some money and test these kids (for steroids)."

Ya'all listening Texas?

Westminster coach Tommy Badon has coached on the collegiate level as well as prep and said the temptation for kids to use steroids is very real.

"In this day and age with the accessibility, you can talk until you're blue in the face, but you'd have to have your head in the sand to not know if they want it, they'll get it," Badon said. "There's always the fear that your kids are trying to take shortcuts. This is a right-now generation. I was raised by a World War II dad, you had to earn everything.

"It's instant gratification, sometimes things aren't happening fast enough. And if someone comes up to you and offers you an opportunity to have those instant results, most kids will take it."

Daily Steroids Dose

2008-07-22T07:31:17-05:00

1. Marion Jones wants to be forgiven for her sins; asks President Bush for pardon. (AP)

2. Editorial says media only cares about character if someone like Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens is involved, but not themselves. (Red Orbit)

3. New book on Don Catin's sleuthing out of Aranesp in 2002: The Night Olympic Team. (Market Watch)

4. Inhaler helps triathlete breathe easier. (NY Times)

5. The Media figured out Katerina Thanou on Greek Olympic team (SI)

6. Despite the taint currently over track, Gay, Powell, and Bolt look to pour excitement into the Beijing 100M. (RTE Sport)

7. Ex-White Sox slugger Eric Soderholm, ex-Cubs catcher Randy Hundley and pitcher Bill Campbell spoke to a "History of Baseball" class at Harper College: say no asterisk for Barry Bonds's Hall of Fame baseabll. (Daily Harald)

8. Ukrainian boxer given the boot after doping violation. (Independent ie)

9. Tour de France leader Frank Schleck and his CSC team surprised by dope tested. (Dallas Star-Telegraph)

Gene doping at the Olympics: be afraid, be very afraid

2008-07-21T23:30:46-05:00

On the eve of the Olympics, the Times Online ran a story looking at disconcerting trends developing in the doping world. Numero Uno on this list was the offer of 'gene doping' (actually stem cell doping) by a Chinese physician at a Chinese hospital. (sports stem cell doping may be the second best use of the technology)

Startling new evidence of a burgeoning underground doping culture in China emerged last night as a hospital doctor said that he was prepared to give illegal performance-enhancing gene therapy treatment to an Olympic swimmer. The doctor was caught on camera by a German television investigator saying that he wanted £12,000 for a two-week treatment that would help to strengthen the lungs of a fictitious American swimmer.

The opening paragraph refers to gene doping, however the German story develops more aspects of illicit sports doping for 2008:

The documentary, broadcast by ARD on Germany’s main channel last night, went on to show evidence that drugs firms in China are prepared to sell steroids that have not passed full clinical trials, as well as erythropoietin (EPO), the blood-boosting drug, at a price far cheaper than in the West. In the case of one steroid, 100g was sold for €150 (about £120) when the price in Europe would have been more than €6,000.

...With the Olympics beginning in Beijing in a little more than two weeks, the documentary evidence of cheap, on-demand gene therapy alarmed David Howman, the director general of the World AntiDoping Agency (Wada). “This is worse than my worst fears,” he said.

When the head of a hospital gene therapy department in China was approached by a fictitious American swimming coach seeking stem-cell treatment for one of his swimmers, the doctor replied: “Yes. We have no experience with sportspeople here, but the treatment is safe and we can help you.”

That's doctor in whom to entrust confidence: "no experience with sportspeople".

Asked how it would work, the doctor said: “It strengthens lung function and stem cells go into the bloodstream and reach the organs. It takes two weeks. I recommend four intravenous injections . . . 40 million stem cells or double that, the more the better. We also use human growth hormones, but you have to be careful because they are on the doping list.”

And the price? “Twenty-four thousand dollars,” the doctor said.

