Thursday, October 30, 2003
Jacobs, Toth answer questions
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- Two U.S. track and field champions, 1,500-meter runner Regina Jacobs and shot putter Kevin Toth, were among the first group of athletes to testify to a grand jury probing a nutritional supplements lab.
Jacobs and Toth were among four track and field athletes who
appeared before the federal panel on Thursday. Both Jacobs and Toth
have been customers of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or
BALCO, which is the target of the probe.
Dozens of other athletes, including baseball's Barry Bonds and
Jason Giambi and boxer Shane Mosley, have been subpoenaed in the
case.
An appearance before the grand jury, or being subpoenaed to
testify, does not imply any of the athletes is a target of the
probe. Federal officials have refused to discuss the scope of the
grand jury or its secret proceedings.
But a source familiar with Thursday's daylong proceeding said
the athletes were asked whether they had taken the newly discovered
designer steroid THG or the endurance-boosting hormone EPO.
The source, who requested anonymity, said the athletes were
asked whether they had obtained THG or EPO from BALCO. An attorney
for Victor Conte, BALCO's founder, has said his client is the
target of the grand jury probe and is innocent of any wrongdoing.
The source also said the athletes were asked whether they had
knowingly purchased steroids from BALCO, or whether they thought
they were buying legal nutritional supplements.
"Did you meet Conte?" the source said the athletes were asked.
"Did he tell you to be quiet?"
Jacobs and Toth were among four U.S. athletes who tested
positive for THG at the U.S. track and field championships in June
at Stanford, according to another source close to the investigation
who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of
anonymity.
Jacobs and her attorney, Douglas Schwartz, refused to comment
Thursday when asked outside the grand jury room whether she had
tested positive for THG at that meet. Jacobs, 40, won her 12th
national outdoor title in the 1,500 at Stanford.
"Regina was here. She did nothing wrong. She left the grand
jury to carry on," Schwartz said after Jacobs had completed her
afternoon testimony. "I really feel sorry for these athletes,
because they've really become the victims here."
Toth, who has the longest throw in the world this year and won
his first national title in June, would not comment after his grand
jury appearance.
BALCO was raided by the Internal Revenue Service and local drug
agents in September. Conte also has been accused by the U.S.
Anti-Doping Agency of supplying athletes with the designer steroid
tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG.
Conte also was fingered by British sprinter Dwain Chambers, who
admits he tested positive for THG during an out-of-competition test
Aug. 1 in Germany. Chambers said through an attorney that he was
assured by Conte the supplements he was given were within
international rules.
Authorities in track and field, and other sports, have begun
retesting samples for THG since the discovery of the previously
undetectable steroid. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on
Tuesday declared THG an illegal drug.
EPO, or erythropoietin, boosts endurance by stimulating the
production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells in the body. A banned
substance, EPO is considered among the most abused drugs in sports.
