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TheBALCO scandal was a scandal involving the use of bannedperformance-enhancing substances by professional athletes.
TheBay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) was aSan Francisco Bay Area business which suppliedanabolic steroids to professional athletes. In 2002 theUS federal government investigated the laboratory.[1]
Founded in 1984 byVictor Conte and his first wife Aubry, BALCO began as Millbrae Holistic, a vitamin shop inMillbrae, California. Initially a business venture to keep food on the table, only one year after opening, Victor Conte closed Millbrae Holistic and started BALCO as asport supplement company in neighboringBurlingame. Investing in anICP spectrometer, Conte used his knowledge ofnutrition, largely self-taught, to devise a system of testing athletes formineral deficiencies in order to maintain a perfect balance of minerals in the body. Through regularurine andblood testing, Conte would monitor and treat mineral shortages in athletes, supposedly elevating their level of physical wellness dramatically. Surviving his divorce from Aubry and several years of financial hardships, BALCO did not achieve professional success until the summer of 1996 with the addition of NFL linebackerBill Romanowski to its client list. From there, Conte began acquiring additional high-profile athletes with a special concoction of undetectable drugs assembled by Illinois chemistPatrick Arnold and distributed by personal trainerGreg Anderson.[1]
Arnold combined a wide range of substances, that when used in a cycle could go relatively undetected by drug testing, even on theOlympic level. Five different types of drugs along with mineral supplements were used to achieve optimum results. Types of drugs includederythropoietin,human growth hormone,modafinil,testosterone cream, andtetrahydrogestrinone.
Conte, Arnold and Anderson continued selling these substances undetected from 1988 to 2002 when the official federal investigation of BALCO began. Parallel with this investigation, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) began its own covert investigation of Conte and his operation. In the summer of 2003, USADA investigators received a syringe with trace amounts of a mysterious substance. The anonymous tipster wasTrevor Graham, sprint coach toMarion Jones andTim Montgomery.
The syringe went toDon Catlin, MD, the founder and then-director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, who had developed a testing process for the substance,tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).[3] Later that year, theChicago Tribune named Catlin Sportsman of the Year.[4]
He tested 550 existing samples from athletes, of which 20 proved positive for THG.[3]
Athletes includingKelli White, British sprinterDwain Chambers, shot putterKevin Toth, middle-distance runnerRegina Jacobs, and hammer throwersJohn McEwen andMelissa Price were subsequently incriminated in the investigation.[5]
The formerAmerican LeagueMVP admitted to steroid use as well asHGH use in front of a grand jury in December 2003.Jason Giambi first became connected with BALCO after inquiring with Greg Anderson about Barry Bonds' training regimen. The much publicized leak of court documents which were said to contain this admission led to a tarnishing of Giambi's career, yet because he never actually failed a drug test, Giambi has, thus far, avoided punishment fromMajor League Baseball. Giambi subsequently made a few apologies to the media, the most direct of which may have come on May 16, 2007, when he told USA Today, "I was wrong for using that stuff...what we should have done a long time ago was stand up — players, ownership, everybody - and said 'we made a mistake.'" His younger brotherJeremy, a fellow major leaguer and former teammate of Giambi's on theOakland A's, was also involved in receiving supplements from BALCO, and admitted using steroids during his career.[6]
Barry Bonds, the formerSan Francisco Giants outfielder, who holds the major league records for home runs in both a single season and a career, has never been caught explicitly using steroids and has steadfastly denied any allegations against him. Critics of Bonds pointed to his large increase in size late in his career, as well as his improvement primarily in his power numbers, despite his age. Bonds's trainer, Greg Anderson, was sentenced to jail time after refusing to testify against Bonds before a grand jury investigating the slugger for perjury.Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, reporters for theSan Francisco Chronicle, profiled Bonds' alleged use of performance-enhancing substances in their 2006 bookGame of Shadows. The reporters used Bonds' testimony in front of a grand jury, and refused to reveal their source for the court documents. The U.S. government sought charges against them for leaking the testimony, but dropped them when a former attorney for Conte pleaded guilty to doing so.
Bonds, like Giambi, has never been punished by the MLB in any way because he has not yet failed any drug test.[7] However, neither he nor Giambi has been elected to theNational Baseball Hall of Fame, despite Bonds being at or near the top in several career statistical categories, such ashome runs andwins above replacement, two statistics that the voters take into serious consideration. The general consensus around baseball is that it is his alleged use of steroids and role in the BALCO scandal that has led theBaseball Writers' Association of America (BWAA) hall of fame voters to not include him on their ballots despite his incredibly productive career.
On November 15, 2007, Bonds was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice based on his grand jury testimony in this investigation. The trial began on March 21, 2011;[8] he was convicted on April 13, 2011, on a single charge of obstruction of justice; the other charges were dismissed.[9][10] In 2015, Bonds' conviction was overturned by a 10–1 vote of anen banc panel of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[11]
Marion Jones was atrack and field athlete who won five medals, three gold, at the2000 Summer Olympics inSydney,Australia. Jones attended theUniversity of North Carolina on a basketball scholarship, but eventually shifted her focus solely to track. It was there she met shot-putter and then UNC coachC.J. Hunter, whom she married in 1998 and eventually divorced in 2002. A former world champion, Hunter, also involved with BALCO, was caught using performance-enhancing drugs and disgraced. The publicity surrounding this led many to believe Jones herself used such drugs as well, an accusation she vehemently denied over and over again. Jones then began a relationship with American sprinterTim Montgomery, leading to the birth of a son. Montgomery himself benefited from the banned substances he received from BALCO (he, as well as both Jones and Hunter, can still be seen posing with Conte in photos on his SNAC website[12]), and the one-time 100 meter dash world record holder has been stripped of his awards and records since admitting to steroid use, and is now retired. After news of Montgomery's cheating broke, Jones was again faced with increased doubt as to the integrity of her career, yet she continued to deny any wrongdoing. Finally, in October 2007, Jones admitted to lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs, though she still maintains she believed the substances she was using were flaxseed oil, not steroids, at the time. Jones has handed over the five Olympic medals she earned in Sydney and officially retired from the sport.
The most notable football player involved in the BALCO scandal is two-time All-ProlinebackerBill Romanowski. The 16-yearNFL veteran openly advertised Conte'szinc supplement ZMA, stating: "I've got about 90 percent of the Broncos on ZMA. The guys are telling me they sleep better and feel better!" His involvement with BALCO only further tainted the career of the four-time Super Bowl champion. Romanowski has also been accused of using other performance-enhancing drugs, such as HGH, a drug banned by the federal government.[13]
The media coverage of the BALCO case was extensive. TheSan Francisco Chronicle and more specificallyChronicle journalistsMark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, have played a prominent role in covering the story, ultimately collaborating inGame of Shadows, a book chronicling the BALCO scandal.
Fainaru-Wada and Williams broke the story concerning U.S. track coach Trevor Graham and his admission to turning a syringe laced with THG over to investigators. That syringe was the catalyst for the entire investigation of Conte's lab. These journalists also wrote the story about C.J. Hunter (Marion Jones’ ex-husband) and his interview with an IRS agent, in which Hunter told the agents that Jones was taking performance-enhancing drugs during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Hunter said that at times, he injected the drugs into Jones himself. He also admitted to taking steroids, and said that he had obtained them through Conte.
The duo's most groundbreaking story, however, was their report on October 16, 2004, of a secret audio conversation that contained Greg Anderson (Barry Bonds’ trainer) stating that Bonds had been using steroids provided by Victor Conte and himself. Anderson also revealed the names of numerous Olympic athletes that had been provided with "The Clear", boasting that neither they nor Bonds would fail drug tests because the substance was undetectable.
After reporting on the BALCO case, Fainaru-Wada and Williams took their interviews and observations and publishedGame of Shadows, a journalistic book that explored every aspect of BALCO, beginning with Conte's early struggles as an aspiring musician and ending with the federal bust of the BALCO headquarters. Publicly, most of the attention the book received was due to the incriminating evidence of Barry Bond's ties to BALCO.[14]
Prior to the scandal, Major League Baseball had no established policy against steroids. As a result of the BALCO bust, commissionerBud Selig instituted a written, league-wide policy. The first time a player fails a test for steroids, he is subject to an 81-game (about 1/2 of a regular season) suspension. For the second offense, the penalty is a 162 (a regular season) game suspension. Finally, if a third offense occurs, the player is given a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball.
Victor Conte pled guilty in 2005 and served four months in prison. He later ran another supplement business, Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC). Patrick Arnold and Greg Anderson each served a three-month jail sentence after pleading guilty, with Anderson serving an additional three-month house arrest sentence. In 2006, Anderson was incarcerated again after being found incontempt of court for refusing to testify about Barry Bonds' and Gary Sheffield's alleged use of banned steroids.[15]