Ouch, expensive, but then again swimmers spend 100,000 in trainers and coaches. Here is a paragraph from a consensus panel of international experts on the "Molecular basis of connective tissue and muscle injuries in sport "

[Arne Ljungqvist, Martin P. Schwellnus, Norbert Bachl,et al, Clinics in Sports Medicine, 27, Pages 231-239 (Jan 2008)]

Mesenchymal stem cells are adult tissue-producing cells that have been isolated from various parts of the body, including cartilage, bone marrow, synovium, adipose tissue, articular cartilage, muscle, and tendons ^[70]^,^[71]^,^[72]. Potentially, mesenchymal stem cells can be used for tissue-engineering strategies through implantation of scaffolds and gels, for gene delivery, and for production of growth factor to stimulate tissue repair or inhibit tissue degradation ^[73]^,^[74]^,^[75]. Most studies have been conducted in animal models. Some studies of human bone, cartilage, and tendons have produced positive results ^[76]^,^[77]^,^[78]. Further controlled clinical trials in musculoskeletal injuries in humans are warranted, however. Reasons for the lack of progress in this field include the need to find the optimal sources of and methods for the differentiation of cells and for the development of optimal surgical delivery materials and methods ^[79]^,^[80]. Although some studies have shown negative effects, including ectopic calcification and connective tissue overgrowth [78], further clinical trials should be undertaken to determine whether long-term complications exist.

The Chinese doctor appears to have the protocol down a little better than one would think after reading the paragraph above. How did this happen? If practiced would the protocol lead to serious complications or death?

Will the 2008 Olympics be the first to see 'stem cell doping'? (more later)

Evening Steroid Shot

2008-07-21T21:55:38-05:00

1. Heptathelete Kelly Sotherton says Lyudmila Blonska may be a doper, but she will still beat her. (The Independent)

2. Juiced cockfighting in Minnesota, you have got to be kidding. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

3. Swim News says doping outlook is very grim: gene doping, designer steroids, and other unsavory things.

Reports of 150 web sites offering illegal steroids on-line

2008-07-21T12:51:38-05:00

Two organizations offered up some sleuthing work to uncover Internet web sites offering steroids online. Market Watch and Dark Reading cover the research by Legit Script and Knujon.

From Market Watch:

Kids at Risk: Report Identifies 150 Websites Selling Anabolic Steroids

'Pumped Up on the Internet' calls for action from ICANN, US-based domain name registrars

ARLINGTON, Va. and BOSTON, July 21, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- LegitScript.com, an online pharmacy verification service, and KnujOn.com, an Internet spam and criminality watchdog, have released an investigative report that identifies 156 websites engaged in the illicit sale of anabolic steroids.

Steroid abuse is part of the larger prescription drug abuse problem, which is the second largest drug abuse problem in the United States. The abuse of anabolic steroids is concentrated among youth and young adults. The websites identified in the report enable Web-savvy youth to easily obtain illicit anabolic steroids

"None of the steroid websites we reviewed required a prescription, and none used any sort of age verification service," said John Horton, President of LegitScript. "Studies indicate that youth and young adults are the most at risk for illicit steroid use, and these websites are just a fraction of those we identified selling these drugs."

A little hyperbole included the 'Kids at Risk' headline. Who knows how many of these Internet drugs fall into children's and adolescent's hands (or muscles). Dark Reading meanwhile gives us the following:

Several hundred Websites sponsored by U.S. Internet domain registrars, including the popular GoDaddy, are selling steroids illegally, according to two online fraud watchdog organizations. They have been discovered by two Internet anti-fraud groups.

KnujOn, which fights email abuse and online fraud, teamed up with LegitScript.com, which verifies licensed online pharmacies and exposes underground ones, to ferret out the steroid-pushing sites and domains. The Internet domains that sponsor such sites should seek to suspend them, the watchdog groups say.

The two organizations today published a report describing the steroid-selling sites and outing the registrars that had signed them up. “These are 'Schedule III' substances -- it is illegal to distribute them in the U.S. without a license, or receive them without a prescription,” says Garth Bruen, creator of KnujOn. “They are delivered via postal mail, FedEx, etc. ... and this also violates the law.”

The U.S. domain registrars cited are Abacus America Inc., DSTR Acquisition VII LLC, Dynadot.com, Everyones Internet, Ltd., dba resellone.net, eNom, Inc., EstDomains, Inc, GoDaddy/Wild West, Parava Networks, Inc., and dba 10-Domains.com, according to the report. One GoDaddy-sponsored site in the report, aarxpharmacy.com sells anabolic steroids, testosterone, and other controlled substances.

