Posts Tagged ‘Tim Montgomery’

Mexican fighter Juan Manuel Marquez defended himself on Wednesday as doping clouds arose after his strength coach was revealed to be among those involved in a major doping scandal that stung US athletics.

“Whatever doping they want to do – blood, Olympian – whatever they want to do, I’ll do it, as long as he does it too,” Marquez said through a translator.

From Sport24.co.za:

Victor Conte, whose BALCO products were at the centre of a major doping scandal, revealed in a Twitter posting on Monday that Marquez’s strength and conditioning coach was Angel Heredia, who testified in a doping investigation.

Heredia admitted providing banned performance-enhancing substances to Trevor Graham, former coach of disgraced former stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery among others.

Alex Ariza, Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach, commented about Marquez looking bigger and stronger as well. Together with Heredia’s past links to doping, Marquez found himself on the defensive about his fit physique.

“It’s a shame all the work I’ve done has been trashed by these guys, Conte and Ariza,” Marquez said.

Juan Manuel Marquez, the World lightweight champion, is defending his new strength and conditioning coach, Angel Hernandez, after reports came out revealing shady past of Hernandez.

Hernandez was known as Angel Heredia when he admitted to a San Francisco court in May 2008 that he supplied performance enhancing drugs to Olympians, including Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

From Abs-cbnnews.com:

In a conference call with RingTV and other boxing media, Marquez defended Hernandez and said he has no knowledge of his new nutritionist’s dealings with steroids.

“I didn’t find out any of this other stuff until it was written over the last couple of days. It was big news to me,” Marquez said.

“I just knew that he had trained a lot of elite and world class athletes before I met him. We talked about what we needed to do. I was very happy with what he told me that I needed to do,” Marquez said, adding that Hernandez has been “a very professional guy.”

“If they want to do whatever doping or drug testing they want to do, Olympic-style, or whatever they want to do, I’ll do it. I’m prepared,” Marquez said.

Victor Conte, the former steroids magnate who owned the infamous Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) still believes that more than half of the semi-finalists in the London 2012 Olympics will likely use illegal drugs at some stage of their training.

According to an interview conducted in celebration of the 10^th anniversary of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte believes that cheating in sports, through performance-enhancing drugs is still rampant, despite improvements in steroids and drug testing.

Asked about his opinion as to how many of the sprinters who were able to make it to the semi-finals may have possibly used steroids, he replied by using the term “an overwhelming majority”.

The lab Conte used to own may have been tiny, but Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative became big news due to the steroids scandal in 2003 that continues its “legacy” in the sporting world, destroying careers of hundreds of athletes, even including his own.

Some of Conte’s prominent clients include Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery. Both made their way to the Olympics and even earned medals with the help of BALCO products.

Conte said he regretted getting involved in doping and would like to make amends by contributing his knowledge in doping and steroids.

From Reuters:

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Cheating is still rife in sport despite improved testing and more than half the sprint semi-finalists at the London 2012 Olympics are likely to use illegal drugs at some stage of their preparations, says Victor Conte, the man at the heart of the BALCO doping scandal.