The steroid detective
The scandal over whether Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds used illegal steroids to build their homer-hitting biceps wouldn't be raging if it weren't for Don Catlin, chief of the University of California-Los Angeles lab that screens samples from NFL players and Olympians for performance-enhancing drugs. Sent a mysterious syringe containing clear liquid in June 2003, he found an obscure and almost untraceable steroid: tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG. Catlin helped investigators track down the source of the syringe: the Bay Area Lab Cooperative (BALCO), whose records named a who's who of sports.
How hard was it to identify what was in the syringe?
When we first tested what was in the syringe, we didn't see anything on the printout but noise--a jumble of peaks. We thought, 'Hmm, there is nothing here.' But we did different tests and discovered the steroid. BALCO knew who I was and was watching me. So they knew our testing methods.
Victor Conte, CEO of BALCO, has been indicted. What's happened to the person who made the steroid for BALCO?
I don't know who did it. It is not something a graduate student can do. It is not rocket science, but it takes experience and background.
Are there more BALCOs that we just don't know about yet?
Let's not be naive about it. There are more BALCO s out there. It is a big world.
Many people are calling for more and tougher testing. But doesn't BALCO show how easy it is for athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs that won't be caught?
If you try to get every last little cheater, you're going to be pretty frustrated. There are always going to be ways to beat testing. But if you don't test, sport is gone, it really is. Then you might say, well, OK, everybody is going to be on drugs, and they will all be equal again. But people will start getting really sick. All these things are toxic.
Do you watch baseball?
I used to be a sports fan, years ago. But I lost my taste for it. -Kim Clark
This story appears in the December 20, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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