Conte out of prison and back in business, By: James Christie
April 28, 2007
The infamous Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative drug scandal may have ruined the lives of some athletes and coaches, but the biggest fish is back swimming.
Victor Conte, the former bass player turned designer steroid developer at his BALCO, has been out of prison for a year after serving four months for illegal steroid distribution. He's back producing a lucrative line of nutritional supplements for athletes, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury.
Conte began in the supplement business 20 years ago with a company called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning. He's dispensed with the infamous BALCO handle.
The SNAC website has a gallery that features photos of home-run slugger Barry Bonds, his trainer, Greg Anderson, a who's who of bodybuilders and track and field athletes Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones and C.J. Hunter. The site says they've been clients for nutritional consultation and supplements. Conte's company is pulling in about $300,000 (all currency U.S.) a month.
Not everyone else is doing so well.
Montgomery's career ended after the United States Anti-Doping Agency ruled there was enough evidence coming out of the federal BALCO investigation to conclude he was a drug cheat. He was suspended, then lost his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and saw all his performances, including a one-time world record of 9.78 seconds for the 100 metres, expunged.
Britain's top sprinter, Dwain Chambers, was nailed for THG (tetrahydrogestrinone) use and suspended. His coach, Remi Korchemny, pleaded guilty to distributing steroids and was given a year's probation, but had to agree to quit coaching.
Bonds's trainer, Anderson, likewise pleaded guilty to steroids distribution and is now in prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating whether Bonds committed perjury when he testified that he unknowingly took steroids.
Conte's main product these days is a zinc and magnesium-based powder called ZMA that's a staple for weightlifters who use it to repair damaged tissue and to sleep better. It's legal, but that doesn't mean it's been approved by the sports establishment.
Conte's product is not on the National Football League's approved supplements list, the newspaper report says, and clubs are precluded from officially handing out ZMA.
For anti-doping authorities, Conte and BALCO forever will remain synonymous with high-tech cheating. He may have paid a prescribed penalty, but he's not forgiven.
"I certainly am not going to glamorize Victor Conte," USADA chief Travis Tygart told the Mercury. "In the past, he has done some horrible things."
Conte shrugs off moral denunciation. He says his development of drugs that could elude detection by the technology earlier this decade was simply "levelling the playing field" in a world already rife with cheaters.
To Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte may as well have been pushing cocaine or heroin.
"You are talking about totally illegal drug trafficking, you are talking about using drugs in violation of federal law," Wadler said. "This is not philanthropy and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing."
Conte isn't apologetic. Prison life wasn't a crippling hardship. He says he taught music to fellow prisoners and organized a track team at the minimum security Taft Correctional Institution.
"My guys always won," he said.
