The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) president believes organized doping is behind the fifteen Greek athletes who have failed anti-doping tests before and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Former 400-meter hurdles champion Fani Halkia, swimmer Ioannis Drymonakos, 400-meter runner Dimitrios Regas, sprinter Tassos Gousis and eleven unidentified Greek weightlifters all tested positive for the same prohibited anabolic steroid – methyltrienolone (“HOC president: Greek sports face organized doping,” August 18). 

“There are 15 people, all with the same substance. This is the strangest thing, because it leads to the conclusion that there is an organized effort,” Minos Kyriakou told The Associated Press. The athletes — 11 weightlifters, three runners and a swimmer — all tested positive for methyltrienolone, a banned steroid. “There is an organized crime — because that is what this is called,” Kyriakou said. “Because it seems there is a lot of money hidden there, a lot of profit.”

While Kyriakou believed organized doping resulted in the methyltrienolone positives, he was careful to dismiss suggestions of systematic doping.

“It’s not systematic, but definitely there are some guys who know the sources and I think the state needs to take care to discover that,” Kyriakou said Sunday. “At the end, they have to be punished by the state.”

The phrases “organized doping” and “systematic doping” are often used interchangebly. But I’m guessing that Kyriakou apparently made the distinction to deflect suggestion of state-sponsored systematic doping of Greek athletes. WADA, on the other hand, apparently had suspicions of systematic doping and a potential cover-up at the WADA/IOC approved anti-doping lab in Athens when they chose to test samples at a lab in Germany (“Greek media accuse Olympic team of cover up,” April 13).

Another unexplained aspect of the whole case which seems to suggest  WADA had suspected attempts to mount a cover up is the fact that samples taken from the Greek team were tested in Cologne, Germany, rather than Athens which has one of the world’s most advanced anti – doping labs. Don Catlin, a leading expert on doping,in an interview with NEA, expressed surprise that WADA had choosen not to follow the normal procedure and allow the samples to be examined in the country involved.

Kyriakou did not name who he felt was behind the organized doping although many have blamed Greek weightlifting coach Christos Iakovou who claims to have imported contaminated supplements containing methyltrienolone from the Chinese company Auspere Technology.

I spoke with chemist Patrick Arnold of Ergopharm in Dallas last weekend. He has largely put the BALCO scandal behind him and no longer concerns himself with the tactics used by athletes to beat the drug tests. But when he work with IOC/WADA-tested athletes and created undetectable steroids such as THG, Patrick Arnold told me that several athletes used methyltrienolone in the 1990s to successfully pass doping controls. Anti-doping tests were not sensitive enough to detect the small quantities of the steroid required for performance enhancing effects. He was somewhat surprised that methyltrienolone was detected by drug testers in the Greek Weightlifting steroid scandal suggesting anti-doping tests have improved for the substance.

The fact that athletes were being caught using methyltrienolone was apparent to the international athletic community as early as April 2008 when the Greek weightlifters were busted. So, it seems highly unusual and even unlikely that systematic and/or organized doping was involved in the Greek doping scandal. Why would athletes continue to use methyltrienolone when it was obvious that it could be detected and that anti-doping agencies were looking for it specifically in Greek athletes? Would an organized doping effort be so utterly incompetent as to ignore such a threat and continue doping athletes with a detectable steroid?

This would seem to give more credence to claims of widespread supplement contamination and/or sabotage as alternate explanations to HOC president Minos Kyriakou’s claim of organized doping.

Sprinter Dimitris Regas denied the use of anabolic steroids and claimed sabotage.

Regas claimed he was a victim of “some people who want to attack (Greek) athletics,” adding he would lodge an official complaint against the parties in question, without specifying who they might be.

The coach for 400 meter hurdler Fani Halkia and Dimitris Regas, George Panagiotopoulos, has denied the use of steroids and claimed sabotage.

“It would be my pleasure for Greek justice to intervene.  I want them to intervene. My two athletes (Halkia and Regas) did not use methyltrienolone. I believe there has been sabotage or tampering at doping control.  I had never heard of that substance, and only learned about it after the weightlifting scandal.  One thing is certain, that I would never give such substances to my athletes.  How is it possible that one would take prohibited substances only a few days prior to the Olympics, you would have to be insane.”

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Steeplechase Simon Vroemen has tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid Dianabol (metandienone or methandrostenolone) according to Steroid Nation. Vroemen does not know how Dianabol entered his system but suspects it may have been the result of medications he took to treat mononucleosis.

I am always willing to give athletes the benefit of a doubt especially given the lack of fair and reliable doping protocols administered under WADA. But, the statements Vroemen offers in his defense are weak, misleading and wrong.

Simon Vroemen claims that Dianabol would be “counterproductive” for a middle distance runner because it primarily increases muscle mass without a significant increase in strength; furthermore, Vroeman claims Dianabol remains detectable in doping tests for up to nine months after ingested making it unsuitable for any athlete competing in a drug tested competition (“A small trace with large consequences?,” July 11).

