DRUG SCANDAL PUTS SPORTS AT CROSSROADS

The smoking gun was a dripping syringe, and sports as we know them may never
be the same.

The syringe, sent to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) by an anonymous
track-and-field coach, led to an investigation into a brand- new designer
steroid.

The big question is where it will lead. Already, there are very real
questions about the integrity of the Olympics, the World Series and several
of the greatest single-season performances in the history of Major League
Baseball. Oh, and the NFL is just beginning its own investigation.

"What we're looking at here is the flower in the bud stage," said Charles
Yesalis, a Penn State professor and nationally recognized expert on
performance-enhancing substances. "It might be a dead blossom, but I think a
lot of people are feeling very nervous right now."

It sounds melodramatic, but this could be fair play's last stand. The sheer
breathtaking science in this case makes it a sort of crossroads in the
battle against cheating.

The new drug is called THG (for tetrahydrogestrinone), a form of steroid
that has been manipulated at the molecular level by chemists to escape
detection by known blood and urine tests.

It took the USADA experts weeks to figure out a way to test for THG after
the syringe arrived, and that was with access to a sample of the stuff. So,
you have to wonder, what else is out there that authorities don't know
about?

Investigators are going after the users and the alleged maker of THG.
Already, there are reports of world-class track-and-field stars turning up
positive in new tests of existing urine samples. This thing could have a
profound impact on the 2004 Olympics, with American medal hopefuls missing
the Games because of suspensions. Yesterday, the International Association
of Athletic Federations said it would retest samples from the
track-and-field world championships in August. That could lead to even more
suspensions.

The NFL says it will add THG to its list of banned substances and test for
it in the future. The league hadn't decided whether to run new tests on
urine samples.

Major League Baseball, as usual, doesn't seem to want to know too much.
Baseball says it won't retest existing samples.

The man who is being investigated as the source of THG is Victor Conte, who
runs the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). Based in Burlingame,
Calif., just south of San Francisco, BALCO has a long list of clients for
its legitimate nutrition and supplement products.

That list includes Barry Bonds and Bill Romanowski, Marion Jones and Tim
Montgomery. BALCO's approach is to take blood and urine samples, analyze
them, then provide supplements and dietary suggestions based on the
athlete's personal needs.

Bonds and New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi have confirmed receiving
subpoenas to appear before a grand jury investigating BALCO. There are
reports that as many as 40 elite athletes, including Jones, have been called
to testify.

The subpoenas don't mean the athletes have done anything wrong, or that
they're being investigated. They are witnesses, nothing more.

But the reality is that baseball's record-shattering power surge of recent
years has taken place under a very reasonable suspicion. There was the
androstenedione in Mark McGwire's locker, and the barely whispered talk that
Sammy Sosa and Bonds have used shortcuts to build their massive upper
bodies.

And now Conte, a man Bonds has credited in interviews with helping him
increase his strength, turns up at the center of what could be the biggest
drug scandal in the history of organized sport.

At first, this seems like a breakthrough that could lead, finally, to an end
to cheating in all sports. Look closer, and it makes you wonder if it isn't
time to accept that the problem is unsolvable, stop testing, and move on.

That thought has occurred to Yesalis, who has spent 24 years studying this
subject and advocating for better legislation and testing.

"The idea of legalizing drugs bothers the hell out of me. It goes totally
against my nature," he said. "But I'm getting pretty close to reaching that
conclusion when it comes to sports."

It's a cat-and-mouse game where the mice are bigger, faster, smarter and
have much more financial incentive than the cats. It took tremendous luck
and amazing skill to identify THG, but its replacement may already be out
there, in wide circulation.

There is another possibility, and it's what Yesalis and USADA chief Terry
Madden are hoping for. Maybe, by cracking the THG code, the cats have
finally shown the mice that, sooner or later, they will get caught.

"If this thing really explodes," Yesalis said, "things could get so dirty
and so disgusting that maybe, just maybe, we'll have the stomach to get
serious about this."

It seems like a terrible thing to root for. The alternative, surrendering to
the sort of people who filled that syringe, is much, much worse.

Phil Sheridan is a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.