The BALCO Scandal is a scandal involving the use of banned, performance enhancing substances by professional athletes.The Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative was a San francisco Bay area business accused of supplying steriods to Major league baseball players. The incident surrounds a 2002 US Federal government investigation of the laboratory.
BALCO was started by Victor Conte as a sport supplement company. Conte used his knowledge of nutrition, largely self taught, to devise a system of testing athletes for mineral deficiencies in order to maintain a perfect balance of minerals in the body. BALCO did not achieve professional success until the summer of 1996 with the addition of NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski to its clients. From there Conte began acquiring additional high-profile athletes with his special concoction of undetectable drugs, manufactured by Illinois chemist Patrick Arnold and distributed by personal trainer Greg anderson.
Conte, Arnold and Anderson continued selling these substances undetected from 1988 until 2002 when the official federal investigation of BALCO began. Parallel with this investigation, the USADA began its own covert investigation of Conte and his operation. In the summer of 2003 USADA investigators received a syringe with trace amounts of a mysterious substance. The anonymous tipster was Trevor graham sprint coach to Marion Jones and Tim Montegomery. Threw these investigations they found a substance named THG which was an anabolic steriod they test 550 athletes and 20 tested postive for this substance that were assiocated with the BALCO company. The investigation has brought down many for athletes know most notably Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi Marion Jones and Bill Romanowski and is still an on going investigation.
