Tweet
Shane knew what he was taking. So did Sheffield
Sprinter reveals career demise
By **** Patrick, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — The first time Kelli White was offered performance-enhancing drugs, she had no trouble saying no.
Kelli White became emotional while speaking to reporters about her fall from grace because of peformance-enhancing drugs. The sprinter is serving a two-year ban from track and field.
By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY
In late 2000, White was 23, just out of the University of Tennessee, determined to become a professional sprinter and reunited with Remi Korchemny, her coach since she was 12, back in her hometown of Union City, Calif. Korchemny introduced her to a San Francisco Bay Area colleague, Victor Conte, who provided her with several supplements and vitamins, including what he called flaxseed oil.
Two weeks later, she said, Conte confided the flaxseed oil was a designer steroid. Instantly White stopped taking it, though she continued to use other Conte products. "I wasn't under the belief at the time that (a drug) was really necessary to be able to run," she said of steroids. "So I didn't even go there."
It was different in 2003, a couple of years after White had severed her ties to Conte. She approached him about a full-scale drug program. Since then, in what has become the largest drugs-in-sport case in U.S. history, White has been banned from the sport for two years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency; Korchemny and Conte have been indicted on steroid trafficking and money laundering charges.
White spoke Thursday in a midtown office building to three newspapers in her first public comments about her case. She and Conte, the founder of Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, appear Friday on ABC's 20/20 about the BALCO case that has cast su****ion of steroid use by such superstars as home run king Barry Bonds and Olympic sprint champ Marion Jones.
When White re-established contact with Conte in March 2003, she was at a career crossroads. About to turn 26 and struggling with injuries, she was discouraged by failure to qualify for the World Indoor Championships and annoyed that a rival, using Conte's system, was now beating her.
White started taking the designer steroid THG, known as "the clear," a faint yellow liquid applied through a syringe without needle under her tongue; endurance-boosting EPO through what White called "very, very painful" injections in the stomach; and a testosterone/epitestosterone cream called "the cream," spreading the substance on the insides of her arms and elbows. She decided against using the Conte-recommended human growth hormone.
Within two weeks White felt impact in training. "You could run harder, longer," she said. "If the workout was four 200s really, really fast, they wouldn't seem as hard as before. You could cut the rest down from five minutes to three. That's a big difference."
There were other changes. The 5-4, 135-pound White, who could bench-press 175 pounds three times, was developing large muscles, a raspy voice, plus shoulder and face acne. For two months, she had her period every other week.
The results on the track were stunning. White, who never had won a California title in high school or a conference or NCAA title at Tennessee, won the 100- and 200-meter titles in the U.S. championships in June and the world championships in Paris in August.
But she couldn't bear to look at herself on TV or in photos, particularly one of her winning the U.S. 200 title with her ripped musculature. "It was just so obvious something was going on, especially to people in the track world," she said. "I hate (the picture) because I became somebody totally different."
She cried Thursday recalling her feelings. "I felt that to do this (drug use), I had to become someone totally different than I was. I had to compromise my integrity, my value system. I knew it was so wrong.
"I look at that person and I'm like, 'That's not Kelli White. That's not who I am, who I started out to be.' "
Before the world championships in Paris, White had the feeling "the party was going to end soon." It did during the meet.
She was shopping at The Nike Store when she learned from a French newspaper that she had tested positive for the stimulant modafinil. With coaching from Conte, she concocted a cover story that it was prescribed for a sleep disorder.
That was just the start. A few days later, on Sept. 3, 2003, BALCO was raided. Last May, confronted with overwhelming proof of drug use by USADA, White accepted a two-year ban with the possibility of early reinstatement. She became the first non-analytical positive — being banned without a positive drug test — in USADA history and has helped the agency pursue other cases.
She lost all of her titles and honors since December 2000, $120,000 in prize money from Paris and, according to agent Robert Wagner, about $500,000 in bonuses and endorsements. Nike dropped her. She also has lost friends.
Asked Thursday about Korchemny, she praised his coaching and generosity. Then tears flowed. "I felt betrayed by him, extremely betrayed."
She says she and Korchemny never talked about drugs and that Korchemny acts like he had no knowledge of what Conte was providing.
White, 27, has lost 15 pounds, to 120. She hasn't trained for months because of a cartilage problem in her right knee that might require a second surgery.
She has started a massage therapy course and is living off investments but wants to return to competition.
"When I do return," White said, "I'll be somebody different again. I'm sure I'll like that person more than the 2003 person I became.
