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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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2 2 - 0 4 - 2 0 0 5 Fears over new designer steroid
Duncan Mackay
The World Anti-Doping Agency's director general said last night that the agency's scientists are on the verge of unmasking another designer anabolic steroid.
"We have another substance which we are analysing now, which we think will be another designer drug," said David Howman. "We are catching it earlier. We are catching it before it goes into the market." The detection of the drug - of which no details have yet been released- is another significant victory for the dope-busters. In 2003, following a tip-off from an anonymous coach, scientists at the University of California identified tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) and developed a test for it. The Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in San Francisco was allegedly distributing THG and its discovery sparked the biggest drugs scandal in sports history, involving some of the United States' top players of baseball and American football. Several top athletes have also been implicated in the affair, including Britain's European 100 metres champion Dwain Chambers, who was banned for two years after testing positive for THG in 2003. Among other athletes who have admitted using THG to a Californian grand jury are Kelli White, the world 100m and 200m champion, and Tim Montgomery, the world 100m record holder. In February Wada announced the discovery of desoxy-methyl-testosterone (DMT), after another anonymous tip-off. It is unclear how it came to learn about the latest drug. Derek Dueck, a club sprinter from Calgary who had never represented his country, was later fined C$3,000 (£1,300) in a court in Alberta after being apprehended trying to smuggle DMT over the border from the United States. 0 7 - 0 5 - 2 0 0 5 WADA president Richard Pound on Hamilton
cyclingpost.com
ATHENS, May 6 (CP) - WADA president Richard Pound gave an interview to the Greek radio station SKAI 100.3, referring to last summer's doping case of Tyler Hamilton as well as the discovery of a new anabolic substance.
Pound confirmed that WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), has managed to discover a new steroid anabolic, which had been untracable till now.
While the name of the steroid - or the way it was discovered - has not yet been announced, Pound did admit that although WADA is making big steps forward, the "cheaters" are still one step ahead, but he is confident that this will not be the case in the future.
Referring to Tyler Hamilton and his scandal at last year's summer Olympics in Athens, Pound said that the president of the Greek laboratory (where the tests were held), as well as the International Olympic Committee did not react according to the standard procedures. The first mistake was that the blood sample of Hamilton was characterized as "suspicious" and not as positive for use of anabolic substances.
Therefore the IOC didn't pay as much attention as they should have and together with this negligence, the second blood sample was destroyed as it was frozen, something which must not be done under normal circumstances.
Pound concluded his interview, by saying that he was disappointed by the IOC and their decision of not charging Tyler Hamilton, while the UCI were forced to impose a blood test, which proved that he had used illegal substances during the period of the Olympics.
2 8 - 0 8 - 2 0 0 5 Cheating athletes know the tricks
Toronto Star In white coats, over bubbling beakers, they would toil in obscure laboratories, creating ever more complex molecules to mimic the muscle-building hormone testosterone. Some nefarious boy geniuses cooking up the latest designer drug to enhance athletic performances? Nope. They were pioneering chemists, working in the first fervour pitch of anabolic steroid science more than four decades ago. Caught up in the initial thrall of the new steroid field, they created dozens of variations of the artificial male hormone. Unwittingly, they left an extensive menu for modern-day cheaters who are rummaging through their dusty, forgotten papers to find substances to beat an increasingly rigorous drug-testing system. With accusations cropping up again last week that Tour de France king Lance Armstrong was using a banned blood booster, the ongoing race between cheaters and those trying to catch them has again come into focus. And today, 17 years after sprinter Ben Johnson brought a compendium of anabolic steroid references into the Canadian consciousness, the race is still afoot and the winner far from certain.
