“We’ve got the CFL,” Pound said. “It’s like a bad scene from the NHL. They say, ‘We don’t test in the Canadian Football League because we don’t need to test — there’s no drug use.’ Helloooo. We’re like a refuge for all the Americans… a summer camp for NFL players who have been suspended for drug use.”

This weekend, John Fahey, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), publicly urged the CFL to adopt an anti-doping testing program. Fahey was in Montreal for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Executive Committee and Foundation Board meeting. Fahey made his comments just prior to the 2008 CFL Grey Cup Final between the Calgary Stampeders and the Montreal Alouettes (“WADA chief challenges CFL to join fight against drugs,” November 23).

“To be here in Montreal on the weekend of the Grey Cup final and to find there is no doping code is very disappointing,” Fahey told Reuters following a WADA board meeting. “I understand there have been discussions and I hope they eventually lead to fruition.
�
“There has been dialogue between WADA and the CFL over a period of time but that doesn’t suggest that there is anything imminent.
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“I can only say I think they are draw attention to the game in an adverse way by not having a (doping) code.
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“I don’t see how any sport cannot have an effective anti-doping program.”

The WADA chief’s criticisms of Canadian Football League’s lack of an effective steroid testing program were undermined by WADA board member and British IOC member Sir Craig Reedie who was also in Montreal for the WADA Foundation board meeting.

Sir Reedie hihglighted the failure to implement an effective anti-doping program at WADA due to the noncompliance of over half of the signatories to the WADA code at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (“Drug Rules ‘Not Enforced’,” November 23).

Rules that bind athletes to give details of their daily movements to drugs testers are not being enforced in “half the countries in the world”, it was claimed on Thursday [...]

Sir Craig Reedie, British IOC member and a board member of the WADA, said “half the world” was not operating the system properly – WADA regulations state that athletes must provide testers with their whereabouts for an hour each day.
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Reedie said: “The one issue the world of sport will want clearing up is in relation to whereabouts regulations for athletes.
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“What has come out of Beijing is that half the world operates the system properly and half the world does not.
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“This has come out of a survey done of national Olympic committees, and some are struggling with the whereabouts rules.
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“We have to get the system to work properly so that everyone is operating in the same way.”

The major failure to implement the WADA code by the majority of its signatories compounds the major failure of WADA procedures and protocols to effectively catch dopers. WADA has not developed an anti-doping protocol that effectively closes the testosterone loophole, that has ever detected human growth hormone in athletes, or has thwarted the use of numerous banned blood boosting techniques and drugs. The sad truth is that WADA’s steroid testing program, far from Fahey’s “effective anti-doping program,” is only marginally more effective than the CFL’s drug testing program i.e. no testing at all.

The Red Bulls team manager claims the doping violation was unintentional. Conway and Parke allegedly purchased a sports nutrition product from a nationwide dietary supplement chain (“Jon Conway, Jeff Parke suspended from Red Bulls for substance abuse,” October 16).

According to Red Bulls manager director Erik Stover, both players said “that they ingested an over-the-counter supplement that unknowingly contained a banned substance.”

The statement seems to imply that there was no indication that the banned substance androstatriendione (ATD) was listed on the label of the OTC supplement product. Most likely androstatriendione was listed with a synonymous chemical name e.g. 3,17-dioxo-etiochol-1,4,6-triene or 3 17-keto-etiochol-triene; furthermore ATD and the veterinarian steroid boldenone share at least one metabolite potentially resulting in a false positive for boldenone. Ignorance or naivete regarding supplement ingredients by drug-tested athletes rarely succeeds in exonerating them from anti-doping policy violations.

UPDATE: The product used by Parke was purportedly ALRI Jungle Warfare.

Products containing androstatriendione (ATD) are very popular in the sports nutrition marketplace. One of the most popular products in this category is Gaspari Nutrition’s Novedex XT. Novedex XT is, by all accounts, completely legal and DSHEA-compliant with all ingredients fully disclosed on the label. But if the anti-doping policy in an athlete’s sport has banned androstatriendione (ATD), then athletes would be wise to avoid all OTC supplements containing any and all modified or derivative versions of 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (ATD).