"It will be very, very different."
Sprinter reveals career demise
By **** Patrick, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — The first time Kelli White was offered performance-enhancing drugs, she had no trouble saying no.
Kelli White became emotional while speaking to reporters about her fall from grace because of peformance-enhancing drugs. The sprinter is serving a two-year ban from track and field.
By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY
In late 2000, White was 23, just out of the University of Tennessee, determined to become a professional sprinter and reunited with Remi Korchemny, her coach since she was 12, back in her hometown of Union City, Calif. Korchemny introduced her to a San Francisco Bay Area colleague, Victor Conte, who provided her with several supplements and vitamins, including what he called flaxseed oil.
Two weeks later, she said, Conte confided the flaxseed oil was a designer steroid. Instantly White stopped taking it, though she continued to use other Conte products. "I wasn't under the belief at the time that (a drug) was really necessary to be able to run," she said of steroids. "So I didn't even go there."
It was different in 2003, a couple of years after White had severed her ties to Conte. She approached him about a full-scale drug program. Since then, in what has become the largest drugs-in-sport case in U.S. history, White has been banned from the sport for two years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency; Korchemny and Conte have been indicted on steroid trafficking and money laundering charges.
White spoke Thursday in a midtown office building to three newspapers in her first public comments about her case. She and Conte, the founder of Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, appear Friday on ABC's 20/20 about the BALCO case that has cast su****ion of steroid use by such superstars as home run king Barry Bonds and Olympic sprint champ Marion Jones.
When White re-established contact with Conte in March 2003, she was at a career crossroads. About to turn 26 and struggling with injuries, she was discouraged by failure to qualify for the World Indoor Championships and annoyed that a rival, using Conte's system, was now beating her.
White started taking the designer steroid THG, known as "the clear," a faint yellow liquid applied through a syringe without needle under her tongue; endurance-boosting EPO through what White called "very, very painful" injections in the stomach; and a testosterone/epitestosterone cream called "the cream," spreading the substance on the insides of her arms and elbows. She decided against using the Conte-recommended human growth hormone.
Within two weeks White felt impact in training. "You could run harder, longer," she said. "If the workout was four 200s really, really fast, they wouldn't seem as hard as before. You could cut the rest down from five minutes to three. That's a big difference."
There were other changes. The 5-4, 135-pound White, who could bench-press 175 pounds three times, was developing large muscles, a raspy voice, plus shoulder and face acne. For two months, she had her period every other week.
The results on the track were stunning. White, who never had won a California title in high school or a conference or NCAA title at Tennessee, won the 100- and 200-meter titles in the U.S. championships in June and the world championships in Paris in August.
But she couldn't bear to look at herself on TV or in photos, particularly one of her winning the U.S. 200 title with her ripped musculature. "It was just so obvious something was going on, especially to people in the track world," she said. "I hate (the picture) because I became somebody totally different."
She cried Thursday recalling her feelings. "I felt that to do this (drug use), I had to become someone totally different than I was. I had to compromise my integrity, my value system. I knew it was so wrong.
"I look at that person and I'm like, 'That's not Kelli White. That's not who I am, who I started out to be.' "
Before the world championships in Paris, White had the feeling "the party was going to end soon." It did during the meet.
She was shopping at The Nike Store when she learned from a French newspaper that she had tested positive for the stimulant modafinil. With coaching from Conte, she concocted a cover story that it was prescribed for a sleep disorder.
That was just the start. A few days later, on Sept. 3, 2003, BALCO was raided. Last May, confronted with overwhelming proof of drug use by USADA, White accepted a two-year ban with the possibility of early reinstatement. She became the first non-analytical positive — being banned without a positive drug test — in USADA history and has helped the agency pursue other cases.
She lost all of her titles and honors since December 2000, $120,000 in prize money from Paris and, according to agent Robert Wagner, about $500,000 in bonuses and endorsements. Nike dropped her. She also has lost friends.
Asked Thursday about Korchemny, she praised his coaching and generosity. Then tears flowed. "I felt betrayed by him, extremely betrayed."
She says she and Korchemny never talked about drugs and that Korchemny acts like he had no knowledge of what Conte was providing.
White, 27, has lost 15 pounds, to 120. She hasn't trained for months because of a cartilage problem in her right knee that might require a second surgery.
She has started a massage therapy course and is living off investments but wants to return to competition.
"When I do return," White said, "I'll be somebody different again. I'm sure I'll like that person more than the 2003 person I became.
"It will be very, very different."
Comment