First came last months disgraceful details about US athletes who though proven drug cheats had been allowed to compete and take medals off honest competitors and the cover up by the USA Olympic Committee. Now comes the news that top European stars are also cheating.
British sprint star Dwain Chambers is one of six big names who have been caught in the international anti-doping sting operation involving the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG). Apart from Chambers, who is the European 100 metres champion, five US athletes have been found to have used THG after the retesting of urine samples from the lead-up to the world championships in Paris in August. US papers have reported that one of those athletes is the world's leading shot-putter, Kevin Toth.
Chambers, 25, was named by The Guardian newspaper as having tested positive to the new steroid in an out-of-competition test taken at his training camp in Saarbrucken, Germany, on August 1.
Chambers's drug result is just the beginning of the exposure of a conspiracy involving a select group of athletes, coaches and chemists, according to sources.
It is understood that others to test positive include Olympic and world champions but they will not be named before their B samples and appeals processes are complete - expected around December.
The hefty cost of the designer drug and the willingness of those involved to keep it as a "secret weapon" is believed to have limited its supply. "We don't know how far this stuff was spread around, but after all the retesting we will have a fair idea," one athletics official said.
Chambers is coached by Ukrainian Remi Korchemny, who runs a track club in the US with Victor Conte, the owner of BALCO, a supplement and vitamin company that is accused of producing THG and is facing a US grand jury next week regarding alleged tax fraud.
Other athletes linked with BALCO, such as Olympic star Marion Jones and the 100m world record-holder Tim Montgomery, have been subpoenaed to give evidence to the grand jury. Jones's former husband, the banned shot-putter CJ Hunter, was a client of Conte's.
Kelli White, the US 100m and 200m world champion, who was caught taking a stimulant at the world championships, is also linked to BALCO, through her doctor, Brian Goldman, a long-time friend of Conte's.
Toth, who was fourth in the world championships and is sponsored by BALCO, has been named in US papers as testing positive to THG. Toth's lawyer Howard Jacobs said: "Kevin is saying he did not know what it was. If he took it at all, he certainly did not know what it was. He had never heard of tetrahydrogestrinone or THG."
"Ever since the 2000 Olympics, and even before, there was a dark spot around the US, including rumours of how people were told to stay behind [from big competitions], so these tests are fantastic,"
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...631531917.html