Seeking an edge

THG scandal won't scare athletes away from drugs

THE STEROID SCANDAL SI Writers • CNNMoney: Players' health should be priority • Donovan: Yankees in middle of storm again • Verducci: This problem won't go away • Taylor: Players should stand up to union • Layden: BALCO case puts stars at risk • Donovan: Baseball's numbers don't add up • Verducci: MLB's drug plan lacks punch • Fish: Steroid sleuth leads charge against THG • SI Special Report: Steroids in baseball • SI Flashback: Caminiti comes clean Latest News • Lawyers reiterate defense of Bonds • Report: Bonds, Giambi, Sheff got steroids • Smoltz calls for tougher drug testing • Kent: Was Babe Ruth on steroids? • BALCO lawyers say Bonds is clean

Let's see, if we read this right, there's a squealing coach who's handed over a syringe loaded with the so-called designer steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone), at least a handful of disgraced athletes and a grand jury probe on the horizon.

Just don't bet on any of these bizarre developments paving the way for drug-free sports. OK, kudos to Dr. Don Catlin and his team at the UCLA drug lab for their scientific detection work in identifying the steroid THG. But it's not every day a ticked off coach -- that's being polite -- anonymously sends in a syringe dripping with a performance-enhancing drug.

Call it a very fortuitous delivery, if you will, from a coach upset because a high-profile athlete had either ditched him or perhaps he himself had been denied access to the performance-enhancing drug for his athletes.

And Catlin is the first to acknowledge that athletes around the world are using other yet undetectable designer drugs. Word is Catlin and his lab is aware of at least three or four others floating around that can't yet be identified.

"It has to be understood that [THG] is not the only one," a coach of world and Olympic champions told SI.com. "The idea that this is the breakthrough and that it's gonna sweep the floor clean is ludicrous."

In this win-at-all-cost age, where money and fame is the end all, athletes are more willing than ever to seek out an edge -- whether legally or illegally. The pressure to be somebody sounds, in some cases, almost extreme. "All they want to do is go out there and win," a former female track sprinter told us. "Do you think athletes like taking things that harm them?"

Hopefully not. But some -- not all -- are shopping for that edge, hooking up with the likes of Victor Conte, a 53-year-old Bay Area nutritionist whose company, BALCO, is said to be the source of THG. Conte has denied any wrongdoing.

One prominent coach drew an analogy here to antelope regularly wandering to a watering hole, even though they know a pack of lions are perched nearby. They, like the athletes, accept the risk because they need the water. And they only hope that someone else is dragged off and torn asunder, not them.

Coaches and athletes told SI.com, however, that they don't expect a huge number of athletes to ultimately be linked to THG. It is assumed the drug is a boutique, with a coach suggesting, "Clients that come in there are not looking to get something that then is gonna be given to 300 other people."

According to various media reports, four track athletes have so far initially tested positive for the steroid -- British sprinter Dwain Chambers, American distance standout Regina Jacobs, hammer thrower John McEwen and shot putter Kevin Toth -- while as many as 100 others associated with Conte may be subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury reportedly looking into BALCO's financial dealings.

Of course, it's dangerously wrong to assume the athletes publicly linked to the grand jury probe -- including big names like San Francisco Giants superstar Barry Bonds, New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi and boxing champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley -- have been off in a far corner of the clubhouse or locker room injecting THG.

Conte has a laundry list of athlete clients, in large part because his supplements, a legitimate daily stable for the modern athlete, are widely heralded and he's viewed as something of a guru in the field, though he never finished college and has no professional background in science or in health.

"He is an expert in trace minerals, doing hair and blood [analysis] and looking at red cells versus plasma," says track coach Loren Seagrave, co-founder of the training facility franchise Velocity Sports Performance. "He pioneered a product [ZMA] that I've used on occasion, particularly with zinc and magnesium deficient athletes. They did the research that basically showed that many of the athletes are magnesium deficient, which reduces strength.

"I know that many athletes have used Victor for his advice and the supplementation routines, particularly in terms of trace minerals. Other than that, I don't really know too much of what is going on. But if there is any shred of truth to this, they need to play this thing out to the fullest."

At least for now, the federal inquiry isn't likely to run a chemical analysis of BALCO product, instead focusing on whether Conte failed to report income or laundered payments from athletes. The courts may not determine whether his lab and chemists concocted the designer steroid, but sports officials -- including Catlin, we're told -- have long cast a suspicious eye in his direction.

A former member of the USOC drug control committee told us the group had Conte on its radar more than a decade ago. "Catlin was aware of him, but he could never find anything," the sports official says. "None of the people that he dealt with ever tested positive. So you couldn't follow the trail."

The drug dogs are sniffing now, but even if Conte is brought down we'll still have plenty of chemists in sports.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com.