The world's fastest man, Tim Montgomery, appeared on Thursday before a grand jury investigating a lab that supplies some top athletes with nutritional supplements.
Federal officials have refused to discuss the scope of the grand jury's proceedings. Two sources familiar with the probe said this week that the grand jury is focusing on drug use by athletes as well as possible tax evasion by the lab, BALCO.
Montgomery, the world record-holder at 100m, was among the latest track and field star to appear before the panel. US sprinter Chryste Gaines, a 1996 Olympic relay gold medalist, also went before the grand jury Thursday, and US shot putter Kevin Toth and 1,500m runner Regina Jacobs were among those who testified last week.
Dozens of other athletes, including Major League Baseball's Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, boxer Shane Mosley and several NFL players, have also been subpoenaed.
All have been customers of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. An attorney for BALCO founder Victor Conte has said his client is the target of the grand-jury probe.
Montgomery, 28, who set the world record of 9.78 seconds last year and is the boyfriend of Olympic sprinting champion Marion Jones, did not comment Thursday. His agent, Charlie Wells, also was there and declined to comment.
Gaines, 33, who ran the two fastest 100m times of her career in the last few months, also declined to comment after her afternoon appearance.
An appearance before the grand jury, or being subpoenaed to testify, does not mean an athlete is a target of the probe.
BALCO also is at the center of an investigation by anti-doping agencies into the newly discovered steroid THG. An unidentified coach who turned in a syringe containing THG said he got the substance from Conte, a charge he denies.
At least five athletes already have tested positive for THG, including Jacobs, Toth and European sprinter Dwain Chambers.
One of the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said the grand jury is "looking at at least five different drugs -- steroids, hormones, THG, modafinil, EPO."
Conte declined an e-mail request for comment Thursday.
Douglas Schwartz, an attorney representing Jacobs, Gaines and other athletes subpoenaed, said the athletes are not targets of the probe.
"The Department of Justice policy is that targets of a grand jury do not receive subpoenas. If you receive a grand jury subpoena then, at least at that time, you are not a target," he said.
Schwartz also contended athletes did not break any laws if they used THG. The US Food and Drug Administration declared THG an illegal drug last month. Prosecutors and lawyers disagree whether it was illegal before then.
"I think you will find any athlete that used THG did so without knowledge of what it was," Schwartz said. "But with or without that knowledge, it is not a controlled substance."
Also Thursday,reporters learned that Chambers' backup urine sample confirmed a positive test for THG. The sample was analyzed earlier this week at the anti-doping lab at UCLA, according to a track official with direct knowledge of the result who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Chambers, the European 100m champion, now faces the possibility of a two-year ban.
The IAAF wouldn't comment on Thursday. Chambers' lawyer, Graham Shear, said, "I've heard absolutely nothing."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier