Cyclist Tammy Thomas has been convicted on three counts of making false statements (perjury) and one count of obstruction of justice. She was acquitted of two counts of perjury (“Cyclist convicted of perjury in BALCO case,” April 4). Under federal sentencing guidelines, Thomas faces a sentence that likely would range from probation to about two […]
Steroid News
War on Steroids Versus War on Drugs
I previously reported how the federal expenditures for the war on steroids and congressional steroid investigations have come at the expense of slashing programs used in the traditional war on drugs. The federal government’s obsession with eliminating anabolic steroids from Major League Baseball is compromising state law enforcement efforts to fight drug dealers and violent […]
Steroid Duo Busted After Acting Furtively
Two men were sitting in a parked car in the New Springville Barnes & Noble parking lot Sunday night. Police decided to search their vehicle because they were “acting furtively.” This a euphemistic way of saying they looked guilty and they were up to no good! (“2 Staten Island men had $800 worth of steroids, […]
Investigative Journalism and the Signature Pharmacy Steroid Scandal
Brendan Lyons and the Albany Times-Union have received a lot of praise and acclaim for their “investigative journalism” in the coverage of the Signature Pharmacy steroid distribution scandal. Admittedly, they do a throrough job of covering the Albany-based investigation initiated by District Attorney David Soares. But the reporting is anything but well-balanced serving as little […]
Cyclist Tammy Thomas Awaits Jury Verdict
The jury in cyclist Tammy Thomas’ doping perjury trial did not reach a verdict after the first day of deliberations (“Thomas jury deliberations to continue,” April 3). Thomas, whose case is the first to go to trial in the five-and-a-half-year Balco investigation, was charged with making false statements to a grand jury in 2003 about […]
“Stupidity and Mistakes of the Anti-Doping Crusade”
Velo Vortmax blasts WADA for its resistance to change in the face of additional new evidence that the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio test is flawed (“Genetic variations in enzyme UGT2B17: Implications,” April 3). WADA refuses to worry about trivial genetic factors. WADA is loath to do longitudinal tests of athletes. WADA might find a variable that might […]
Serious Crime of Steroid Use in Sports
The 1984 Olympic cycling gold medalist Alexi Grewal wrote an essay that has created quite a stir in the world of professional cycling. Grewal essentially implies that practically all the elite U.S. cyclists in the 1980s “stepped over the line” and doped in some fashion; this would implicate American cycling greats like Greg Lemond, Andy […]
New Book on History of Anabolic Steroids and Doping in Sports
Daniel Rosen of the Rant Your Head Off blog has written a new book on the history of anabolic steroids and doping in sports. The book Dope: A History of Performance Enhancement in Sports from the Nineteenth Century to Today is scheduled to be released on June 30, 2008. Rosen tells us more about it in […]
WADA Testing for Growth Hormone Within Weeks
According to the New York Times, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has purchased thousands of doping kits that will be used to screen blood for exogenous human growth hormone (HGH). The top-secret HGH test has been available for some time but WADA only recently found a secret European-based manufacturer capable of producing significant quantities of […]
History of Anabolic Steroids in Sports Courtesy of Sports Illustrated
The Sports Illustrated version of the history of anabolic steroids in sports is now available online in its entirety with the launch of SI Vault. Sports Illustrated on March 20 plans to unveil SI Vault, a new section within SI.com that will feature digitized archives of the magazine’s complete collection of content throughout its 54-year […]