Supplement Follies
A Closer Look at Nandrolone Positives in the Olympics
by Charlie Francis
In 1988 Ben Johnson and his coach Charlie Francis were singled out and ultimately sacrificed at the alter of fair play. Careers were destroyed, reputations were soiled, and the world never looked at the Olympics the same way again. Those responsible for the witch hunt, those nameless shadow figures who think they're above the law, failed to do one important thing. They couldn't shut Charlie Francis up.
Although Charlie remains a successful coach and consultant, he's also become the ultimate watchdog in the world of elite sports. Those trying to pull a few fast ones often find themselves facing the business end of Charlie's poisonous pen. In the following article, Charlie explores the recent rash of nandrolone positives in the Olympics. As usual, there's more here than meets the eye.
The Usual Suspects
The recent rash of nandrolone positives in Olympic sports has generated a lot of attention from the public and a whole lot more attention from the athletes themselves! Superstars Lindford Christie, Merlene Ottey, and CJ Hunter are among the 443 athletes who've tested positive for nandrolone in the last 12 months alone!
The standard defense for the unfortunate athletes is to claim that they would "never knowingly" take any banned substance, and that the nandrolone must have been ingested in contaminated supplements, steroid tainted meat, spiked toothpaste? well, you fill in the blank. Of course, these claims are met with howls of ridicule from a public that's heard it all before.
The public's skepticism is played upon by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), Track and Field's world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their own purposes. It's no surprise that these organizations should "pile on" in an attempt to demolish the athletes' reputations and defenses once the positive tests have been announced. They have much to lose if positive tests are overturned in this age of lawsuits, massive legal fees, and punitive damage awards.
Jacques Rogge, the Vice President of the IOC Medical Commission, scoffed at the suggestion that androstene residue in supplements could have caused the Nandrolone positives. "Impossible! Nonsense!" he claimed. He was either lying or incompetent, since the testing labs have known for years that andro and nandrolone produce the same metabolites.
Arne Lundquist, Chairman of the IAAF Medical Commission, chimed in to suggest, "No top quality athlete needs to take supplements. They serve no useful purpose at all." Of course, this nonsense flies in the face of the experience of all the top athletes, and I defy you to find a single one who doesn't use supplements. But this statement serves to protect the organization because, if supplements aren't necessary, there's no need to be concerned when an athlete runs into a problem using them.
It's also no surprise that they [the IAAF and the IOC] should put the positive tests in a light favorable to themselves. "We're winning the war against drugs," they say. "We're preserving the integrity of sport by weeding out the few bad apples who won't play by the rules." With all of the confusion and contradiction, it's reassuring to know there's one thing of which you can be absolutely sure: You can't believe anything these two organizations say! Hell, they don't even believe what they say!
They claim that their testing is cleaning up their sports, yet they know they have no tests for the drugs most athletes are using. They claim that the vast majority of athletes are clean, but they deny due process to athletes because they're sure that they are dirty. (Twenty years of endocrine profile testing hasn't done much to dispel their beliefs!)
Their reasoning goes like this, "Look, why don't you cut the crap? Even if you didn't take this drug, you took something else! You know you're guilty, or you wouldn't be good enough to get tested in the first place!" I ran into this "catch 22" in Seoul when I was confronted by the chief drug tester there, Manfred Donike. "How can you sit there and try to claim that Ben Johnson is clean when anyone with eyes can see the muscles he has!" Of course, it was hard to argue the point, but it was incredibly galling to hear Donike later explaining to the public that steroids aren't necessary to develop the incredible physiques seen at the Olympics!
A recent hearing in Britain asked the question, do sport governing bodies have the right to hold athletes responsible for anything found in their bodies, regardless of how it got there? The position taken on behalf of the athlete was ably spelled out by lawyer Peter Thorpe in arguing for the extension of the basic rights available to his client, "It is a basic principle of our law that you can't be punished for something you neither know, or ought to have known, or as in this case, it was even possible to know."
The position of the sport governing bodies was just as ably illustrated by Dr. Martin Lucking, in charge of testing British athletes, "All athletes are basically dishonest!" While I personally don't think the good doctor is too far off the mark, room must be left for the possibility that a common side effect of prolonged drug use is memory loss?or even the possibility that, in this case, the athletes are telling the truth! Amazingly enough, research has shown that, for once, the athletes are telling the truth!