The compound, named metandienone, increases muscle weight and volume (not so much strenth) and is therefore popular in the body building scene. As a steeple chase runner, one would probably only be disadvantaged by its consequences. It appears to be traceable up to 9 months in your urine and is hence unlikely to be used consciously by sportsmen as a performance-enhancing substance.

These statements are innacurate. Dianabol can lead to significant increases in strength; anabolic steroids are particularly beneficial for endurance athletes (as seen in the number of positive steroid tests for middle distance runners and cyclists) since heavy endurance training tends to significantly suppress endogenous testosterone production. Anabolic steroids do not automatically transform an athlete’s physique into that of a bodybuilder; body size while on steroids is more heavily dependent on variables such as caloric intake versus expenditure and training specificity.

Vroemen also claims that Dianabol is detectable for up to nine months after ingestion. This is false. The metabolites are practically undetectable after 1-2 weeks.

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Steroid Nation reports Greek 400 meter sprinter Dimitris Regas has tested positive for the anabolic steroid methyltrienolone. At least thirteen Greek athletes have failed steroid tests this year. It seems that all steroid tested athletes in Greece are testing positive for the same anabolic steroid which has never been commercially available.

Earlier this year, eleven members of the Greek National Weightlifting Team tested positve for the anabolic steroid methyltrienolone which resulted in the expulsion of the entire Greek Weightlifting Team from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In May, Greek Olympic swimmer Ioannis Drymonakos also tested positive for methyltrienolone.

Dimitris Regas denied the use of anabolic steroids and claimed sabotage. Regas alleges a conspiracy of “people who want to attack (Greek) athletics” as being responsible for his positive test for methyltrienolone and presumably other Greek positive doping results (“Greek runner Regas fails drugs test,” July 11).

Regas, 22, said in a statement that he tested positive for the banned substance Methyltrienolone at a national athletics meet in Athens on June 13.

“The use of anabolic steroids by an athlete who knows that he will be tested would not only be immoral but suicidal,” he said.

Regas claimed he was a victim of “some people who want to attack (Greek) athletics,” adding he would lodge an official complaint against the parties in question, without specifying who they might be.

We look forward to details of the conspiracy once Regas submits his official complaint.

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped Marion Jones’ teammates of medals won at 2000 Sydney Olympics on April 10, 2008.

Her teammates on the 1,600 squad were Jearl-Miles Clark, Monique Hennagan, LaTasha Colander-Richardson and Andrea Anderson. The 400-relay squad also had Chryste Gaines, Torri Edwards, Nanceen Perry and Passion Richardson.

Seven of the eight teammates have set up a legal defense fund called the “Innocent Olympic Athletes Defense Fund” to raise $200,000 in anticipated legal cost for the appeal for their defense attorney Mark Levinstein of Williams and Connolly Firm in Washington DC.

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) refused to pay for the athletes’ defense if they chose Mark Levinstein because Levinstein wasn’t nice to them (“Williams & Connolly Partner Suffers Setback in Olympic Medals Appeal,” April 24).

Washington attorney Mark Levinstein suffered a frustrating setback Wednesday in his effort to keep seven of the eight women who ran with admitted steroid user Marion Jones from losing their Olympic medals. On April 23, the U.S. Olympic Committee declined to fund their appeal because a letter Levinstein sent the committee used “threatening” language.

The USOC offered to pay for defense offering the athletes a choice of three other lawyers. Instead, the athletes chose to stay with Levinstein and raise funds privately by establishing the Innocent Athletes Defense Fund.

The USOC previously spent $200,000 on a similar defense case involving the 4×400 Men’s Relay team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

In a similar case involving U.S. men who ran on the 4×400-meter relay at the 2000 Olympics tainted by the presence of Jerome Young, who should have been ineligible, the U.S. Olympic Committee financed the successful appeal that allowed all but Young to keep their gold medals.

The USOC agreed that the Young decision in the 4×400 relay should establish precedent in the Marion Jones case too.

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Track sprinter LaTasha Jenkins is the first athlete to win a doping case against the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). She was charged with an adverse analytical finding after testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in both Sample A and Sample B in July 2006. She was banned from competition for two years. Last week, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) dropped its appeal of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision which exonerated her (“LaTasha Jenkins first athlete to beat the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on a doping charge,” April 22).

A three-member arbitration panel ruled last December the testing of her sample, given at a meet in Belgium, was not done in accordance with WADA rules that require tests be run by two different technicians.

That broke USADA’s perfect record in front of arbitration panels, which was 35-0 according to the best available statistics.

To the question of Jenkins’ appearing to have won on a technicality, Valparaiso Sports Law Clinic director Michael Straubel had said, “[The arbitrators] set aside the test results because they were not based on reliable lab results.”

