Initially a business venture to keep food on the table, only one year after opening, Victor Conte closed Millbrae Holistic and started BALCO as a sport supplement company in neighboring Burlingame.
Through regular urine and blood testing, Conte would monitor and treat mineral shortages in athletes, supposedly elevating their level of physical wellness dramatically.
Surviving his divorce from Aubry and several years of financial hardships, BALCO did not achieve professional success until the summer of 1996 with the addition of NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski to its client list.
From there, Conte began acquiring additional high-profile athletes with a special concoction of undetectable drugs assembled by Illinois chemist Patrick Arnold and distributed by personal trainer Greg Anderson.
The syringe went to Don Catlin, MD, the founder and then-director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory, who had developed a testing process for the substance, tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).
[3] Athletes including Kelli White, British sprinter Dwain Chambers, shot putter Kevin Toth, middle distance runner Regina Jacobs, and hammer throwers John McEwen and Melissa Price were subsequently incriminated in the investigation.
His younger brother Jeremy, a fellow major leaguer and former teammate of Giambi's on the Oakland A's, was also involved in receiving supplements from BALCO, and admitted using steroids during his career.
[6] Barry Bonds, the former San Francisco Giants outfielder, who holds the major league records for home runs in both a single season and a career, has never been caught explicitly using steroids and has steadfastly denied any allegations against him.
Critics of Bonds pointed to his large increase in size late in his career, as well as his improvement primarily in his power numbers, despite his age.
Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle, profiled Bonds' alleged use of performance-enhancing substances in their 2006 book Game of Shadows.
After news of Montgomery's cheating broke, Jones was again faced with increased doubt as to the integrity of her career, yet she continued to deny any wrongdoing.
Finally, in October 2007, Jones admitted to lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs, though she still maintains she believed the substances she was using were flaxseed oil, not steroids, at the time.
Fainaru-Wada and Williams broke the story concerning U.S. track coach Trevor Graham and his admission to turning a syringe laced with THG over to investigators.
Anderson also revealed the names of numerous Olympic athletes that had been provided with "The Clear", boasting that neither they nor Bonds would fail drug tests because the substance was undetectable.
In 2006, Anderson was incarcerated again after being found in contempt of court for refusing to testify about Barry Bonds' and Gary Sheffield's alleged use of banned steroids.