As of late last week, KnujOn said it had not gotten much of a response from the U.S. Internet registrars after alerting them of the steroid sites and asking them to suspend the sites. Only a few registrars responded -- and they refused to take action, according to KnujOn

It will be interesting to see if these reports can decrease the number of illicit steroids sales on-line.

Dark Reading goes on after the jump:

The report aims to shed light on the online steroid underground, as well as the role of the U.S. registrars in helping them to get Internet services. “This is about the extent of criminality on the Web, how specialized it has become, in addition to revealing questions about the quality of companies supplying Internet services in the U.S.,” says Bruen. “Do they see themselves as having a moral or ethical obligation to the public?”

The steroid-selling sites aren’t your typical phony online pharmacies. “With general RX sites, there is a lot of variety. Some are merely stealing credit card numbers, others ship knockoff or counterfeit drugs, and others sell diverted market product which is the real thing but may be expired, under dosage, or rerouted from its original destination.

“With the steroid sites, there is much more involvement in the trade. The sites are more personalized and not as cold as the fake pill sites,” Bruen says. “If you look through some of the steroid forums out there, people complain about lots of fake supplements on the Internet. The sites we're looking at claim to offer the real thing and no ‘bad’ versions.”

With one month lapse Canadian bodybuilder Julie Coram tests negative for steroids

2008-07-21T07:34:24-05:00

Embattled Canadian bodybuilder Julie Coram repeated a urine test for steroids one month after a positive test for Equipose (stories here and here on the original positive). This time she was clean, leading her lawyer to trumpet her 'exoneration'. Story in the Winnipeg Sun.

Body building champion Julie Coram says she has been exonerated after testing clean on a recent drug test, but the body who stripped her of a title for a failed test earlier this year is standing by its practices.

FAME World Tour and its sanctioning body, the World Natural Sports Organization, banned Coram from events and removed her FAME title when she tested positive for two illegal substances and other body building agents after a May 24 competition in Winnipeg.

However, a statement issued yesterday by Coram's lawyer said a June 23 sample taken by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and tested under the Canadian Body Building Federation's (CBBF) anti-doping program has come back negative for all prohibited substances.

"We are grateful that the CBBF subjected Julie Coram to a prompt, fair and reliable drug test," said Coram's New York-based lawyer, Rick Collins. "The results were not at all surprising to us. She tested absolutely clean -- she had no traces whatsoever of any banned substances in her sample. Julie has been exonerated."

Sometimes you wonder if lawyers chuckle at their own illogical statements. Apparently the one month time lapse has nothing to do with the clean urine. If a crime occurs in May, and subsequently the criminal stays clean in June, does that negate the May crime? Whatever, the story continues:

In an e-mail, Coram indicated she will keep her Miss Fitness Manitoba title, which was called into question after the controversy. However, the Manitoba Amateur Body Building Association, which issues the title, could not be reached yesterday for confirmation of either that or of the test results.

Collins said he hoped the CCES results may encourage FAME to re-examine its anti-doping protocols, suggesting they are sub-standard.

FAME understands the excretion of a drug, even thought the legal system struggles with the concept. Rusty Hardin might have hope in vindicating Roger Clemens yet.

But FAME said this test won't change its position on the issue.

"It has no bearing on the test we did ... at the time of the show it came back positive," said FAME producer and WNSO co-president Jeffrey Kippel, adding a lapse of one month could allow substances to leave the body or be hidden using masking agents.

'STAY IN SYSTEM'

"Some of these substances stay in the system a long time, others don't," he said yesterday.

Kippel said Coram didn't ask to be retested by FAME or volunteer any further samples but did send a letter asking them to keep any indiscretions quiet.

Coram provided a urine sample after she won the female muscle model category at the Ainsley McSorley FAME Model Search Championships in Winnipeg on May 24. The sample tested positive for high levels of three anabolic steroids, according to FAME.

