Interesting note on USADA testing

shaunster101 · Jun 3, 2012

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/athletics/7403158.stm

Victor Conte, May 2008

In summary, it's my opinion that more than fifty percent of the drug tests performed each year should be during the off season or the fourth quarter. This is when the track athletes are duckin' and divin' and using anabolic steroids and other drugs. Let me provide some rather startling information for your consideration. If you check the testing statistics on the USADA website, you will find that the number of out-of-competition drug tests performed during each quarter of 2007 are as follows: in the first quarter there were 1208, second quarter 1295, third quarter 1141 and in the fourth quarter there were only 642.

In late 2003 I advised USADA about the importance of random testing during the fourth quarter of the year. They did initially seem to follow my advice because they increased the number of fourth-quarter tests in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

However, they failed to continue this practice in 2007. Why would USADA decide to perform only 15% of their annual out-of-competition tests during the fourth quarter? Let's not forget that this is the off season before the upcoming summer Olympic Games. This is equivalent to a fisherman knowing that the fish are ready to bite and then consciously deciding that it is time to reel in his line and hook, lean his fishing pole up against a tree and take a nap.
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Emeritus · Jun 3, 2012

Im all for in and out of competition testing by USADA.

Just get everyone on board with random blood and urine tests whether by USADA or VADA and then push for all year round testing.

oibighead · Jun 3, 2012

Any figures for 2010 onwards?

Also, not sure how applicable this is for boxing, as it isnt a quarterly sport, there isnt an off season

Also maybe people are less likely to want to pay USADA when the athletes are not competing in their respective sports. But interesting none the less

shaunster101 · Jun 3, 2012

Emeritus said: ↑

Im all for in and out of competition testing by USADA.

Just get everyone on board with random blood and urine tests whether by USADA or VADA and then push for all year round testing.
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I agree.

The biggest loophole in combat sports at the moment is the use of synthetic testosterone, often in conjunction with a therapeutic use exemption. As of right now I don't think there is enough disclosure around these issues.

We need a body will will conduct year round CIR testing and is the least susceptible to outside pressure or corruption. As this is new in boxing this is going to take time to develop and become clear. But the way to do it is by asking these questions and demanding transparency.

I also cannot see how year round testing would work in a sport like boxing.

oibighead said: ↑

Any figures for 2010 onwards?

Also, not sure how applicable this is for boxing, as it isnt a quarterly sport, there isnt an off season

Also maybe people are less likely to want to pay USADA when the athletes are not competing in their respective sports. But interesting none the less
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I'm sure the figures are available, but this was taken from a 2008 article.

My point was more that USADA has previously shown an inexplicable leniency to it's athlete's by loosening testing during the period they are most likely to be cheating.

Just seems odd to me. I understand that USADA must be under immense pressure, as you can imagine the scandal if they was to clamp down hard during the most notorious doping window and prevent a lot of top name athletes representing the US at the games. But that is exactly what their job is, and these actions suggest a bowing to external pressure from their clients (presumably the United States Olympic Committee) not to make a scene.

Bazt3k · Jun 3, 2012

The more testing the better. I want to see an even playing field.

Steroid use has gotten a little out of hand lately... If urine testing is catching people imagine how many people would be caught by blood testing

igor_otsky · Jun 3, 2012

Year round testing is the way. not just 3 months before a ****ing fight. We've been discussing this **** since the birth of the shaunster.

shaunster101 · Jun 3, 2012

Bazt3k said: ↑

The more testing the better. I want to see an even playing field.

Steroid use has gotten a little out of hand lately... If urine testing is catching people imagine how many people would be caught by blood testing
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Well, urine is the way of catching people using synthetic testosterone, which is the modus operandi of the modern day combat sports cheat.

Explained pretty well here:

http://runswimthrowcheat.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/boxings-latest-doping-scandal.html

Boxing’s latest doping scandal

When it comes to drug testing, professional boxing is essentially unregulated. There are usually tests at each fight and sometimes before; the details can form part of the negotiating process. But there is no out of competition testing. Given the length of time between many fights (sometimes as long as six months) it is hard to believe that the sport is drug free.

The most recent scandal involves US boxer Lamont Petersen. Peterson controversially beat the British boxer Amir Khan to win the WBA and IBF light welterweight titles in December 2011. As part of the rematch scheduled this month the Peterson camp suggested the two fighters agree to voluntary drug testing. Peterson has just failed his test and the fight has been cancelled. The Shakespearean phrase “hoist with his own petard” springs to mind.

The nature of this failed drug testing is intriguing. Let’s leave aside the fact that you have to work quite hard to fail a drug test that you initiated and which you know could only be taken in a short time window. Or the irony that one of the chief supporters of the drug-testing agency used – VADA3 – is Victor Conte, the BALCO chief who supplied the drugs that UK sprinter Dwain Chambers was caught using. What about the science?

Peterson tested positive for “synthetic” testosterone, an anabolic steroid. This is the same compound that Floyd Landis - the disgraced Tour de France winner – was banned for.

