Monday, October 8, 2007

Sprinter Marion Jones used two different steroids -- norbolethone and THG -- supplied to her by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, Balco founder Victor Conte said yesterday. Both steroids were identified to athletes only by the name "the clear," since each was a clear liquid administered by placing a couple of drops under the tongue.

Jones, who pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of lying to federal agents in connection with her steroid use, admitted to taking "the clear" and equated it with the now well-known steroid THG.

But Conte said she also took the predecessor to THG: norbolethone, the first designer steroid chemist Patrick Arnold made for Conte's performance-enhancing drug factory. Arnold created THG after Balco officials began to fear anti-doping chemists were on to norbolethone, Balco e-mails indicate.

"Marion took both species of the clear," Conte said in an e-mail. She took "Norbolethone from August 2000 until December 2000. She then used THG from January 2001 until September 2001."

Jones is the first athlete publicly associated with both versions of "the clear." A message left with Jones's attorney, Henry J. DePippo, was not immediately returned last night. Jones said in U.S. District Court that her former coach, Trevor Graham, gave her "the clear" beginning in September 2000, telling her that it was the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil.

Conte and Arnold were convicted of supplying drugs to athletes through Balco.

-- Amy Shipley