{"id":599,"date":"2011-10-24T08:52:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T15:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=599"},"modified":"2011-12-29T08:50:24","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T16:50:24","slug":"time-for-victor-conte-to-come-clean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=599","title":{"rendered":"Time for Victor Conte to Come Clean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a>Victor Conte is back in the news, as once again we get to hear from the horse\u2019s mouth just how dirty this sport has been and is \u2013 in his opinion. Of course Conte\u2019s opinion is considerable if you take into account the fact that he was the chemical mastermind behind the \u201cCream\u201d (Testosterone cream) and the \u201cClear\u201d (Tetrahydrogestrinone or THG) \u2013 the \u201cundetectable\u201d drugs at the heart of the BALCO scandal of the \u201coughts\u201d which took down such luminaries as Tim Montgomery, Dwain Chambers, Kellie White, Kevin Toth, Regina Jacobs, and Marion Jones among others. <\/p>\n

Given Mr. Conte\u2019s resume, I would say he should know a little something about the drug issues within the sport of track and field. After all, I\u2019m sure these are not the only athletes that either first or second hand used or gained knowledge from the products that he distributed. Besides, when you reach the forefront of your field, as Conte did in developing his undetectable products, you gain lots of \u201cfriends\u201d and develop quite a network within the industry. So I would imagine that Conte\u2019s \u201cinside\u201d knowledge is rather considerable. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately Conte, and the sport, seems to be rather shortsighted when it comes to his knowledge and how he can help the sport. Because all Conte seems to want to do is point fingers and \u201ctattle\u201d on those I\u2019m sure he feels got away while he and others had to serve their time \u2013 literally. The sport \u2013 as in WADA, the IAAF, and other acronyms \u2013 all seem to be convinced that the best use of Conte is as a \u201csnitch\u201d, which, unfortunately, is the unsavory category in which they place his potential testimony \u2013 as that of a snitch that may, or may not, be coming clean with proper information because he has an axe to grind with some folk within the sport as opposed to a sincere desire to clean up the sport. <\/p>\n

So the two sides have sat at odds in something of a \u201cMexican Standoff\u201d for nearly a decade, with Conte periodically screaming out that he knows who is dirty and he will tell if only people will listen; and the sport keeping him at arm\u2019s length afraid to take his word as the gospel and start sending athletes, coaches and others to \u201ctime out\u201d. Meanwhile Conte\u2019s cries of \u201cdirty sport\u201d keeps the topic of drugs in this sport at the forefront, when track and field desperately needs to close that chapter and move forward. <\/p>\n

Ironically I think Conte could actually help the sport accomplish the latter \u2013 to move forward in a positive manner. Not as the ultimate \u201cinsider\u201d snitch, but as the chemical mastermind that he has proven to be. I think it\u2019s time for Conte to come clean, as in come clean up the sport that he helped to sully! And the sport should embrace him with open arms in THAT regard! <\/p>\n

We know that the system that\u2019s been in use is, well useless when it comes to anything outside of the old tried and true drugs that the sport already has a solid read on \u2013 Clembuterol, Stanozolol, Furazabol, and Danabol to name a few. The \u201cnew stuff\u201d the \u201cundetectables\u201d needs a more modern approach to get to the source. Blood testing could do that if the system were fully and properly implemented, but that would require the use of \u201cpassports\u201d developed sport wide based on extensive out of competition testing to develop baselines \u2013 something that the sport in is nowhere near close to. <\/p>\n

So, since we are basically at square one in the fight against drug use in sport, what better way to develop a system that is actually capable of catching drug cheats than by enlisting the aid\/knowledge of the man who created the drugs to beat the old system! It\u2019s not that radical a concept. As a matter of fact it\u2019s no different than manufacturers of safes working with former safe crackers to find out why their products were vulnerable. After all, who would know better than a man that broke into your previously thought to be impenetrable product? <\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not suggesting that we line Mr. Conte\u2019s pockets to do this. After all, he already made a lot of money while helping to give us the black eye we now carry. No, I would think that if Mr. Conte is \u201csincere\u201d in his statements that he wants to see the sport clean, that he would gladly \u201cvolunteer\u201d his services as sort of a form of \u201ccommunity service\u201d to give back to the sport he has robbed. And if the acronyms are \u201csincere\u201d in their stated want to clean up the sport, they will welcome him with open arms. Perhaps even provide a \u201cstipend\u201d to cover his basic costs \u2013 travel, lodging, food \u2013 while he works with WADA, the UCLA laboratory, or whomever it is deemed will serve best from his knowledge. <\/p>\n

You see my belief is that if Conte knows who\u2019s doping, then he knows how to bring them down \u2013 and I would rather see them brought down within the system, than via accusation. Because development of a system will not only bring down those he knows are cheating currently, but will prevent others from doing the same in the future \u2013 giving Conte the opportunity to change his legacy from the man at the head of BALCO to the man that made track and field (and others) a clean sport. <\/p>\n

That, of course, is if everyone involved in truly interested in bringing us a clean sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Conte is back in the news, as once again we get to hear from the horse\u2019s mouth just how dirty this sport has been and is \u2013 in his opinion. Of course Conte\u2019s opinion is considerable if you take into account the fact that he was the chemical mastermind behind the \u201cCream\u201d (Testosterone cream) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[110],"class_list":["post-599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conte"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-9F","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":687,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions\/687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}