Why testosterone? Well testosterone is the human anabolic steroid. Although it is not the optimum steroid to take for performance, athletes use it in the hope that it can’t be distinguished from natural testosterone in a doping test.

Why synthetic? Purifying natural testosterone from human or other animals would be extortionately expensive (in the book I note the heroic attempts in the 1930s to isolate testosterone; the starting materials varied from 20 kg of bulls’ testicles to 15,000 litres of German policemen’s urine). Nowadays a steroid from soya beans called Diosgenin can be purified cheaply in large quantities – this can then readily be turned into testosterone in a chemistry laboratory.

The problem for Peterson is that – even though its molecular structure and muscle building activity is identical to the testosterone we produce in our own bodies – the synthetic version contains a clue as to its specific plant origin. This clue is the carbon isotope ratio (CIR). Carbon is the atom that is the backbone for all the molecules in our bodies. Mostly it has a mass of 12 (C12). But a small percentage of carbon atoms are heavier, with a mass of 13. (C13). We get all our carbon from the food we eat. So the ratio in our body is the average of all the plants we have eaten (either directly or via the plants that the animals we eat have themselves eaten). The normal human ratio is 98.9% C12 and 1.1% C13. But soya beans have a slightly different ratio of 99.0% C12 to 1.0% C13.

A machine called an isotope ratio mass spectrometer can measure this ratio in the testosterone from an athlete’s urine sample. Hence the presence of the banned synthetic testosterone can be detected over and above the body’s normal testosterone. A CIR test is expensive and is only done by WADA for confirmation when testers are already suspicious of a sample (as was the case for Floyd Landis4). But VADA pride themselves on doing this test on all samples. This is the test that tripped Peterson up.

Could Peterson have avoided being caught by the test? Yes, if he paid someone to make testosterone from a human or animal starting material. But this would be extortionately expensive. There is one other possibility. As it is the presence of two different carbon ratios that is the clue to the doping, changing your diet might fool the test. First the good news I’ve passed the test; now the bad news, I had to eat only soya beans for the three months before……..

1. Upton Park is the current home of West Ham football club who won the original bid to take over the Olympic Stadium. In my fantasy alternative universe with a two-year time lapse the fight could have been the first post Olympic event in this stadium.

2. In contrast Olympic boxing (the 3 round version) has to obey all the WADA drug testing rules.

3. VADA uses WADA approved laboratories so the test result itself is robust

4. Click here for a nice link to the Landis case.
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iceman71 · Jun 3, 2012

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Hermit · Jun 3, 2012

Chemists Outrun Laws in War on Synthetic Drugs

While this is about drugs to get high on I would imagine much of it applies to anabolic steroids.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/synthetic-drug-war/

Just pasting the beginning of the article here. Follow link for more.

The war on drugs has a new front, and so far it appears to be a losing one.

Synthetic mimics of marijuana, dissociative drugs and stimulants such as the bath salts allegedly consumed by Randy Eugene, the Florida man shot after a horrific face-eating assault are growing in popularity and hard to control. Every time a compound is banned, overseas chemists synthesize a new version tweaked just enough to evade a laws letter.

Its a giant game of chemical Whack-a-Mole.

Manufacturers turn these things around so quickly. One week youll have a product with compound X, the next week its compound Y, said forensic toxicologist Kevin Shanks of AIT Laboratories, an Indiana-based chemical testing company.

Its fascinating how fast it can occur, and its fascinating to see the minute changes in chemical structure theyll come up with. Its similar, but its different, Shanks continued.

Whipdatass · Jun 3, 2012

You mother****ers have lost it, lmao. Boxing does not need Conte or his opinion.

caneman · Jun 3, 2012

Whipdatass said: ↑

You mother****ers have lost it, lmao. Boxing does not need Conte or his opinion.
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He only said USADA should be more active during their one lazy quarter.

Boxing Fanatic · Jun 3, 2012

its all about money for usada. u pay them, they keep your positive test results a secret.

like farmboxer says, floyd has the judges, his own referee, his location. he has all the advantages in his favor. y because he pays them all. it is his event

Bazooka · Jun 3, 2012

caneman said: ↑

He only said USADA should be more active during their one lazy quarter.
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Dont even waste your breathe talking to that trick, of course we need someone like Conte, he knows how the system works he has helped countless athletes beat the test, since he was busted, its nice to have him working on the flip side of things.

if there is something wrong or outdated its always good to have someone who knows the ins and outs of these drugs how they work etc...

Hermit · Jun 3, 2012

Bazooka said: ↑

Dont even waste your breathe talking to that trick, of course we need someone like Conte, he knows how the system works he has helped countless athletes beat the test, since he was busted, its nice to have him working on the flip side of things.

if there is something wrong or outdated its always good to have someone who knows the ins and outs of these drugs how they work etc...
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Kinda like black hats and white hats in computer security. The best are the guys that turned from crime after being caught. It was 'their job' and many times, these guys were simply addicted to the thrill of it. That is why it is still rampant. You need the guys that know the system best on your side. Trust them fully? Never. You know that lure will always be there for them.

turbotime · Jun 3, 2012

Conte's a liar though.

But yes year round testing is really the best way to do it.

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