"But they are not that clever," Christiane Ayotte, head of the International Olympic Committee's accredited testing lab in Montreal, says of the modern steroid makers. "It was easy if you think about it." Ayotte says pharmaceutical researchers working in the 1950s and '60s "just made a race" to synthesize as many testosterone-mimicking molecules as possible. "What we're observing right now is these (cheating) guys today just looking in that literature," she says, "and they're picking the interesting molecules that were not put on the market by the pharmaceutical industry and having them synthesized somewhere." Just who these modern chemists are is far from clear. They inhabit a murky underground that largely serves the sweaty gyms and fitness boutiques that have proliferated across the continent. But Ayotte says it's pretty clear the drugs are being sent to China to manufacture in bulk. While those on the policing side have the same, or better, access to the old steroid literature, Ayotte says they lack the time or funding to construct the drugs themselves and therefore come up with a test for them. "If I had only that to do, voila," she says, "but there are hearings, testing, arbitrations. There's too many of them and not enough of us." The modified steroids are often found in so-called nutritional supplements, sold at gyms and health food stores as part of the multibillion-dollar bodybuilding and strength-training businesses. Among the most famous of these goosed supplements is androstenedione, a natural testosterone builder that helped baseball hulk Mark McGwire shatter the single-season home run record in 1998. Another designer "supplement" known as THG was discovered during last year's infamous Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) investigation. The probe into the California steroid scandal has ensnared several prominent athletes, including baseball superstars Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, in its widening net. While androstenedione and THG are now detectable and banned from most sports, the supplement game is ongoing, says Ayotte, who is now hot on the trail of another "secret" steroid herself. "They're playing cat-and-mouse games," she says. "They change the structure of a (steroid) molecule and put it on the market in a supplement until the (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration says this is not permitted and then they change the molecule again." One such supplement on the market is Superdrol, which Ayotte describes as "a potent steroid that should never have been allowed to be distributed for human beings." Until such products are shown to contain steroids, however, they can be legally purchased. What's more important to elite athletes, however, is that these throwback molecules are undetectable during frequent, mandatory urine tests. To a large extent, drug tests can only see what they're looking for, and every new steroidoften created simply by twisting inert molecules into different shapes requires a new test and its own place on a banned substance list. (The IOC's list is the banned substance Bible for most international sports.) The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has suggested freezing relevant portions of blood or urine samples until new tests come on line. The threat that athletes will be retroactively disqualified or shamed may act as a deterrent to taking designer drugs now, the agency argues. Armstrong's purported positive test, reported last week in a French sports journal, suggested the seven-time Tour de France winner had elevated levels of the blood-building agent EPO (erythropoietin) in a urine sample he gave during his 1999 victory. That was before EPO could be properly detected in urine samples. Armstrong's urine, the B sample from that originally negative test had been frozen until last year, when scientists outside Paris used it for EPO "research." Dr. Andrew Pipe, former head of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and an acknowledged doping expert, says cycling has been an "incubator" for almost all of the banned substances now used in sports. But the new "designer drugs" are far from the most popular among athletes, no matter what their calibre, most experts say. Pipe says athletes, whether elite or average, still gravitate most to the "tried and true" drugs that have shown results and are readily available. He says stanozolol, for which baseball star Rafael Palmeiro recently tested positive almost two decades after Johnson did the same, and blood builders such as EPO are still the substances of choice for those in the know. They just try to hide them better, Pipe says, and the methods used to hide these drugs rely both on masking ingenuity and a precision knowledge of testing schedules, experts say. Created in the kidneys to boost red blood cell production, EPO is found at predictable levels in healthy men and women. But for testing purposes, these normal levels have been jacked up to cover the elevated concentrations that may well occur naturally in some people. Cyclists may also inject themselves with saline solution in the time between racing and testing to lower EPO concentrations even further, testimony from several Tour riders has revealed. Meanwhile, Ayotte says testers are growing more sophisticated in their detection methods. The problem is, athletes and their handlers are becoming commensurately cagey. For example, it's been found that protease enzymes, which can be easily purchased in powder form from laboratory suppliers, can break down EPO rapidly. "So they have a powder of protease on their hand and put it in the urine sample, then it can start to digest the EPO," she says. Some sunscreen and hair-growth creams, smeared on the inside of a sample beaker, can also mask certain substances, Ayotte says. As well, while testing today is supposed to be random and unannounced, and while an athlete's whereabouts is supposed to be known year-round, many elite competitors can predict when they'll be asked to give samples, or hide from any testers who may be looking for them. She says athletes can and often train in far-flung locales, where they know their national testers will not follow. And cyclists often hide in plain sight, Ayotte says, honing their skills, both athletic and pharmaceutical, at smaller, less affluent events where EPO tests at $300 (all figures U.S.) a shot are not performed. (Comprehensive steroid tests go for $130.) As for that troubled sport itself, both Ayotte and Pipe say cycling officials should implement pre-race blood-screening procedures, looking for elevated levels of hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying component of blood. So serious is the EPO crisis in cycling and other endurance sports that Pipe says international testing officials should largely forgo the policing of lesser offences, such as cold remedy use, and use their resources to fight the larger problem. Indeed, Pipe says Olympic officials should consider dropping cycling from the Games until the sport has shown it can clean up its act. 1 5 - 0 1 - 2 0 0 6 Kiwi David Howman cleaning up sport's drug-tarnished image