The problem facing drug-tested athletes who insist on using dietary supplements is that there are dozens of synoynms and derivatives of 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (ATD) that they must look for on supplement labels. According to Bruce Kneller, a supplement designer for Gaspari Nutrition and convicted steroid dealer who filed a patent on the pharmaceutical use of “1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (“ATD”) for therapeutic uses,” there are at least 158 modified or derivatives of ATD.

Potential pharmaceutical uses of ATD as identified in Kneller’s patent application include:

A composition having modified or derivative of 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (“ATD”) will improve the health of mammalian subjects. The improvement of health is achieved with the administration of an effective amount of the at least one modified or derivative of 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione. Particularly, health is improved with administration of an effective amount for a mammal suffering from a gynecomastia, and/or estrogen-dependent cancer. Also, mammals recovering from steroid misuse/abuse with treatment in accordance with the present invention. Other improvements found to occur with an administration of ATD is that growth is enhanced and/or stimulated in developing mammals, particularly for short children whose epiphesial plates have not closed yet by delaying the closure of the plates. Male fertility can be improved via one or more effects on either gonadotropin releasing hormone, LH or FSH with administration of ATD. Administration of an effective amount of ATD increases athletic performance by increasing testosterone and lean muscle mass, shortens the recovery period in cases of severe trauma or burns, improves a mood of a mammal through improved anabolism.

The use of dietary supplements appears to put drug-tested athletes at significant risk for inadvertently ingesting prohibited substances even when the ingredients are listed on the product’s labels. Any supplement that purports to affect testosterone levels, etc. should raise a warning flag for athletes even if the ingredients are legal. Various legal supplement ingredients are banned in sports.

Reports of a “rash of positive steroid tests” in the NFL by news websites here and here and here and here are highly misleading and false since none of the players are alleged to have tested positive for steroids by the NFL. Nonetheless, MSNBC stated that one player tested positive for anabolic steroids with the headline ”Report: Saints’ McAllister positive for steroids“, but deep in the article reported the truth that it was bumetanide. There are even plausible indications these may have involved inadvertent doping from weight loss supplements tainted with bumetanide.

First, the prominent anti-doping drug tester Don Catlin recognizes bumetanide as a masking agent but is surprised because it hasn’t been used in over twenty years.

“It can be seen as a masking agent because it produces so much water that it dilutes drugs in the system,” Catlin said Friday in a telephone interview. “But we haven’t seen it used by athletes to mask drugs in over 20 years.”

He added: “It is also banned because some athletes need to make weight and it helps flush water out of an athlete’s body. In general, though, it is used by physicians to control blood pressure and reduce the amount of excess water in the body.”

Secondly, some dietary supplements marketed for weight loss have been empirically shown to be contaminated with bumetanide. StarCaps by Balanced Health Products has been found to contain near therapeutic levels of bumetanide by a 2007 article in The Journal of Analytical Toxicology in spite of claims by the manufacturer that the product contained only natural ingredients.

Third, it appears that the NFL players who tested positive for bumetanide are not only denying the use of bumetanide to mask other performance enhancing drugs, but appear ready to appeal the findings.

Bryan Pittman is appealing.

Atlanta attorney David Cornwell, who has been hired to represent Pittman at his appeal on Nov. 3, issued a statement on Friday that said: “Bryan did everything humanly possible to comply with the NFL steroid policy, including obtaining doctors’ written authorization to take weight-loss medication. He did not use steroids.

Deuce McAllister is appealing.

“I’ve hired an attorney, and I’m going to let him do his job,” he said. “I will be playing this Sunday against the Chargers.”

Fourth, the source who leaked the story seems convinced that bumetanide was not used for masking steroids or amphetamines but solely as a weight loss supplement.

