Could Bonds be next after Jones?

LOS ANGELES – Sprint queen Marion Jones tumbled from her pedestal with a resounding, if not surprising, crash on Friday.

Now US sports fans wonder, could home run king Barry Bonds be next? Jones became the face of a sport as she pursued an unprecedented five gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she eventually won three golds and two bronze. Once held up as a role model of a strong, smart, modern woman, Jones ended years of whispers on Friday when she pled guilty to lying to a federal agent about her use of illicit performance enhancing drugs.She became the biggest fish so far to be caught in the net of the BALCO scandal, the criminal steroid-distribution probe of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.But one Giant catch could remain, as San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who this year seized Major League Baseball’s coveted all-time home run record, apparently remains the target of federal investigators.Like Jones, Bonds was one of many star athletes to testify before a grand jury investigating BALCO, a purported vitamin firm fingered by authorities as the source of the designer steroid THG.Like Jones, Bonds has denied ever knowingly using steroids – both saying that they were told one product from BALCO, “the clear” was flaxseed oil.That product was, in fact, THG.On Friday, a tearful Jones admitted she had used it prior to and after the 2000 Summer Olympics.She admitted that by the time authorities questioned her in November of 2003, she realised it was an illegal drug, and that she lied to them when she denied using it.It took US authorities almost four years to get that confession from Jones, and they appear determined to continue their pursuit of Bonds.Greg Anderson, Bonds’ personal trainer and one of five men convicted of illegal steroid distribution in the BALCO case, remains in custody for refusing to answer questions by a grand jury reportedly investigating Bonds for perjury and tax evasion.Bonds’ attorney Mike Rains says prosecutors would have charged Bonds by now if they had a legitimate case.In addition, Rains says he has evidence of government misconduct that he plans to allege if the case against his client is pursued.Whatever the outcome for Bonds, his case and that of Jones demonstrate the power of the new alliance between sports anti-doping efforts and government law enforcement.”BALCO has been a turning point in the fight against doping in sport, but it will not end here,” USOC Chief Executive Officer Jim Scherr noted after Jones entered her guilty plea in court.”If there are other athletes, coaches, trainers or agents – from any segment of sport – who are complicit in this matter, they too will be held accountable for their actions.”Indeed in the United States Trevor Graham, the athletics coach who sparked the BALCO probe with an anonymous tip to the US Anti-Doping Agency, is due to go on trial next month on a charge of lying to investigators.Graham, who has coached drug-tainted athletes such as Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery and Jones, denied three counts of making false statements to Internal Revenue Service investigators probing the scandal.Outside the United States, Operation Puerto erupted in May 2006, when Spanish police raided the premises of Spanish sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and found bags of blood, banned substances and names of 200 athletes, including 60 cyclists.”In this new era of cooperation between legal authorities and anti-doping agencies, it is no longer a question of if’ you will be caught, but rather when’ and how severe the consequences will be,” Scherr said.For all sports, in which the faith of fans is a key to keeping the sponsorship dollars flowing, the stakes are high.With the 2008 Olympics fast approaching, sports chiefs are keen to make sure fans won’t wake up one day to find the heroes they cheered in Beijing are really villains.”Under no circumstance will doping ever be tolerated by the United States Olympic Committee,” Scherr said.”We are committed to making certain the team we take to the 2008 Beijing Games is clean.”Nampa-AFPOnce held up as a role model of a strong, smart, modern woman, Jones ended years of whispers on Friday when she pled guilty to lying to a federal agent about her use of illicit performance enhancing drugs.She became the biggest fish so far to be caught in the net of the BALCO scandal, the criminal steroid-distribution probe of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.But one Giant catch could remain, as San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who this year seized Major League Baseball’s coveted all-time home run record, apparently remains the target of federal investigators.Like Jones, Bonds was one of many star athletes to testify before a grand jury investigating BALCO, a purported vitamin firm fingered by authorities as the source of the designer steroid THG.Like Jones, Bonds has denied ever knowingly using steroids – both saying that they were told one product from BALCO, “the clear” was flaxseed oil.That product was, in fact, THG.On Friday, a tearful Jones admitted she had used it prior to and after the 2000 Summer Olympics.She admitted that by the time authorities questioned her in November of 2003, she realised it was an illegal drug, and that she lied to them when she denied using it.It took US authorities almost four years to get that confession from Jones, and they appear determined to continue their pursuit of Bonds.Greg Anderson, Bonds’ personal trainer and one of five men convicted of illegal steroid distribution in the BALCO case, remains in custody for refusing to answer questions by a grand jury reportedly investigating Bonds for perjury and tax evasion.Bonds’ attorney Mike Rains says prosecutors would have charged Bonds by now if they had a legitimate case.In addition, Rains says he has evidence of government misconduct that he plans to allege if the case against his client is pursued.Whatever the outcome for Bonds, his case and that of Jones demonstrate the power of the new alliance between sports anti-doping efforts and government law enforcement.”BALCO has been a turning point in the fight against doping in sport, but it will not end here,” USOC Chief Executive Officer Jim Scherr noted after Jones entered her guilty plea in court.”If there are other athletes, coaches, trainers or agents – from any segment of sport – who are complicit in this matter, they too will be held accountable for their actions.”Indeed in the United States Trevor Graham, the athletics coach who sparked the BALCO probe with an anonymous tip to the US Anti-Doping Agency, is due to go on trial next month on a charge of lying to investigators.Graham, who has coached drug-tainted athletes such as Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery and Jones, denied three counts of making false statements to Internal Revenue Service investigators probing the scandal.Outside the United States, Operation Puerto erupted in May 2006, when Spanish police raided the premises of Spanish sports doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and found bags of blood, banned substances and names of 200 athletes, including 60 cyclists.”In this new era of cooperation between legal authorities and anti-doping agencies, it is no longer a question of if’ you will be caught, but rather when’ and how severe the consequences will be,” Scherr said.For all sports, in which the faith of fans is a key to keeping the sponsorship dollars flowing, the stakes are high.With the 2008 Olympics fast approaching, sports chiefs are keen to make sure fans won’t wake up one day to find the heroes they cheered in Beijing are really villains.”Under no circumstance will doping ever be tolerated by the United States Olympic Committee,” Scherr said.”We are committed to making certain the team we take to the 2008 Beijing Games is clean.”Nampa-AFP