Designer Doping: Scandal Rocks Track and Field World
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get some more now on a potentially significant story affecting the world of track and field and other sports. That world has been rocked in the last day or so with allegations of a sophisticated conspiracy. The charges are that some athletes are cheating, with the help of some coaches and chemists, using undetectable performance-enhancing steroids. With us now live is Lance Williams. He's with the "San Francisco Chronicle." He's been writing about this so-called conspiracy. Lance, a lot of people are denying it. But, first of all, tell us the headline, what you have been reporting.</s>LANCE WILLIAMS, "SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE": At the heart of this is a controversy is a nutritional supplement lab on the San Francisco Peninsula. It's called Balco. It's run by a guy called Victor Conte, an usual background for a nutritionist. He's a former base player for the old rock and soul group, Tower of Power. Since earlier this year, the Feds have been looking at Balco for Medicare fraud. In September, they raided the place, an IRS man and drug agents. The company markets blood-testing services and then provides nutritional supplements to augment deficiencies they find. It has some big named clients. The biggest, Giants homerun hitter, Barry Bonds, also the Raiders' linebacker, Bill Romanoskwi, and Kelly White, champion sprinter. Yesterday, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency came out and contended that Balco had developed or was distributing a designer steroid chemically engineered to duck doping tests. They wouldn't say how many athletes had tested positive for the drug use after they inquired.</s>BLITZER: All right. Lance, I was going to say that we don't want to implicate any of these athletes, because nobody has been accused substantively, officially, with any kind of illegal sports activity involving these kinds of materials. But let me read to you a statement that Victor Conte from the Balco laboratories gave us, a statement saying this in the "San Jose Mercury News." He said, "USADA has been reporting that the agent is a controlled substance and illegal, and that is just simply not true." He goes on to say, "Just because it may be structurally similar, does not mean that it has anabolic effects." And finally, Victor Conte says, "In my opinion, this is about jealous competitive coaches and athletes that all have a history of promoting and using performance-enhancing agents, being completely hypocritical in their actions." What do you say about those denials from Victor Conte?</s>WILLIAMS: Mr. Conte told us that, too, that this is not a banned substance. Certainly, he hasn't been accused of a crime, either. He does face a federal Medicare fraud suit brought by the U.S. attorney, and there is a grand jury taking testimony about his company's endeavors. My partner, Mark Finerwata (ph), has reported exclusively that Kelly White, the champion sprinter, has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury looking at Balco.</s>BLITZER: All right. We're going to unfortunately have to leave it there. It's a complicated story, potentially a very significant story. I want to thank Lance Williams with the "San Francisco Chronicle" for joining us. We'll continue to work this story, obviously, throughout the day and the days to come.