“I don’t think many of them are attempting to cheat, or even know it is on the list. We are talking big guys who have likely never seen a steroid in their life. My understanding of the steroid policy is that it was intended to catch cheaters or people using performance enhancing substances to gain a competitive edge. These guys don’t fall into that category,” said the source.

The only conclusive evidence to support inadvertent doping would be the existence of sealed dietary supplements that can be proven to be tainted through testing. Otherwise, suspicions of doping with other substances will persist.

Once steroid designers specify the essential features and desired biological activity for steroid drug design, hundreds of novel designer steroids could be synthesized or simulated through Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry (DCC) ["Designer Steroids: Speeding Evolution (and Filling Stadium Seats)" August 8].

Until now, human attempts to change testosterone’s anabolic, androgenic or estrogen-related properties have been relatively slow due to the fact that they have been addressed one at a time. A steroid designer imagines a certain compound, synthesizes it, and then tests it for effectiveness. This can take a matter of weeks or years. However, this process is about to undergo a drastic change. Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry is a complicated process, so instead of explaining how it works I will simply provide the bottom line. Once steroid chemists have invested the necessary time into the chemical strategy for DCC, hundreds of novel steroid compounds can be synthesized and tested within a matter of minutes. The entire process is orchestrated by computers. The pharmaceutical sector has recently employed this process, and steroid manufactures will soon follow suit, if they haven’t already.

Since the four ring carbon structure was extremely complicated for synthetic chemists to create, they have historically created most steroidal compounds from diosgenin, a steroidal substance occuring naturally in the Mexican wild yam. This has limited the number of undetectable performance enhancing drugs that rogue chemists could synthesize for tested elite athletes. But with combinatorial chemistry, chemists are not limited by the four-ring steroid construction.

Steroid designers have been limited by the structure of the molecule. But that is going to change, because there are now new ways to make the molecule all together. Until now, you started with diosgenin. You go to progesterone, then you make all other anabolic steroids. You can only do but so much because that basic structure is all there. Now, they are putting these things together from different pieces and in the next few years they might find something as anabolic as pure testosterone but with none of the side effects. For the moment, this is not possible as long as they use diosgenin as the initial compound. In my opinion, designer steroids are going to blow up in the next couple of years. Instead of making 50 different molecules they will be able to make 50 million different combinations. It will be like evolution all over again [without the limitations of time]. (emphasis added)

The steroid chemist behind the BALCO steroid scandal, Patrick Arnold of Ergopharm, explains that this is how pharmaceutical companies are creating a new class of drugs known as Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs) that are not “steroids” but could potentially have significant performance enhancing effects. SARMs have long promised all the benefits of anabolic steroids with none of the side effects. Furthermore, Patrick Arnold suggests “anabolic” performance enhancing non-steroidal drug that bypass the four-ring steroid structure could be effective at eluding detection by anti-doping agencies.

This is the type of thing they use in the development of SARMS, which are non steroidal androgens/anabolics.

Why confine you to the four ring structure of steroids when that is too easy for the drug testers to figure out (steroid backbones have unique signatures on the mass spec)? And (in the case of legit medicine) too politically incorrrect.

The use of dynamic combinatorial chemistry to create novel (undetectable) designer steroids could prove a more serious challenge to anti-doping agencies than other emerging doping methods such as synthetic blood doping and gene doping.

Stuart P. Cram, strategic marketing vice president at Thermo Fisher, reports that their company has numerous service engineers available 24 hours a day during the Beijing Olympics to maintain uninterrupted and efficient operation of the Thermo Fisher testing equipment. Chinese Anti-Doping Agency purchased several products from their company including:

• (2) Thermo Fisher DFS Sector Field gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) systems;
• (1) Thermo Fisher Delta V isotope ratio mass spectrometer – used to distinguish between “natural and synthetic steroids”;
• (4) Thermo Fisher triple-quadrupole TSQ Quantum Access liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) systems

Agilent Technologies supplies the China Anti-Doping Agency with the majority of their steroid testing and drug detection equipment. Stephen B. Crisp, international business development manager at Agilent, states that Agilent also has technicians available 24/7 to maintain the operational status of Agilent equipment that includes 18 liquid/mass stations and 19 gas/mass stations.