The New Zealand Herald
Sitting at home in his Texan ranch with his rock-star fiancee, Lance Armstrong might be a little worried about what world drugs supremo David Howman has to say. Then again, the seven-time Tour de France winner has managed to emerge from drugs accusations in the past with his reputation largely intact, largely because he never failed a drugs test. That was, according to leading French paper L'Equipe, until he reportedly failed six retrospective urine tests for EPO taken from the 1999 Tour. Armstrong has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and says he's the victim of a "set-up" in a long-standing feud with the French media but Howman is not prepared to let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. "We are investigating it [Armstrong's case] right now," said Howman, a former sports lawyer and New Zealand Tennis president who is now the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) - one of the world's most powerful sports bodies. "It's reasonably obvious he's concerned about it. He didn't sue the newspaper that published it, and that's significant. He has a history of suing everyone who has upset him in the past so something is going on there. "We can request to test that sample. The results from the French laboratory showed that a big number of those who competed in 1999 were on EPO." It's a moot point whether Armstrong would face sanction anyway - even if WADA tests show Armstrong's sample positive for EPO. That's because athletes can be declared to have a drugs violation only after both the A and B samples test positive - and Armstrong's A samples have already been destroyed. However, it would be another significant scalp for WADA's anti-drugs campaign. Last year they added big fish like former 100m world record holder Tim Montgomery, top 10 tennis player Mariano Puerta and four-time Tour of Spain winner Roberto Heras to an increasingly larger pond of athletes who have sunken into the murky depths of drug taking. Marion Jones and baseball superstar Barry Bonds could soon be added to the catch because of their alleged involvement with BALCO - a laboratory that supplied performance-enhancing substances to athletes. And then there's Armstrong. "Other big names will undoubtedly be exposed soon," Howman promised while taking a break from watching the ASB Classic last week. "You will be pleasantly surprised what will happen in the next few years. Big heads are rolling and will continue to roll. Some athletes will be looking in the mirror at night and wondering when they will be caught." Call it a crusade, if you like. He might even see himself as something of a sheriff but Howman is determined to help clean up and restore some credibility to sport and knows catching the cheats will send out a message to youngsters trying to make it in the big, bad world of sport. Progress is being made in the war against drugs, largely because of the creation of WADA in 1999 to take over from the likes of the IOC and sporting organisations which, Howman said, were "making a mess of it and hiding test results of high-profile" athletes. Since the start of 2004, every sport except for football has come under WADA's jurisdiction ("we will get them in the next two to three months") and every government is also expected to fall in line by the end of 2006. What has made WADA so successful is that it now has a team of scientists to rival those being employed by athletes. "The issue has become a scientific battle and who has the best scientists," Howman explained. "Now we have our scientists thinking like cheats. It might be a terrible thing to say but if they are thinking like cheats then we can anticipate what's going on. "We've located three or four designer drugs in the making rather than in use, so that's significant. We have also found a lot of athletes now using drugs that were around in the 1980s, so they are going backwards rather than forwards." What has also given Howman optimism for the future is what he sees as a return to more traditional values - the Olympic ethos of higher, faster and stronger without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. "It's a return to good values in sport because no one condones cheating," he said. "Everyone wants to work within the rules. I think you will find that attitude prominent among 95 per cent of world athletes. People don't want athletes to be human chemical stockpiles and I certainly don't want my grandchildren to die because they've been enticed to take something to beef up." Even though Howman describes himself as a cynic - it helps him deal with the realities of the job - there'd be more than a few who might dispute his assertion that only five per cent of athletes use drugs. Disgraced former BALCO head Victor Conte, who was sentenced to jail for his part in the scandal, paints a different picture considering he believes 50 per cent of athletes in sports are on steroids and 80 per cent use some kind of stimulant. Although New Zealand has had its share of misdemeanours, Howman believes this country is relatively clean. "New Zealand has a history of being pretty darned clean," he enthused. "You can't hide in New Zealand so if you get caught you're hung up as public enemy No 1." As far as some athletes and coaches are concerned, Howman is the enemy. But that's fine with the Kiwi on a mission. After all, it will mean he and WADA are on the right track and kids will once again have designs on being a top athlete, rather than doing it with the aid of drugs. 2 7 - 0 1 - 2 0 0 6 Canadian athletes fail drug tests
Routine testing finds designer steroid in urine samples
Dan Barnes
MONTREAL - Canadian athletes have tested positive for a new designer steroid discovered in half a dozen urine samples sent to a lab in Pointe Claire, Que. "Definitely, Canada will have to answer questions," said Dr. Christiane Ayotte, director of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited lab. "I detected it in some athletes in routine testing. I found it in a total of five (or) six samples." The samples are numbered rather than named but Ayotte knows some of the positives came from a batch originating at a competition in Western Canada involving only Canadian athletes. It's not known whether this new discovery could have implications for the Winter Games next month in Turin, Italy, since the identities and sports involved have not been divulged. Still, it begs the question: Is the country that was rocked by the Ben Johnson stanozolol scandal at the 1988 Olympics on the verge of another steroid disgrace?
