As she stood on the podium alongside Witty, she had a noticeable five o'clock shadow, an Adam's apple on her neck, a broad jaw line and hair growing in the wrong places.
[1] In August, USA Cycling and the USOC sought to have Thomas banned from competition based on four positive tests between July 1999 and April 2000.
Facing an untenable situation, Thomas agreed to a settlement in which she ceded the Olympic slot to Witty in return for a one-year ban from competition.
[1] Thomas returned to cycling in 2001, and got in touch with Patrick Arnold, an organic chemist known for introducing a number of synthetic steroids into the market, including one that he created himself, THG ("the clear").
[1][2] Catlin's discovery triggered a federal investigation into the source of the norboletone in Thomas' system, which ultimately led to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, a company that supplied steroids to athletes.
However, when she appeared before a grand jury, Thomas claimed Arnold only gave her legal supplements because these substances were not illegal according to federal statute.
Without health insurance, she sometimes had to skip the medicines she must take to deal with the steroid-related problems and is unable to afford the "intensive therapy" she felt she needed long term.