Tainted Supplements and Conflicts of Interests
Androstene is finding its way into supplements that are not intended to contain it, and therefore haven't shown it as an ingredient on their labels. Though supplement companies have a long history of juicing up initial batches of otherwise useless products with everything from Clenbuteral to Dianabol to ensure a loyal, if temporary, following, this particular contamination is unintentional, since the amounts being found in the athletes' urine samples are too low to be explained by intentional adulteration.
Despite the claims by the IOC and the IAAF that massive levels of nandrolone were found in the urine samples of Lindford Christie and CJ Hunter, even their test results could be generated by as little as 120 micrograms of andro, which is 1000 times less than the minimum effective dose.
And, since so many companies rely on common suppliers for their raw ingredients, even companies that don't make any andro products have been struck by contamination problems.
The controlling sport organizations have been informed routinely by their member federations of the specific companies that have generated known positive tests, yet they haven't passed this information on to their membership. Of course, the drug testing czars feel comfortable with their abdication of responsibility, because, after all, they covered their asses by claiming that supplements are unnecessary! (See earlier comments by Arne Lundquist.)
But wait! What's this? In a startling about face, Arne Lundquist is now acknowledging the contamination problem! He's states, "Athletes may have ingested nandrolone unwittingly. Spiked food supplements are apparently responsible for the recent flood of positive tests. These food supplements may not have been properly labeled." Hallelujah, is what the athletes must have thought! Now surely the suspensions will be overturned and we can get on with our careers!
But wait, Arne, now solid in his resolve to be fluid, has commissioned a study to investigate this situation further before any action is taken. The results are not expected to be in for another two years, a lifetime for most competitive athletes! These actions by the IAAF's Medical Commissioner appear, at first glance, to be inexplicable.
Lundquist has raised fears in the IAAF's general membership that drug suspensions can now be successfully challenged in court. So why are the interests of the Medical Commissioners so different from the interests of the sport in general? Why not reinstate the affected athletes immediately in the interest of justice and avoid costly litigation? If they've been told which five supplement companies out of the 100 or so doing business have caused the problems, why haven't they informed everyone, to protect the athletes, the IOC and the IAAF, and of course to clear the names of the innocent supplement manufacturers?
Knowing these people and the history of this sport as I do, I have looked low and lower for the answer, but, it seems that no matter how cynical I become, these folks seem to travel a yard beneath even my meager expectations of ethical behavior. It appears that some of these medical commissioners may be involved in an appalling conflict of interest!
The Plot Thickens
In 1998, Vitabiotics, a supplement manufacturer in England, received a large cash infusion to expand to a 50,000 square foot facility. (Such a facility can generate production of 150 million dollars worth of supplements per year!) Coincidental to this cash infusion into a company that had remained virtually dormant since 1971 was the appointment of a new chairman of the company, Arnold Beckett, a former IOC Medical Commissioner.
The new strategy of the company is that it can guarantee that its product line can pass even the most stringent testing for banned supplements. Now the involvement of Arnold Beckett by himself in this company is no proof of wrongdoing. Indeed, Beckett resigned from the IOC Medical Commission, claiming he was appalled by the hypocrisy he saw. The question is, who else is involved in this company?
Several athletes have come to me, claiming that they were assured that current members of the IOC Medical Commission are involved in this project, and that actual IOC labs have tested and passed these supplements. They also passed on the names of two IOC Medical Commissioners and one former head of a prominent country's track and field federation. Naturally, these athletes wanted to get their supplements from this company to protect themselves!
If this is true, the resultant conflict gives a credible explanation for recent events. Anyone involved in Vitabiotics can clearly benefit from the rash of positives! The tarring of all other supplement companies with the brush of contamination undermines the competition. The continuing woes of the positive athletes will soon have the company operating at capacity.
There's another, more serious conflict of interest here. If any athlete taking these products should test positive for anything, they could turn around and blame a company for their positive test. I've been advised by these athletes that this is precisely what they intend to do if they run into a problem. The damage this could do to sales might give pause to the testers if anything untoward showed up on the test of a customer!
Of course, if these allegations aren't true, the IOC Medical Commission should put out an immediate statement clarifying that they are not involved, and employees of the company should be warned not to use the names of lab officials, publicly or privately, in the promotion of their products!
But, if the allegations are true, those involved should resign immediately!
Charlie Francis is the author of several books, among them "Speed Trap", "The Charlie Francis Training System", and "Training for Speed". The first two are available at AdvancementofSports.com/product.htm while "Training for Speed" is available through Amazon.com.
