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 substances she is suspected of receiving from Arnold. For the jury to convict Thomas, it must conclude that her statements were false and that they were material to the government’s investigation.
I am certain that Tammy Thomas is anxiously awaiting the verdict. Not only is her freedom in jeopardy but also a future career as an attorney. She has been silent about the case and has not spoken to the media; however, she has been very outspoken in her fashion statements outside the courtroom where she was photographed wearing a San Francisco Giants baseball cap, no doubt in support of other athletes who have been targeted for perjury by this federal investigation.
Claims that growth hormone enhances physical performance are not supported by the scientific literature. Although the limited available evidence suggests that growth hormone increases lean body mass, it may not improve strength; in addition, it may worsen exercise capacity and increase adverse events. More research is needed to conclusively determine the effects of growth hormone on athletic performance.
This confirms what J.C. Bradbury, Ph.D. has been saying all along.
Dr. Gary Gaffney from Steroid Nation posted an article on Huffington Post about the performance enhancing effects of human growth hormone. Gaffney responds to so-called experts who assert with certainty that growth hormone does not help performance in sports. As Lou Schuler stated in a recent post, the true effects of growth hormone on performance are not always empirically “knowable and measurable.”
Gaffney takes note of the lack of empirical research examining the performance enhancing effects of drugs that has historically resulted in mainstream medical organizations failing to recognize performance enhancing drugs. Given this along with results seen in “experiments of nature,” Gaffney feels it is reasonable to conclude that GH has performance enhancing effects:
We’ve learned a few things from the Congressional hearings on Roger Clemens and anabolic steroids. Roger Clemens is not very smart. And his attorney Rusty Hardin is an idiot. From the very beginning, I thought that Hardin should be fired.
Hardin allows Clemens to wait several days before responding to allegations of steroid and growth hormone use in the Mitchell Report. Hardin prepped Clemens for his terrible performance on 60 Minutes where he: (1) admitted the hypocritical use of various other performance-enhancing drugs that enabled him to continue playing while masking pain of his injuries; (2) offered idiotic explanations as proof that he never used steroids; and (3) admitted to allowing a non-medical professional inject him with B-12 and lidocaine. Hardin compared Clemens’ drug use to a high performance racehorse (apparently oblivious to the problem of steroids in horse racing). Hardin apparently preps Clemens to secretly record a phone conversation with Brian McNamee and hold a press conference to share it with the media even though it proved nothing. Hardin stands by as Clemens releases statistical report that supposedly proves he didn’t use steroids but fails to accomplish its goal. And lastly, Representative Henry Waxman apologizes for holding the disastrous Roger Clemens steroid hearings, explaining that the only reason he did it was because Clemens’ attorneys insisted upon it. Read the rest of this entry »
Brian McNamee has turned over steroid syringes, vials and gauze pads to federal investigators that allegedly contain physical evidence supporting McNamee’s claim that he injected baseball player Roger Clemens with anabolic steroids and growth hormone. I didn’t see that coming.
It is simply bizarre that McNamee would have saved such items for seven years; I am sure there will be considerable speculation as to his motives. But the evidence could increase McNamee’s credibility if the physical evidence is consistent with his allegations of steroid use and growth hormone by Clemens. Steroid Nation explains how the physical evidence would support the allegations: Read the rest of this entry »
The Steroid Nation blog has some very insightful commentary by JĂĽrgen Kalwa, a journalist for the German national newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, on the recent Humanplasma Lab doping scandal. It seemed to me that the recent German reporting, lawsuits, apologies, and financial conflicts of interest were problematic for arriving at the truth in the Humanplasma Lab case. Kalwa discusses Germany’s unique relationship with doping and the threats to independent journalism when it comes to covering doping scandals. Read the rest of this entry »
One thing is for certain, investigative reporter Shaun Assael asks the right questions of the right people. This is obvious as the story of the steroid guru Dan Duchaine unfolds in the pages of Steroid Nation - Assael’s book on the recent history of the anabolic steroid subculture.
While it was nice to see that Assael recognizes Duchaine as one of the “founding fathers of the steroid movement,” it was difficult for me to read the story of Dan Duchaine portrayed in Steroid Nation. Shaun Assael recently published it as a book excerpt on the ESPN the Magazine website. But like I said, Assael interviewed the right people - Dan’s friends, Will Brink, John Romano, Bruce Kneller, Patrick Arnold, Stan Antosh, Shelley Hominuk and Nancee Shwartz.
While Shelley Harvey was in England, recovering from the brain damage caused by the motorcycle accident, the woman Dan Duchaine had selected to replace her, a woman whom he had promised prize-winning legs, was about to have one of them sawed off.