Daily Steroids Dose

2008-07-21T07:13:35-05:00

1. Australian police station raided in steroids search. (ABC News)

2. While you're watching those Olympians selling candy bars remember once Ben Johnson was a corporate spokesman. (Blogging Stocks)

3. California bans steroids in horse racing. (Modesto Bee)

Daily Steroids Injection

2008-07-20T07:24:58-05:00

If the news isn't about Brett Farve it's about Dara Torres. Good review of her career. (Orange County Register)

2. South Africa remember a drug-riddled Marco Pantani, Riccardo Ricco's idol. (IOL)

3. Ricco remembers Floyd Landis; doubts the validity of the EPO test. (The Guardian)

4. The New York Times picks up on suspicions about Jamaican runners. (NY Times)

5. Missouri's swimmer Max Jaben could be in trouble with the NCAA because of positive drug test. (Swimming News)

Dr. Jesus Losa emerges as doping source for Tour de France riders, as confessions leak out

2008-07-19T17:28:56-05:00

A Spanish physician appears to be implicated in the Spain-gate Tour de France 2008 doping scandal. Dr. Jesus Losa was named by riders as a source of the juice -- likely EPO. Tour rider David Miller (pictured) may also have consulted with Losa for doping expertise. Losa was suspended in that episode. To Cycling News:

Two riders who have withdrawn from the Tour de France confessed to using EPO, the Spanish daily El Pais reported Saturday. The first, Moises Dueñas, a Spanish rider who was the second to test positive for EPO at the Tour de France, confessed to using the drugs after testing positive. After police uncovered doping products in his hotel room, Dueñas told investigators in Tarbes that he had purchased the products from a Spanish Doctor named Jesus Losa.

Losa, a former team doctor for Euskaltel-Euskadi, was quick to deny he had any involvement. "I have never given banned products to Moises Dueñas," Losa told El Pais. "In fact, I have worked with Dueñas, but only in matters of nutrition, diet and training. And indeed, I have received money from him, I do not know how much, but there are bills around."

Four years ago Losa was named by David Millar as providing him with EPO, but while he was suspended from Euskaltel-Euskadi after that revelation, Losa said he never was charged. "I was never called by a judge to testify as a witness or even less as a defendant," said Losa Saturday. "And if they call me to Tarbes I shall have no problem in going to testify."

The 4th Tour rider nailed with dope -- Leonardo Piepoli -- kneeled to confess today:

In the same article, El Pais reported that Italian Leonardo Piepoli, the winner of stage 10, confessed to his directeur sportif Joxean Fernandez Matxin to using EPO. After his team-mate Riccardo Riccò was taken away by police after testing positive for EPO, Piepoli reportedly said to Matxin, "I have done the same as Riccardo."

No positive doping control has been announced yet for Piepoli, but the team's manager, Mauro Gianetti, pulled the entire squad out of the race. Riccò was indicted on the same charges as Duenas in a court in Foix, but denied using EPO.

Former Kansas City swimmer Max Jaben, now with Israel Olympic team, positive for horse steroid boldenone

2008-07-19T17:12:02-05:00

Kansas City native Max Jaben tested positive for boldenone, as he attempted to swim in the 2008 Olympics for Israel. Jaben swan for the Kansas City Blazers, as well as the Florida Gators and Missouri Tigers. The KC Sat picks up the story.

Former Kansas City Blazers club swimmer Max Jaben, who qualified with Israel for the 2008 Olympic Games, acknowledged Thursday that he had tested positive for the anabolic steroid boldenone.

Reached via phone in Israel on Thursday, Jaben ardently declared his innocence and said he was “fully ready to fight this to the end.”

Jaben said he was awaiting the results of an analysis of his “B” sample from a drug test administered in April, though he admitted his Olympic dreams were in serious doubt.

“There is a chance that I still could be in the Olympics. Is it a good chance? I would like to say it is, but it’s not,” Jaben said. “I’m very optimistic. … However this is a sticky situation in sports. If you test positive for something, many people aren’t interested in your truth. They’re only interested in the positive drug test.”

There are two interesting angles to the story:

1. Boldenone is Equipose, the same steroid fitness competitor Julie Coram tested positive.
2. Max Jaben is also the name of a 40s-50s gangster from Kansas City who gained fame as a gambler and federal crime target.

Jaben denies use of the anabolic steroid. The B test awaits confirmation.