America’s performance-enhancing appetite has never been bigger. And it’s not just in professional sports or Hollywood. From high school locker rooms to anti-aging clinics, our nation is embracing steroids and human growth hormones like never before, spurring a furious debate about the ethics of enhancement. Join Christopher Bell, who documented his brothers’ struggle to be “the best,” BALCO founder Victor Conte, Jon Romano and Mark Haskins in a provocative discussion about the pitfalls and promise of the asterisk era, and where we go from here. Moderated by Steroid Nation author Shaun Assael.
New Yorkers have really embraced the film; this was confirmed firsthand by Anthony Roberts who had the opportunity to see Bigger Faster Stronger for the second time witnessing a large crowd of bodybuilders at the screening. Several sports writers, bloggers, and movie critics have screened the film at Tribeca and have written mostly positive reviews.
If anyone had the opportunity to attend the panel discussion, please post your reactions to the event in the comments below.
THG was also known as “the clear” because it was not detectable at the time Arnold developed it in about 2001.
Under questioning by prosecutor Jeff Nedrow, Arnold said, “That’s the primary reason why THG was developed.”
Arnold also said, “I believe that Miss Thomas understood full well it was undetectable and that that was its purpose.”
He said he believed the cyclist understood the drug had “steroid-like qualities.”
Tammy Thomas denied ever receiving any products from Pat Arnold other than Ergopharm 1-AD; she denied receiving anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs from Pat Arnold or anyone else; she denied using anabolic steroids.
Tammy Thomas is being prosecuted for perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements - including denials that she used anabolic steroids. IMO, this is an offshoot of the steroid hysteria and federal war on steroids where prosecutors want to make an example of athletes who they suspect have used steroids.
The Anabolic Steroid Control Act (which made anabolic steroids a controlled substance) has proved virtually useless in prosecuting athletes who use anabolic steroids. Instead, federal prosecutors have perverted the perjury laws to target athletes who dope. Tammy Thomas’ case is the first test of the effectiveness of the government’s strategy of using perjury laws to target athletes and a preview of the Barry Bonds perjury case.
Ironically, THG was not legally classified as an anabolic steroid at the time that Patrick Arnold claims to have sold it to Tammy Thomas. This fact will apparently was highlighted in the defense’s opening statement. The defense strategy appears to maintain that “technically” Thomas told the truth because (1) THG was not legally an anabolic steroid at the time; (2) she did not think THG was banned at the time; (3) she obtained THG from Kelsey Dalton (Arnold’s former girlfriend) and not Pat. We’ll see how the case plays out.
The testosterone:epitestosterone ratio (T:E ratio) test is a commonly used test designed to catch athletes who artificially manipulate their testosterone levels (usually with exogenous testosterone). The T:E ratio is routinely used in doping protocols around the world at all levels of sport.
Unfortunately, the T:E ratio is not very effective. This has been common knowledge among drug tested athletes for some time. Dan Duchaine first alerted athletes decades ago with Victor Conte concurring more recently. Anti-doping experts such as Charles Yesalis and Don Catlin have reluctantly acknowledged that this is true.
It is not very reliable. It is flawed. The T:E ratio test results in a lot of false negatives (athletes use testosterone but don’t get caught) as well as false positives (innocent athletes test positive for steroid use).
A recent study that we learned about on Trust But Verify and reported on at Steroid Report explains why the test is unreliable and ineffective.
It appears that certain genotypes are more likely to have false negatives (athletes use testosterone but don’t get caught)and other genotypes are more likely to have false positives (innocent athletes test positive for steroid use) (”Doping Test in Sports Confounded by Common Genetic Trait,” March 21).
If you’re a genetically gifted athlete (i.e. you lack the gene that produces the enzyme UGT2B17), you can take an whopping injection of at least 360 milligrams of testosterone without getting caught by the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio test (T:E ratio). This testosterone loophole in drug testing has been known by athletes for decades (anecdotally). It is nice to have solid scientific evidence to confirm it.
The 360 mg corresponds to a 500 mg intramuscular injection of testosterone enanthate. Yes, many athletes can take this quantity of the anabolic-androgenic steroid testosterone and still pass current WADA doping controls.
The T:E ratio test discriminates based on the ethnicity of the athlete subjected to the doping protocol. This little bit of information is impossible to overlook.
So, which ethnic groups are most likely to have false negatives on the T:E ratio test?
The latest study suggests as many as 40% of athletes with UGT2B17 homozygous deletion/deletiongenotype can take at least 500 mg of testosterone enanthate and still maintain a 4:1 T:E ratio. The following lists various ethnic groups with the estimated percentage that possess the “doping friendly” genotype (data extracted from here and here).
78.0% - Mulatto (Brazilian)
66.7% - Eastern Asian (Korean)
57.3% - Cape Colored (Cape Town, South Africa)
37.6% - Mexican Mestizo
30.4% - Asian Pacific (Southeast Asian/Southern Chinese, Asian Indian, Japanese)
29.1% - Black (African Americans, African Blacks, South/Central American Blacks)
9.3% - White Caucasian (Swedish)
3.5% - White Caucasian (primarily European)
Yes, athletes with UGT2B17 homozygous deletion/deletiongenotype are much more likely to pass a doping test if they choose to cheat (false negative). And yes, certain ethnic groups are much more likely to possess this genotype.
What should WADA do about this? Is this a problem for professional sports or high school districts that routinely use the T:E ratio test?
HBO Films is planning to make a movie about Barry Bonds and all the characters involved in the BALCO steroid scandal. They recently purchased the rights to the book “Game of Shadows” written by the investigative reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hollywood is already promoting this as a “Barry Bonds” movie. I think everyone will be overloaded with stories about Bonds, if not already, by the time the movie is released on HBO. How many people will really want to see a movie about Barry Bonds?
Game of Shadows is well-written and interesting book that is about much more than Barry Bonds. I hope that director Ron Shelton is able to breathe life into movie adaption with an engaging depiction of the BALCO steroid scandal. I am hopeful as he has had some notable success with sports films:
Shelton’s sports-film directing credits include “Bull Durham,” the Ty Cobb feature “Cobb,” “Tin Cup” and “White Men Can’t Jump.”
Most are curious who will play the role of “Barry Bonds.” But I want to see who will star as “Patrick Arnold” and “Victor Conte.” It will be a lot of fun to see actors portraying people that I have known during my time in the “bodybuilding industry!” Of course, these guys were not really major steroid distributors; they just happened to be associated with some prominent athletes thereby making it a huge scandal. Their short-term prison stints more than likely served to guarantee their future success in the bodybuilding/supplement industry.
I feel the steroid hysteria of the past several years has done more harm than good by transforming a woefully ignorant public into a largely misinformed public when it comes to the topic of anabolic steroids. But at least, all the attention given to steroids in the media has made it possible for A-list writers and producers to document the history of steroids in society and sport (e.g. Game of Shadows and Steroid Nation).
