Topic: When we cheat, we win. When we don't, we don't.

[Rhys Lucero]

9-23-00

(AP) - American shot put world champion C.J. Hunter , husband of Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones, tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone, international track officials said Monday. Istvan Gyulai, general secretary of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, track's governing body, confirmed Hunter flunked a drug test. He would not say when or where the test was conducted.

Arne Ljungqvist, the IAAF's anti-doping chief, said last week that USA Track & Field had failed to disclose 12-to-15 positive drug cases in the past two years.

De Merode said this isn't the first time the Americans have tried to cover up drug results. He said it happened at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, with at least five athletes.

``The athletes feel that the IAAF and USA Track & Field are covering up and have special rules for American athletes,'' said Johann Olav Koss, the Norwegian speedskating gold medalist who is now an IOC member.

The entire Romanian weightlifting team was banned from the Games after it was revealed that three weightlifters tested positive before the Olympics for banned substances. However, they were allowed back to compete after paying a $50,000 fine to the International Weightlifting Federation — an acceptable practice, according to federation rules.

The entire Bulgarian weightlifting team had also been kicked out of the Games after three tested positive for steroids. Two of them had won medals, and were stripped of them, and IWF officials insisted they would not be allowed back in the Games because they had tested positive in IOC tests after they competed. But one of them was reinstated yesterday by the Court of Arbitration for Sports and won a silver medal in the 105 kilogram category.

Maybe they should change the Olympic prize from a medal to a gold, silver and bronze syringe.

June, 2003: The United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA) is tipped off by a high ranking track and field coach who gives the USADA the names of athletes using a new undetectable steroid. The coach later sends the USADA a used syringe containing traces of the substance to back up his claim.

July/August, 2003: Professor Don Catlin, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)-accredited anti doping lab at UCLA, studies the new drug and determines it's a designer steroid, modified to escape detection in normal laboratory testing. Sensing a major conspiracy, the USADA come up with a test for the new drug and starts to retest 550 stored urine samples. Samples collected at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in June are analyzed, with six samples eventually testing positive for the drug now dubbed THG, or tetrahydrogestrinone. The anonymous track and field coach fingers Bay Area Laboratory Co Operative, a nutritional supplements lab, and its founder Victor Conte, as the source of THG.

Oct. 20, 2003: Up to 40 Olympic and professional athletes, including Barry Bonds, boxer Shane Mosley and 100 metre world-record holder Tim Montgomery, are subpoenaed by a U.S. federal grand jury in San Francisco. The grand jury is investigating BALCO for tax evasion and laundering payments from athletes in exchange for prohibited performance-enhancing substances. American shot putter Kevin Toth becomes the first athlete publicly linked with THG. CBC Sports Online: Bonds asked to testify at BALCO inquiry

Oct. 21, 2003: The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) - track and field's global governing body - announces it will retest samples from this summer's World Athletics Championships in Paris for THG. CBC Sports Online: IAAF will retest urine samples from track worlds

Oct. 22, 2003: British sprinter and European 100 metre champion Dwain Chambers becomes the first athlete to admit testing positive for THG. Craig Masback, the chief executive officer for USA Track and Field, confirms that four American athletes have tested positive for THG. CBC Sports Online: Chambers admits testing positive for THG

Nov. 6, 2003: Dwain Chambers' second urine sample confirms a positive test for THG. CBC Sports Online: Chambers' second test positive for THG

Nov. 12, 2003: The IAAF confirm that four American athletes' B samples taken in June at the U.S. national championships have tested positive for THG. CBC Sports Online: Four Americans fail second THG test

Jan. 13, 2004: The Associated Press reports that American national champion hammer thrower Melissa Price tested positive for THG a few weeks after the U.S. track and field championships in June. CBC Sports Online: U.S. hammer throw champ tests positive for THG

Jan. 17, 2004: The US Olympic Committee confirms that Regina Jacobs, the world indoor 1,500m record-holder, has tested positive for THG.

Feb. 24, 2004: Dwain Chambers receives a two-year ban after UK Athletics upholds his positive test for THG. CBC Sports Online: Dwain Chambers banned two years

May 17, 2004: The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency says its reviewing documents in the BALCO steroids case to determine whether there's enough evidence to sanction athletes without a positive drug test. Star sprinter Marion Jones threatens legal action if the USDA bars her from competing at the Athens Olympics. CBC Sports Online: Marion Jones threatens lawsuit if kept out of Olympics

May 26, 2004: Tim Montgomery's rise from unheralded sprinter to world's fastest man was the result of a BALCO-led plan dubbed "Project World Record," according to a San Jose Mercury News report. CBC Sports Online: BALCO built world's fastest man: report
USOC releases more drug test figures
Posted: Saturday September 30, 2000 12:00 AM

 
SYDNEY (CNNSI.com) - Posted: Saturday September 30, 2000 12:00 AM

According to USOC figures that were released Saturday, 33 American track and field athletes tested positive for banned drugs last year.

[Neil Wasserman]

Actually; even when our lifters were juicing, we were being beaten (except for 1969 Bednarski & Dube) on the international stage. While part of the problem IS drugs; the root of the situation lies with the small talent pool that we have here. If we had 10,000 Juniors to develop, I sincerely believe that we could put an entire team in the A Session and a few in the top ten. If we had 25,000; we'd put the whole team in the top ten and a few in the top three.
The more bodies in the gym; the better the chances are of discovering another Kono or Schemansky (there, I've dated myself and I don't care).
The future of US lifting lies with recruiting every possible Junior, keeping them interested and motivated and leading them to the top.

[Steve Gough]

Neil,

"The chicken vs the egg."

A decade or so back Florida had 10,000 to 13,000 kids turn out for a high school c&j from around the state. And we got a couple of great lifters from this. The problem was as I remember it  there was no one to work with them. Someone has to organize and someone has to at least teach the basics. In our case we need many organizers and many teachers. And if we want first class organizing and first class teaching then we need to generate first class organizers and first class teachers (ie coaches).

Steve

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

The first step toward getting more athletes is getting more coaches.

That's why we HAVE to get the athletes we do have coaching when they retire. We should push the coaching courses on athletes at schoolage and junior camps, or anything we can do to get more of our athletes coaching, including letting them take the coaching courses for free or at least heavily discounted.