A Closer Look at Nandrolone Positives in the Olympics
by Charlie Francis
In 1988 Ben Johnson and his coach Charlie Francis were singled out and ultimately sacrificed at the alter of fair play. Careers were destroyed, reputations were soiled, and the world never looked at the Olympics the same way again. Those responsible for the witch hunt, those nameless shadow figures who think they're above the law, failed to do one important thing. They couldn't shut Charlie Francis up.
Although Charlie remains a successful coach and consultant, he's also become the ultimate watchdog in the world of elite sports. Those trying to pull a few fast ones often find themselves facing the business end of Charlie's poisonous pen. In the following article, Charlie explores the recent rash of nandrolone positives in the Olympics. As usual, there's more here than meets the eye.
The Usual Suspects
The recent rash of nandrolone positives in Olympic sports has generated a lot of attention from the public and a whole lot more attention from the athletes themselves! Superstars Lindford Christie, Merlene Ottey, and CJ Hunter are among the 443 athletes who've tested positive for nandrolone in the last 12 months alone!
The standard defense for the unfortunate athletes is to claim that they would "never knowingly" take any banned substance, and that the nandrolone must have been ingested in contaminated supplements, steroid tainted meat, spiked toothpaste? well, you fill in the blank. Of course, these claims are met with howls of ridicule from a public that's heard it all before.
The public's skepticism is played upon by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), Track and Field's world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their own purposes. It's no surprise that these organizations should "pile on" in an attempt to demolish the athletes' reputations and defenses once the positive tests have been announced. They have much to lose if positive tests are overturned in this age of lawsuits, massive legal fees, and punitive damage awards.
Jacques Rogge, the Vice President of the IOC Medical Commission, scoffed at the suggestion that androstene residue in supplements could have caused the Nandrolone positives. "Impossible! Nonsense!" he claimed. He was either lying or incompetent, since the testing labs have known for years that andro and nandrolone produce the same metabolites.
Arne Lundquist, Chairman of the IAAF Medical Commission, chimed in to suggest, "No top quality athlete needs to take supplements. They serve no useful purpose at all." Of course, this nonsense flies in the face of the experience of all the top athletes, and I defy you to find a single one who doesn't use supplements. But this statement serves to protect the organization because, if supplements aren't necessary, there's no need to be concerned when an athlete runs into a problem using them.
It's also no surprise that they [the IAAF and the IOC] should put the positive tests in a light favorable to themselves. "We're winning the war against drugs," they say. "We're preserving the integrity of sport by weeding out the few bad apples who won't play by the rules." With all of the confusion and contradiction, it's reassuring to know there's one thing of which you can be absolutely sure: You can't believe anything these two organizations say! Hell, they don't even believe what they say!
They claim that their testing is cleaning up their sports, yet they know they have no tests for the drugs most athletes are using. They claim that the vast majority of athletes are clean, but they deny due process to athletes because they're sure that they are dirty. (Twenty years of endocrine profile testing hasn't done much to dispel their beliefs!)
Their reasoning goes like this, "Look, why don't you cut the crap? Even if you didn't take this drug, you took something else! You know you're guilty, or you wouldn't be good enough to get tested in the first place!" I ran into this "catch 22" in Seoul when I was confronted by the chief drug tester there, Manfred Donike. "How can you sit there and try to claim that Ben Johnson is clean when anyone with eyes can see the muscles he has!" Of course, it was hard to argue the point, but it was incredibly galling to hear Donike later explaining to the public that steroids aren't necessary to develop the incredible physiques seen at the Olympics!
A recent hearing in Britain asked the question, do sport governing bodies have the right to hold athletes responsible for anything found in their bodies, regardless of how it got there? The position taken on behalf of the athlete was ably spelled out by lawyer Peter Thorpe in arguing for the extension of the basic rights available to his client, "It is a basic principle of our law that you can't be punished for something you neither know, or ought to have known, or as in this case, it was even possible to know."
The position of the sport governing bodies was just as ably illustrated by Dr. Martin Lucking, in charge of testing British athletes, "All athletes are basically dishonest!" While I personally don't think the good doctor is too far off the mark, room must be left for the possibility that a common side effect of prolonged drug use is memory loss?or even the possibility that, in this case, the athletes are telling the truth! Amazingly enough, research has shown that, for once, the athletes are telling the truth!