• Agilent 1200 Series LC/MS units
• Agilent 6400 Series triple-quadrupole LC/MS units
• Agilent 6100 Series single-quadrupole LC/MS units
• Agilent 6300 Series ion trap LC/MS
• Agilent 7890A GC/MS units
• (8) unspecified laboratory instrumentation

Crisp also reports that different screening methods are used for different sports depending on the performance enhancing drugs most prevalent in that particular sport.

The Beijing lab will use screening methods that vary depending on the drugs athletes tend to favor in a particular competition. “Different compounds are suspected in different sports,” Crisp explains.

Phenomenex is a manufacturer of solid-phase extraction columns used in both GC/MS and LC/MS equipment. The separation columns are used to prepare samples for analysis according to Terrell Matthews, product manager for Phenomenex.

Important to the efficient operation of GC/MS and LC/MS instruments at the Olympics are the solid-phase extraction columns that clean up and concentrate target compounds from urine for analysis, says Terrell Mathews, product manager for Phenomenex, a maker of separation columns. Sample purification steps can take 60% of a lab technician’s time and can be a significant source of lab errors, he says.

The new anti-doping lab in use at the 2008 Beijing Olympics will conduct approximately 4,500 drug tests during the Olympic games and will analyze samples for over 400 different drugs on the WADA list of banned substances in the following nine classes of performance enhancing drugs: anabolic steroids, hormones, beta-2 agonists, hormone antagonists and modulators, diuretics, stimulants, narcotics, cannabinoids, and glucocorticosteroids. Each different piece of testing equipment has a unique function in the drug testing process (“Olympics technology: Keeping ‘em Honest,” August 4).

Regardless of when or where a sample is gathered, its first stop after entering the testing lab is the Agilent 7890A gas chromatograph, which separates and detects the different components in the sample, isolating the banned substances from the normal biological molecules. The sample is vaporized with heat, and the gas enters the 7890A’s separation column. As the gas moves through the column, the different atomic weights of its component compounds cause them to travel at different speeds (the lighter ones exit the column first). By measuring the speed, amount and sequence at which the components exit the column, investigators can readily identify most substances on the banned list.

But some compounds, such as peptide hormones, are destroyed by the vaporization process, requiring use of a liquid chromatograph. Using the same principle as the gas chromatograph to separate molecules by atomic weight, the Agilent 1200 series liquid chromatograph substitutes a liquid solvent that moves through the column. The liquid solvent takes longer to separate the molecules but preserves the molecules that would otherwise be destroyed by the heat of vaporization.

“About three out of four samples are analyzed using gas chromatography, but use of liquid chromatography is increasing because many of the new compounds are destroyed by vaporization,” said Sheehan.

If either the gas- or liquid-chromatograph indicates a questionable substance is present, then the sample is submitted to the mass spectrometer, which can confirm the chemical identity of virtually any compound. The mass spectrometer measures the molecular weight of the questionable substance, producing a unique chemical fingerprint that is compared with the fingerprints of known banned substances, providing unambiguous confirmation of the gas- or liquid-chromatograph results.

The science of anti-doping is a complicated process and big business for laboratory equiipment manufacturers.

According to the German television station ARD, Spanish doctor Marcos Maynar offered these services as for internal testing allowing athletes to monitor their doping to ensure that their use of performance enhancing drugs would not be detected by doping controls at the 2008 Tour de France and other pro cycling events. Maynar responded to the allegations that he aided and abetted doping by suggesting that ARD had ulterior motives stemming from bitterness over disgraced cyclist Jan Ullrich (“Marcos Maynar niega que quiera favorecer el dopaje,” July 21).

