A Threat Looms in Track

As hard as the steroid controversy has hit baseball -- a new season marred by talk of tainted records -- an equally destructive storm may be on the horizon for track and field.

According to sources close to a continuing federal investigation, prosecutors have evidence of steroid use among a number of athletes expected to be stars on the U.S. team that will go to the Olympic Games in Athens this summer.

For now, the names of those athletes remain hidden in sealed court filings, the sources said, but a Senate committee voted Thursday to subpoena the protected documents.

If suspected cheaters are identified within the next three months, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency could invoke a little-known provision in an effort to suspend the athletes without the usual positive urine sample.

While that could mean stripping the U.S. team of significant talent weeks before the Games, experts envision a worse alternative: Americans winning gold in Athens only to have evidence of steroid use introduced in open court soon after.

“We’d go through months and months of panels, lots of lawyers, taking back medals ... a very messy situation,” said Steven Ungerleider, a noted researcher on doping. “Better we get it cleaned up now.”

At the heart of the issue lies the federal government’s case against Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO, a Northern California company that makes nutritional supplements. Its founder, Victor Conte, is among four men accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs to professional baseball and football players and Olympic athletes.

The personal trainer for San Francisco Giant slugger Barry Bonds is among the defendants. So is Remi Korchemny, a prominent track coach who has worked with some of the U.S.’ top female sprinters.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

In the months before charges were filed, a San Francisco grand jury heard testimony from sports celebrities including Bonds, Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi and boxer Shane Mosley.

Track and field was well-represented. Five-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones was asked about her connections to BALCO, as was her partner, Tim Montgomery, holder of the 100-meter dash record. Their former coach, Trevor Graham, was reportedly subpoenaed too.

Others who took the stand, according to news reports, included sprinters Chryste Gaines and Michelle Collins, Calvin and Alvin Harrison, distance standout Regina Jacobs and hammer thrower John McEwen.

All have denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

On Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the Commerce Committee, which he chairs, decided to subpoena evidence from the case after failing to gain access in negotiations with the Justice Department.

“We really have no other option,” McCain told the Reuters news service.

The subpoena would seek any information about Olympic athletes buying performance-enhancing drugs from BALCO.

To date, prosecutors have commented only sparingly on their case. Athletes’ names have been deleted from any documents made public.

Still, court papers suggest a pattern of misconduct in track and field.

A search warrant affidavit lists 29 checks that elite athletes in the sport allegedly wrote to Conte. Among them:

* A $7,350 check from an “Olympic gold medal winner.”

* An $875 check from a “current world-record holder.”

* A $1,000 check from a “current world champion.”

* A $195 check from a “current United States champion.”

The investigation produced what prosecutors characterized as incriminating e-mails and letters. In addition, one athlete testified to the grand jury about drug use, according to a government motion.

Korchemny, the coach, was aware “of the athlete’s use of human growth hormone because he talked to the athlete about it,” the motion said.

The BALCO case comes as U.S. track and field officials are still dealing with another doping-related controversy.

In that instance, sprinter Jerome Young tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in 1999 but was cleared by USA Track & Field to compete in the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. Only after Young helped the U.S. win a gold medal in the 1,600-meter relay did word of his positive test become public, prompting intense criticism from other countries.

“People were saying it’s about time the Americans take responsibility,” said Ungerleider, whose book, “Faust’s Gold,” chronicled state-sponsored doping of East German athletes a generation ago. “They were telling USA Track & Field to stop hiding behind charades and legal maneuvers.”

To make matters worse, several Americans have tested positive in recent months.

Jacobs and McEwen were among four athletes found to have a new designer steroid called THG in their systems. Prosecutors claim BALCO was distributing THG to athletes with the promise it could not be detected by conventional tests.

Other prominent runners with connections to BALCO, including sprinter Kelli White, tested positive for a powerful stimulant called modafinil.

The list of unidentified cheaters includes numerous athletes who have yet to test positive, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is still under investigation. If such athletes were to compete in Athens and subsequently be linked to steroids, experts said, international pressure would only intensify.

“This has the looks of a ticking bomb,” said Charles Yesalis, a Penn State University professor and longtime expert on doping. “When will it go off?”

The anti-doping agency -- an independent organization that polices Olympic sports in America -- is equipped to take unprecedented action.

Normally, the USADA goes to work only after an athlete’s urine sample tests positive. But the agency’s code includes a provision called a “nonanalytical positive” that allows officials to begin proceedings if they have “other reason” to believe a violation has occurred.

In theory, an athlete testifying about steroid use before a grand jury could trigger this provision. So could canceled checks and e-mails of the type allegedly found by agents in the BALCO case.

USADA officials declined to comment, but in a recent statement, Chief Executive Terry Madden said: “We fully expect that developments in the U.S. attorney’s proceedings and our ongoing investigation will lead to the initiation of more doping cases against athletes and others.”

The question remains: Will federal prosecutors give the USADA the deleted names before the nation’s track and field elite congregate in Sacramento for the U.S. Olympic Trials on July 9?

Assistant U.S. Atty. Matt Jacobs said in some instances, his office is prohibited by law from releasing information connected to a grand jury investigation.

“Beyond that,” he said, “it has long been the policy of the Department of Justice not to release the names of people who may be witnesses or even targets of an investigation but have not been charged.”

Still, when the BALCO indictments were announced in February, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was asked several times and did not rule out sharing information.

The U.S. Olympic Committee, for one, would like to see the situation resolved quickly.

Darryl Seibel, a USOC spokesman, said: “We would expect the entities involved in this critical effort will take the steps necessary to make certain that, should an issue arise, it is adjudicated and resolved prior to submission of rosters for the Athens Games.”