NEW YORK, USA -- Track and field superstar Marion Jones used banned
performance enhancing substances, laboratory chief Victor Conte alleged in
an American TV interview aired on Friday night.
Conte, under Grand Jury investigation for peddling drugs, told ABC's 20/20
that he watched as Jones injected herself with human growth hormone in the
build up to the Sydney Olympics.
Conte also claimed that he supplied banned drugs to Jones' partner Tim
Montgomery, but stopped short of implicating baseball hero Barry Bonds.
Jones, who won three gold medals at the Sydney Games, has always strenously
denied the allegations and is threatening legal action.
"I have instructed my lawyers to explore a defamation lawsuit against Victor
Conte," she said on Friday.
[censored] Pound, the head of WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, said on Friday
that the American sprinter should be stripped of the five medals that she
won at the Sydney Games if the allegations are proven.
Whether the medals can be revoked could depend on an interpretation of the
IOC's rule on statute of limitations.
Under the IOC charter, Olympic decisions can be challenged within three
years of the games' closing ceremony. The Sydney Olympics ended more than
four years ago, on Oct. 1, 2000.
But Pound said that rule may not apply, because there was no actual decision
in this case.
"We will find a way to deal with that," Pound said. "It's arguable there was
no decision taken, just a list of results. So you're not challenging a
decision."
Conte was indicted in February by the grand jury investigating the Bay Area
Laboratory Co-Operative. Conte, BALCO vice president James Valente, Bonds'
personal trainer Greg Anderson and track coach Remi Korchemny all have
pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Conte said that he gave drugs to Anderson, but had no knowledge of what
become of the substances after that. He said Anderson could've given them to
Bonds, but had no information whether they were passed on to the San
Francisco Giants slugger.
Conte said he started supplying Jones with doping substances in the weeks
leading up to the 2000 Olympics and watched as she injected herself with
human growth hormone.
Accountable
"I think she made her decision and she's going to have to be accountable to
the consequences of her decision," Conte told ABC. "If she said she didn't
use drugs, then she lied."
The fact that Jones has never failed a drug test came as no to surprise to
Conte, who developed chemical treatments that for a long time were
undetectable by outdated testing.
He smiled when he was shown a letter sent to Montgomery, informing the track
star that he passed a drug test during the time Conte said he was using
illegal substances.
"There are thousands of those letters that athletes have, and I'm sure they
chuckle every time they get them," Conte said on "20/20."
Conte said he provided various drugs to Jones, Montgomery and American
female sprinter Kelli White and designed doping regimens that included the
previously undetectable steroid THG, the endurance-enhancing hormone EPO,
human growth hormone and insulin.
He also said that he gave substances to Oakland Raiders players Bill
Romanowski, Barret Robbins, Chris Cooper, and Dana Stubblefield.
White, a sprinter who forfeited two world titles and accepted a two-year
ban, was the only athlete interviewed on the "20/20" show.
"He made me believe that if I followed a certain protocol of supplements and
drugs that I could become No. 1 in the world," White said of Conte. "I felt
that so many people were doing it that I would just become one of the
others."
Once Conte and his clients were exposed, he said he started to experience
remorse.
"It was all my fault," he said. "They had listened and trusted me and I was
the one that was guiding them."