Tainted Supplements and Conflicts of Interests
Androstene is finding its way into supplements that are not intended to contain it, and therefore haven't shown it as an ingredient on their labels. Though supplement companies have a long history of juicing up initial batches of otherwise useless products with everything from Clenbuteral to Dianabol to ensure a loyal, if temporary, following, this particular contamination is unintentional, since the amounts being found in the athletes' urine samples are too low to be explained by intentional adulteration.
Despite the claims by the IOC and the IAAF that massive levels of nandrolone were found in the urine samples of Lindford Christie and CJ Hunter, even their test results could be generated by as little as 120 micrograms of andro, which is 1000 times less than the minimum effective dose.
And, since so many companies rely on common suppliers for their raw ingredients, even companies that don't make any andro products have been struck by contamination problems.
The controlling sport organizations have been informed routinely by their member federations of the specific companies that have generated known positive tests, yet they haven't passed this information on to their membership. Of course, the drug testing czars feel comfortable with their abdication of responsibility, because, after all, they covered their asses by claiming that supplements are unnecessary! (See earlier comments by Arne Lundquist.)
But wait! What's this? In a startling about face, Arne Lundquist is now acknowledging the contamination problem! He's states, "Athletes may have ingested nandrolone unwittingly. Spiked food supplements are apparently responsible for the recent flood of positive tests. These food supplements may not have been properly labeled." Hallelujah, is what the athletes must have thought! Now surely the suspensions will be overturned and we can get on with our careers!
But wait, Arne, now solid in his resolve to be fluid, has commissioned a study to investigate this situation further before any action is taken. The results are not expected to be in for another two years, a lifetime for most competitive athletes! These actions by the IAAF's Medical Commissioner appear, at first glance, to be inexplicable.
Lundquist has raised fears in the IAAF's general membership that drug suspensions can now be successfully challenged in court. So why are the interests of the Medical Commissioners so different from the interests of the sport in general? Why not reinstate the affected athletes immediately in the interest of justice and avoid costly litigation? If they've been told which five supplement companies out of the 100 or so doing business have caused the problems, why haven't they informed everyone, to protect the athletes, the IOC and the IAAF, and of course to clear the names of the innocent supplement manufacturers?
Knowing these people and the history of this sport as I do, I have looked low and lower for the answer, but, it seems that no matter how cynical I become, these folks seem to travel a yard beneath even my meager expectations of ethical behavior. It appears that some of these medical commissioners may be involved in an appalling conflict of interest!
The Plot Thickens
In 1998, Vitabiotics, a supplement manufacturer in England, received a large cash infusion to expand to a 50,000 square foot facility. (Such a facility can generate production of 150 million dollars worth of supplements per year!) Coincidental to this cash infusion into a company that had remained virtually dormant since 1971 was the appointment of a new chairman of the company, Arnold Beckett, a former IOC Medical Commissioner.
The new strategy of the company is that it can guarantee that its product line can pass even the most stringent testing for banned supplements. Now the involvement of Arnold Beckett by himself in this company is no proof of wrongdoing. Indeed, Beckett resigned from the IOC Medical Commission, claiming he was appalled by the hypocrisy he saw. The question is, who else is involved in this company?
Several athletes have come to me, claiming that they were assured that current members of the IOC Medical Commission are involved in this project, and that actual IOC labs have tested and passed these supplements. They also passed on the names of two IOC Medical Commissioners and one former head of a prominent country's track and field federation. Naturally, these athletes wanted to get their supplements from this company to protect themselves!
If this is true, the resultant conflict gives a credible explanation for recent events. Anyone involved in Vitabiotics can clearly benefit from the rash of positives! The tarring of all other supplement companies with the brush of contamination undermines the competition. The continuing woes of the positive athletes will soon have the company operating at capacity.
There's another, more serious conflict of interest here. If any athlete taking these products should test positive for anything, they could turn around and blame a company for their positive test. I've been advised by these athletes that this is precisely what they intend to do if they run into a problem. The damage this could do to sales might give pause to the testers if anything untoward showed up on the test of a customer!
Of course, if these allegations aren't true, the IOC Medical Commission should put out an immediate statement clarifying that they are not involved, and employees of the company should be warned not to use the names of lab officials, publicly or privately, in the promotion of their products!
But, if the allegations are true, those involved should resign immediately!
Charlie Francis is the author of several books, among them "Speed Trap", "The Charlie Francis Training System", and "Training for Speed". The first two are available at AdvancementofSports.com/product.htm while "Training for Speed" is available through Amazon.com.