Ex-Cyclist Thomas Indicted In Federal Steroid Probe

December 15, 2006

Former elite cyclist Tammy Thomas was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on charges of hindering the government's steroid investigation.

Thomas, 36, is accused of three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury investigating a steroid ring that spanned many sports.

The indictment adds cycling, a sport often associated with doping, to a probe that has exposed steroid use in professional baseball, football and track and field.

Thomas was banned for life in August 2002 after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug norbolethone, which was detected in her urine samples.

The indictment accuses Thomas of lying when she testified she never used performance-enhancing drugs. She also is said to have lied when she testified that she did not get illegal drugs from chemist Patrick Arnold, who was convicted in the scandal earlier this year and is serving a three-month sentence in a West Virginia federal prison.