She was represented by the Valpo Sports Law Clinic with free legal assistance. The clinic is a pro bono service of Valparaiso University School of Law based on financial need. The Valpo Sports Clinic was founded in 2005; the clinic will have an on-site service for athletes at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Professor Michael Straubel, the Director of the Valpo Sports Law Clinic, has previously commented on the unfairness and inconsistency of anti-doping efforts in the context of the Floyd Landis case (“Sports Law Clinic director comments on Landis case,” May 24, 2007).

“It is important to eliminate cheating in sports and enforce anti-doping rules consistently and fairly, but the USADA v. Landis hearing is a rare public airing of the many tensions and growing pains that haunt the doping control process,” said Professor Straubel. “Those tensions include a bureaucracy that needs to prove itself vs. an accused athlete’s need for information to defend himself. The system is designed to be quick vs. the need to be thorough in order to be fair. It is a system based on breach of contract dispute procedures vs. claims and charges that are criminal in their seriousness.”

Professor Straubel added, “However, at the heart of the Landis case are questions about the reliability of a still developing science and anti-doping enforcement using that science. Floyd Landis and his attorneys are challenging a system which presumes the science is reliable and testing is properly done, but which then limits the information available to athletes about that science and testing. This challenge has clearly shown how difficult it is to put the testers to their proofs. Perhaps the larger result of the Landis case will be a system that is more self correcting and reliable.”

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The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has been conducting a formerly secret pilot program for longitudinal testing for anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. USADA recruited twelve U.S. athletes for voluntary participation in “Project Believe.” News of the anti-doping program was leaked when decathlon champion Brian Clay and runner Allyson Felix discussed it at a press conference possibly violating USADA’s code of secrecy on the program (“US sports stars try to dim doping fears with ‘Project Believe’,” April 17).

“I may get in trouble for talking about it but I want people to know I’m doing everything in my power to stay clean,” said Clay, who began having extra tests done before last month’s world indoor championships.

In spite of Clay’s concerns, it is unlikely that Clay or Felix will face any sanctions by USADA for revealing the existence of “Project Believe” prior to its official launch.

Trust But Verify believes the “Project Believe” trial is based of cycling’s bio-passport program. The expensive nature, the importance of establishing a physiological baseline, and the frequency of urine and blood tests over time seem to confirm the similarities with cycling’s longitudinal testing programs (“Anti-doping program takes root,” April 17).

The project, according to athletes and antidoping officials familiar with it, aims to compile a physiological baseline of each of the initial 12 volunteers. Subsequent tests would be compared to the baseline numbers to see whether there are any changes that could be attributed to doping…

In one three-week period, [Clay] he said he was subjected to six blood and urine tests, with five vials of blood taken for each of the blood tests. Some of the tests were pre-planned, but others were surprises, he said.

Don Catlin believes athletes who do not use banned substances will eagerly embrace this new anti-doping system.

Don Catlin, an anti-doping expert and one of the foremost authorities on longitudinal testing, said the theory behind the USADA project is solid, a “much more powerful technique than simply taking one slice in time.”

“It’s no surprise that good athletes, clean athletes, will jump up and down for this thing,” Catlin said. “That’s great. It’s about time they started doing something. So now, it’s ‘OK, it’s here, it’s now.’ And I’m sure there are going to be issues about how to get on the program.”

Details on the cost of such testing have not yet been revealed.

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Angel Guillermo Heredia was a major steroid source for elite track and field athletes. He has been working with federal investigators for several years; he has disclosed the names of at least a dozen elite track athletes who won Olympic medals and World Chamionships as well as another dozen elite track stars who have not won Olympic medals (“Witness in Track Doping Case Ready to Name Big Names,” April 13).

Among his clients, Mr. Heredia identified 12 athletes who had won a combined 26 Olympic medals and 21 world championships. Four of the 12 athletes, including Ms. Jones, had been named and barred from competition for illicit drug use. Eight of the 12 — notably, the sprinter Maurice Greene — have never been previously linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

Angel Heredia is a Mexican national who lived in Laredo, Texas and utilized his family connections in Mexico to obtain steroids and other pharmaceuticals for athletes. Heredia explains how easy it is for athletes to use steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs and avoid detection.

He said he used family connections to pharmacies and labs in Mexico to help his business. For years, Mr. Heredia said, he helped his clients flout the rules and easily avoided detection. Substances like human growth hormone and the blood booster erythropoietin, or EPO, are still virtually impossible to detect, and “it is still easy to use testosterone” with fast-acting creams, he said.

“You combine all these things — boom! — you get amazing results,” Mr. Heredia said.

Angel Heredia is the government’s star witness in the perjury trial against track coach Trevor Graham; Heredia said he will reveal names of dozens of elite athletes should he testify publicly against Graham. Graham’s attorneys in turn have stated they will reveal names of elite athletes who were clients of Heredia in order to discredit Heredia.

Coach Graham is the coach who anonymously sent a syringe filled with tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) to Don Catlin starting a chain of events that lead to the BALCO steroid scandal and fallout resulting from it. Now Trevor Graham’s glass house is being demolished sending glass fragments at former guests.

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