THE 'ROID REPORT FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 11

by Gary Gaffney, MD, Steroid Nation

The Washington Post suggests that the end of an era may be delivered with the trial of ex-Coach Trevor Graham this week in San Francisco. Graham inadvertently kicked off the BALCO brouhaha when he mailed a syringe (obtained from a juiced BALCO athlete) with unknown steroid to the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). At the same time BALCO's boss Victor Conte contacted authorities about what cheater Graham was. Resembled the shootout at the end of "Enemy of the State" when corrupt Government agents blasted at angry Mafioso who fired back.

The Post quotes USADA chief Travis Tagert thinking that athletes see the older generation of dopers nailed in court, which may deter future doping. (Has anything deterred cheating in sports?) Not with drug distributors like Angel 'Memo' Heredia available. A track athlete from Mexico who attended Texas A & M, Heredia is expected to testify in the Graham trial. He might give his account of the drugs American sprint medalists Maurice Greene and Marion Jones allegedly used:

"Time was very short. We kept it to the main stuff: growth hormone, insulin, EPO, IGF-1 [a growth hormone]."

Talent and some (alot of) drugs beats the clean competition every time.

Might a drug-free clean Olympics be possible? Not a syringe's chance in hell according to BALCO big boss Victor Conte. Conte, on his European victory tour recounts how the bad guys will pervert the Olympic spirit. Interesting that anti-doping officials embrace Conte who has met with big names like WADA's Dick Pound. Conte delineates what drug protocol UK sprinter Dwain Chambers took to compete in the world championships: THG, testosterone/epitestosterone cream, EPO (Procrit), HGH (Serostim), insulin (Humalog), modafinil (Provigil) and liothryonine, which is a synthetic form of the T3 thyroid hormone (Cytomel). That's all going to be cleaned-up soon right?

Chambers made legal moves to overcome the UK's Olympic ban on the drug-cheat. This did not please UK Olympic king Sebastian Coe who favors fair-play in sports.

Staying with track and field, an Austrian female record holder -- marathoner Susan Pumper -- faces a drug ban based on a positive EPO test last year. Has any track record in the past 30 years been set without the aid of illicit PEDs?

Woman showed well on the steroid scene last week. The aforementioned Pumper added to the list of feminine drug cheats. The 'Barbie' of the MMA -- Carina Damm -- knew damn well what she ingested prior to a match: nandrolone (see photo). Indian weight-lifter Kavita Devi peed male steroids too. Two Minnesota women found themselves in jail for selling exotic animal parts and involvement in steroids distribution: we will take 3 tapir claws and some Winny. With those resources why are the Vikings perennial losers lately? Lastly, Eight Belles -- the filly who broke down after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby -- tested free of steroids at autopsy. She might be clean at the Derby, which doesn't tell anyone what she ingested over her short life. Perhaps like Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown and 1976 Olympic gold medalist Ben Johnson, she used Winstrol at some point, increasing her muscles and decreasing her bone mass leaving her vulnerable to injury?

Illegal PED use also scared baseball's week. Career and single-season home run record holder Barry Bonds extended his number of perjury-indictment dingers to 14 counts perjury and one count obstruction of justice...a very productive week for the slugger. Bonds keeps racking up the headlines despite his on-field inaction in 2008.

The Roid Week ended as we lauded the Royals Jose Guillen for awakening finally to his high salary with some decent numbers over the past 9-10 games. Not Mr. HGH, the Angle Gary Matthews who was described as the 'Human Out'. Matthews might be as out as the "104 Men Out" or the 104 MLB players who tested positive for PEDs in 2003. Those players once thought they had anonymity from discovery, guaranteed by the MLB in preliminary proceedings to determine if dope testing was needed in the major leagues. When 5% of the players tested PED positive, MLB slowly instituted anti-doping protocols. However, federal investigators obtained the results of the 2003 tests, matched the data with the names, and now appears ready to subpoena all 104 for interviews.

What else might be on-deck before next week's Roid Report?