"I don't know," said WADA president Richard Pound, a former Canadian Olympian. "I hope not." The substance Ayotte discovered, but whose composition she has yet to fully determine, is just the latest in a line of so-called "designer" steroids that are all the rage in doping. Pound said anti-doping officials have identified other designer steroids and chosen not to go public. Last March, for example, the Washington Post contracted the WADA-accredited lab in Los Angeles to examine six dietary supplements available on the Internet. The lab revealed they were actually steroids. Ayotte is certain the raw materials in designer steroids come from China and are manufactured into pill form in the U.S. by people with skill in organic chemistry. Slight chemical alterations to existing steroids can create a new generation that is virtually undetectable.
"And there are thousands of ways to do that," said Dr. Don Catlin, who heads the lab in Los Angeles. Every time someone like Ayotte or Catlin finds a new steroid and it's added to the WADA banned list, the anti-doping side gains a little ground. It is a serious cat and mouse game with no end in sight. "We know about a lot of designer steroids," Pound said. "We have tests for it. We're not going to say which ones because we have to strike a balance. Do you put the word out so the smart guys stop taking it and go on to designer steroid 'x' instead of 'w,' or do you catch somebody with a big splash like we did in Salt Lake?" Ayotte wasn't even looking for the specific steroid she found but an odd peak showed up in its profile during analysis of urine samples with a gas spectrometer. Working backwards from such a discovery can take months. Ayotte is finally close to announcing the chemical composition of the new designer steroid and confirming the positive tests, which is the good news for anti-doping crusaders. It's a bit of a hollow victory, however, since Ayotte is certain the new steroid has already been "burned" or pulled out of circulation because the dopers know a test for it is either already in place or close at hand. "It has been burned. But it has been used," said Ayotte. WADA lab discovers new 'designer' drug
Canadian Press MONTREAL (CP) - Chalk up another win for the anti-doping movement. A Montreal dope-testing lab has discovered a new "designer" steroid in urine samples taken mainly from an international bodybuilding competition in western Canada. Christiane Ayotte, director of the lab accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, said that some, but not all, of the samples came from Canadian athletes. She said the performance-enhancing drug, first discovered more than a year ago, was found in anywhere from five to eight samples. The samples cannot be called positive tests yet because the lab has not completed charting the structure of the molecule, she added. It has yet to be given a name. "This was not a secret," she said. "I told people I found a steroid more than a year ago and that we are working on it." The steroid may turn up at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, but Ayotte suspects it has been "burned" - taken out of circulation - by dealers and users of banned drugs because they would be aware the lab is close to giving it a positive identification. "I know that Dick Pound hoped that we'd find the structure in time to catch people in Turin, but I don't think that will be the case," she said. "We're not there yet." The latest was discovered while analyzing urine samples from the bodybuilders, a sport with a long history of positive tests, she said. "The first bodybuilder we knew had already tested positive for two or three other steroids, so we looked more closely," she said. The sample showed an unusual "peak" in its structure that led to its discovery as a designer steroid. The same drug was then discovered in other tests, some from other sports she did not name. Ayotte said that last year, five new designer steroids came onto the market in the United States. Often, they are disguised as nutritional supplements, she said. A year ago, her lab mapped the structure of one called desoxy-methyl testosterone (DMT) found in a bottle seized at an Alberta border crossing in a truck driven by a former sprinter Derek Dueck of Calgary, who was later fined $3,000. "So it is not surprising that Canadians are involved with steroids," she said. |
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