Performance Enhancing Drugs

Roger Clemens is expected to meet one-on-one with Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, today at 10:30 a.m. to discuss performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens apparently contacted some members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and offered to meet with them privately, a spokeswoman for Cummings said. Cummings, who is co-founder and chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Drug Policy, accepted the offer. He hopes to speak to Clemens about the effect performance-enhancing-drug use in baseball has on youth and to discuss the Maryland-based, anti-steroid initiative "Powered By ME!"

This spring, baseball is reeling from yet another ugly performance-enhancing drugs scandal. As fresh as the cut grass on the back fields of spring training complexes in Florida and Arizona are the reports that several major leaguers obtained PEDs from a Miami-area clinic named Biogenesis. The now-defunct anti-aging clinic is under investigation by Major League Baseball, but two separate reports have already linked a dozen names to the clinic. Among those linked is Orioles infielder Danny Valencia.

BARCELONA, Spain -- U.S. sprinter Gwen Torrence apparently wasn't referring to her gold-medalist teammate, Gail Devers, when she claimed that three of the women in yesterday's Olympic 100-meter final had been using performance-enhancing drugs.But Devers' coach, Bob Kersee, became incensed upon learning of the charge from a reporter's question at a post-race news conference. He broke off his own interview in an adjoining room and burst into the conference area unannounced.Without even pausing to grab a microphone, Kersee told reporters: "Gail Devers has been drug-tested almost as much as my wife, Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Twelve years after his first appearance in the Super Bowl was marred by questions about his legal problems in Atlanta, Ray Lewis was back on that stage Tuesday, again being asked to defend his integrity and reputation. Just hours after a Sports Illustrated story surfaced that alleged that Lewis used a banned substance to accelerate his return from a torn triceps injury earlier this season, the Ravens linebacker emphatically denied using performance-enhancing drugs in an hour-long session with reporters at Super Bowl XLVII media day at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Alex Rodriguez denied using performance-enhancing drugs, telling CBS' 60 Minutes in an interview aired last night that he has never felt as if he needed them to compete. The New York Yankees slugger also said he isn't sure he's worth his record contract and described being "white like a ghost" when news of his opting out of his deal with the team broke during Game 4 of the World Series. Rodriguez's interview was aired just three days after George Mitchell's report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball was released.

Brian McNamee's lawyers said yesterday that they gave federal prosecutors physical evidence backing the personal trainer's allegation that Roger Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs. "I think this is a significant point in the case. We believe that this is significant corroboration," said McNamee's lead lawyer, Earl Ward. McNamee's side turned over syringes with Clemens' blood to Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Jeff Novitzky in early January, a person familiar with the evidence said, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON -- One day after the indictment of home run king Barry Bonds, an Illinois congressman said yesterday that he will hold a hearing on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball and other sports. Rep. Bobby Rush, chairman of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, said he plans to convene the hearing when Congress returns from its winter recess early next year. Rush said the timing was right, given that former senator George Mitchell soon is expected to release the results of his independent review of steroids in baseball.

A question that lingers after Wednesday's mostly frustrating congressional committee steroid hearing is what is the public appetite - or even tolerance level - for a continued exploration of who is telling the truth in the Roger Clemens case. Not that I'm suggesting there's anything that can be done to make it go away or even that it should go away. In the end, there are federal law-enforcement types out there who will determine whether there is more to be examined here - the operative word being perjury.

Here is an excerpt of an editorial from the New York Times, which was published yesterday.THE cycling world venerates the Tour de France, a race that generally covers about 2,500 miles, including a climb through mountains that makes this one of the most challenging events in all of sport.This year, an American led for 14 of the 20 stages and cruised into Paris more than seven minutes ahead of his rivals.Lance Armstrong's performance would have been remarkable in any case, but seems miraculous given that he was diagnosed just three years ago with an aggressive form of testicular cancer that had reached his abdomen, lungs and brain.

Just how do we know? How do we ever know? Maybe we're hardened cynics by now. A sorry lot of seamheads turned skeptics. Maybe our doubts and distrust are wound tighter than the string in a baseball. So let me ask you this: Do you believe Brian Roberts today? Many of us will always strongly associate baseball with our youth. Forget BALCO. And forget Barry Bonds. And forget winstrol and stanozolol and whatever human growth hormone is filling syringes down at the local gym. Instinct might forever tell us to approach the game with the same childlike innocence we always have.