“Since Jan Ullrich’s tested positive, the Germans have wanted to shit on the Spaniards.”

Maynar admits to sending out the email but only to help pro tour teams with their own internal controls; he denies that his services would allow athletes to escape the detection of performance enhancing drugs. Marcos Maynar and his brother Juan Ignacio Maynar are both experts in anabolic steroids and work at the university laboratory. They claim their blood and urine testing services and legally recognized analysis for biological passports were developed to generate a badly need source of revenue for the University. He strongly denies that he supports doping in cycling (“Spanish lab allegations and confessions in Tour doping,” July 20).

But Marcos Maynar Marino from the university, who sent the email, insisted in a statement that the offer was made to assist the teams to find dopers, not to support substance abuse.

‘We are not supporting doping but try to prevent team-members from doing something which could destroy the team,’ Maynar said.

Maynar’s credibility with regard to doping has been hurt by his alleged involvement in other doping scandals.

In June 2004, Maynar was implicated in a nationwide steroid bust called Operación Gamma II that shutdown a network of steroid distributors providing anabolic steroids to bodybuilders and athletes at gyms in various cities in Spain.

In May 2006, Maynar was found to share clients with Eufemiano Fuentes, the mastermind behind the Operación Puerto doping scandal.

In May 2008, Maynar was the team doctor for the Portueguese LA MSS team who authorities found guilty of systematic doping.

Maynar said he was surprised by the raid, insisting that the team always “presented normal levels.”

“My relationship with the team is merely as a collaborator. I only go to races to control the hematocrit levels of the cyclists and look after the nutritional part of the athletes,” Maynar was quoted as saying.

Hat tip to Cycling Fans Anonymous.

I started thinking, if I was to come up with a baseball variant to try and take on MLB, what would it look like? Well, it would be baseball, but, I’d market it as a faster, more exciting version. I’d make the following rules changes to try and re-enforce the brand [...]

No steroid testing. Leave that for the cops. This is baseball – let’s the conversation revolve around the action on the field, not off of it.

In a previous post, Markson expands on his feelings about steroids in sports with some insightful comments on the issue. Sports has had to deal with advances in technology in every aspect of the game including performance enhancing drugs. More often than not, sports have embraced advances in technology and incorporated them into the game. Sports have recently had a conflicted position with regarding to technological advances in pharmacological ergogens. But it’s difficult to counteract technology (progress).

The thing about technology is that it always evolves at a rate much faster than efforts designed to stop it. Don’t believe me, ask the recording industry. In the case of performance enhancing drugs, the drugs will always outpace the tests designed to detect their presence/ use. To try to combat this, testing has to become more frequent, more intrusive. Like anything the more frequent and more intrusive you make it, the more likely their will be false results. Which means there need to be procedures around appealing tests, results, etc. All of a sudden, testing requires an infrastructure, and then you’re in trouble.

Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s basically how the Tour de France and track and field operate. Bet you have no clue who won last year’ tour de france, but know Floyd Landis cheated. Likewise, bet you have absolutely no clue who holds what records for any track and field events, but are very familiar with the Marion Jones scandal.

The problem with false positives is very disturbing. The problem is compounded by the flimsy standards of evidence required for guilt by anti-doping agencies. I can’t imagine the degree of uproar if our own imperfect criminal justice system in the United States abandoned “beyond a reasonable doubt” and “preponderance of the evidence” and adopted the “comfortable satisfaction” standard advocated by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

Markson continues by discussing how the ultimate outcome is the destruction of the sport.

This is what happen when you try to use policing measures to keep up with technology. The drug tests, their results, the appeals, etc. actually become the only interesting/ memorable thing about the sport. The become the brand of the sport. And, since this isn’t nearly as fun/interesting as remember the actual games or plays themselves, the fans eventually abandon.

Baseball should stick to the business of balls, strikes, beer and caps and leave police work to the pros [...]

At the end of the day, juice or no juice, talent and skill are still the ultimate arbiter of performance.

