SAN FRANCISCO, 1 December 2004 — The BALCO steroid distribution case, which spawned a doping scandal that shadowed sports ranging from the Athens Olympics to Major League Baseball this year, returns to the courtroom today.
At a pre-trial hearing, US District Court Judge Susan Illston could consider a defense motion to dismiss the case, or she could perhaps set a trial date for the four men accused of distributing performance enhancing drugs to elite athletes.
BALCO laboratory founder Victor Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, athletics coach Remi Korchemny and Greg Anderson, the personal trainer of baseball star Barry Bonds, were indicted last February and pleaded innocent.
But as the legal proceedings moved slowly forward, the case erupted in the sports world with the US Anti-Doping Agency fingering BALCO as the source of the new designer steriod tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).
According to USADA, 10 athletes have been sanctioned for testing positive for THG or modafinil, two of the drugs USADA believes are linked to BALCO.
Sprinters Kelli White and Alvin Harrison were banned for the use of THG and other drugs not after positive tests but on the basis of materials gleaned in the BALCO investigation.
USADA is still seeking to sanction others, including 100m world record-holder Tim Montgomery and US sprinters Chryste Gaines and Michelle Collins, not because of positive tests but because of information from the BALCO case.
Athletes who have had no formal accusations brought against them have also been embroiled in the scandal, as sprint queen Marion Jones and baseball’s Bonds and Gary Sheffield have seen their names linked to the affair.
However, Conte and the other defendants in the criminal case have challenged the prosecution’s evidence, denying that Conte and Valente admitted giving banned drugs to sports figures.