Allegations that champion cyclist Lance Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs have been around for years -- and they surfaced again today as the  U.S. Anti-Doping Agency brought formal  charges against him.  Armstrong denied the allegations, but the seven-time Tour de France winner wouldn't be the first pro athlete to be punished while proclaiming his innocence. Still, it would be sad to see Armstrong's good works sullied. He made a remarkable recovery from cancer -- a compelling tale chronicled in the book "It's Not About the Bike.

Former Major League Soccer midfielder Santino Quaranta has spoken before about a story that is both disturbing and uplifting — signing with MLS when he was 16, battling abuse of cocaine and painkillers, becoming sober, returning to the game and playing for his country. But Quaranta said Tuesday's speech to about 650 Baltimore-area high school athletes was special. It was the largest crowd to hear his deeply personal message. It was delivered near where he was raised (he attended Archbishop Curley)

Award is his to keep Phil Rogers Chicago Tribune On Tuesday, Michael Weiner, head of the players' union, issued a statement asking for everyone to reserve judgment on Ryan Braun, who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug and faces a 50-game suspension if the finding is upheld. Perhaps Weiner has seen suggestions that the Baseball Writers' Association of America revote to determine the 2011 NL Most Valuable Player. That's ridiculous. Braun was elected as the MVP, and the award should be his to keep.

Expect a shrug Philip Hersh Chicago Tribune Sports Illustrated added more smoke to the doping cloud around Lance Armstrong this week, so will everyone now see the fire? Unlikely. The magazine's addition to the overwhelming amount of circumstantial and "he-said, she-said" evidence that strongly suggests Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs still is unlikely to sound an alarm among the general public. Even a grand jury indictment may not be enough to do that unless it produces a conviction.

Not to be overly cynical, but what message, exactly, were the students of Milford Mill Academy supposed to take away from Tuesday's surprise anti-steroid talk by the New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez? He came to the school to discourage students from taking steroids by sharing his story, which goes something like this: From 2001-2003, starting just after signing a contract with the Texas Rangers that made him the highest-paid player in the history of Major League Baseball, Mr. Rodriguez took steroids.

This latest entanglement for Miguel Tejada doesn't teach us anything new about baseball and performance-enhancing drugs. All it does is reinforce what we already knew, and the events of the past few days tell us that a lot of people needed reinforcing, or else they stay deluded about how bad this is. What Tejada's federal court appearance today - for allegedly lying to congressional investigators about his knowledge of teammates' use of performance-enhancing drugs...

Yesterday, another American Olympic athlete admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. During the trial of track coach Trevor Graham, who is accused of lying to federal authorities, sprinter Antonio Pettigrew, who won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team eight years ago at the Sydney Olympics, admitted to using human growth hormone and other performance-boosting drugs. During his career, Pettigrew passed all tests for PEDs. As many fans are aware, disgraced American track star Marion Jones has forfeited her medals - and her teammates on a pair of relay teams will probably have to give up their own hard-earned awards - after pleading guilty to federal charges related to doping and lying about it. And the defending 100-meter Olympic champion, Justin Gatlin, who worked undercover for the government, is hoping to have a doping-related suspension shortened so he can participate in this year's Games in Beijing.

"Powered by Me: Playing Safe, Fair and Sober," a program for coaches, athletes and parents on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs -- as well as energy drinks and sports drinks -- will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School. The "Powered by Me" program is sponsored statewide by St. Joseph's Hospital. HC Drug Free is co-sponsoring it in Howard County with the Wilde Lake High School PTSA and boosters. The National Collegiate Athletic Association-certified substance-abuse education program will address the pressures on athletes to excel, the use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances to increase strength, power, speed and endurance, the short- and long-term physical and psychological effects of use, and how to get help.

Over the past few weeks, even before the torch was lit, dozens of athletes from around the world have tested positive for banned drugs and have been barred from the Beijing Olympics. Sports officials say this shows their new anti-drug attack is working. "The gap between regulators and cheaters has narrowed, and it will continue to narrow," says David Howman, director of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the international organization that oversees drug testing for the Olympics. WADA and the International Olympic Committee will perform more than 4,500 doping tests during the Olympics, almost 1,000 more than four years ago. The IOC's Beijing lab operates around the clock with 180 scientists and staffers.