Most elite athletes strive to be the best at their sport without qualification. And most fans want to see the best without qualification. After all, who really cares who is the best cyclist riding on a bike that costs no more than $200 or the best baseball player who doesn’t lift weights? Let’s see the best.

• Boldione (aka androsta-1,4-diene-3,17-dione)
• Desoxymethyltestosterone (aka DMT and 17a-methyl-5a-androst-2-en-17b-ol)
• 19-nor-4,9(10)-androstadienedione (aka 19-norandrosta-4,9(10)-diene-3,17-dione and esta-4,9(10)-diene-3,17-dione)

Apparently, this is a shocking surprise to supplement industry lobbyist Loren Israelsen. Israelsen recently forwarded the following remarks (written by Rob Eder) to members of the United Natural Products Alliance.

“As I have previously suggested, perhaps the Congress should examine whether the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act–DSHEA, as it is commonly known–is being adequately enforced,” Fehr said […]

I have got some news for Donald Fehr: They don’t sell steroids in the supplement aisle. They don’t sell the “cream” or the “clear,” either. That’s because this industry does a better job of policing itself than Major League Baseball ever could.

It’s a sad and unfortunate day for the supplement industry when Major League Baseball has more credibility than supplement industry leaders. The DEA has news for Loren Israelsen – YES, they do sell steroids in the supplement aisle and the supplement industry is no better at self-regulating than MLB; at least the MLB finally acknowledged they have a steroid problem.

Obviously, this is bad news for the future of the supplement industry. Deserusan of Gaspari does a good job at summarizing the risks to the future of the industry (“The DEA Has Their Eye on Online Supplement Retailers,” April 30).

It’s no myth that physique enhancement often points one down paths which lead them to “illegal” compounds after unsuccessful trials with legal OTC supplements. However, there are numerous “grey area” supplements which are in clear violation of FDA policies that are still sold as legal supplements. My issue with these grey market compounds is that they indeed put the full spectrum of OTC supplements at risk of being banned.

We all know the FDA has been a sleeping monster for quite a few years when it comes to this, but now the supplement industry has caught the eye of the DEA.

Deserusan appeals to the industry to take “proactive” steps in light of the news.

I guess the question is, since the DEA is now looking into these compounds, what proactive steps will supplement distributors take in order to see that the DEA doesn’t crack down on more “grey area” or even perfectly legal OTC supplements? [...]

My message to them is, don’t get greedy on a few flagged steroids which puts everything else OTC on the market in harms way as well. Uncle Sam is not ****ing around anymore when it comes to steroids and that cat is out of the bag regarding these three compounds.

But sadly, I don’t think supplement retailers will heed Deserusan’s warning. When the FDA raided LG Sciences and seized over one million dollars in dietary supplements containing 1,4,6 etiocholan-dione (ATD) and 4-etioallocholen-3,6,17-trione (6-OXO-4-androstenedione), I don’t think a single supplement retailer stopped selling products containing these ingredients. Even when the owner of a supplement company brutally murdered his girlfriend with a baseball bat, I couldn’t find a single supplement retailer who had a problem continuing to sell his dietary supplements.

I am afraid that retailers don’t recognize the significant of the Dietary Health and Supplement Education Act (DSHEA) and will take it for granted until it is too late.

In regards to Novitzky’s new job, Dwight Sparlin, a retired I.R.S. manager who led the San Francisco office when the Balco case started nearly six years ago, said he had been hearing for two weeks that Novitzky was going to the F.D.A. to continue focusing on drug cases.

“I think it would give him more exposure to just doing that type of work,” Sparlin said by telephone Tuesday. He added: “For Jeff to go as far as he did in Balco was a stretch for the I.R.S., too. I think he was allowed to go a lot further than he would otherwise because of the impact.”

Jeff Novitsky has been involved in almost every aspect of the BALCO steroid scandal and steroids in baseball investigation.

(Hat tip to Steroid Nation for the story.)

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.