Victor Conte invented doping drugs, was imprisoned and destroyed careers. He then showed remorse – but remained proud until his death.
On Monday, SNAC, a nutritional supplement company, announced the death of its 74-year-old owner, Victor Conte. He announced in June that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer.
The American with Italian roots initially made a name for himself as a professional bassist (including with “Tower of Power”). One of his bands sounds like a harbinger of his later career: “Pure Food and Drug Act”, named after a US law from 1906 that regulated the correct labeling of medicines.
In the 00s, Conte became known as the mastermind of the “BALCO affair” – one of the biggest doping scandals in sports history, in which, among others, track and field star Marion Jones was involved.
First nutritional supplements, then steroids
In 1984, Conte founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO for short), a nutritional supplement company in California. Everything was legal until 2000, he asserted in the Netflix documentary “Untold: Hall of Shame,” which was released in 2023.
After the turn of the millennium at the latest, he got into the steroid business. Under his aegis, the chemist Patrick Arnold, himself an amateur bodybuilder, developed new and difficult-to-prove drugs: “The Clear” were drops of the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) that were administered under the tongue.
The second crucial component was called “The Cream”. When applied to the skin, the cream concealed the changes in hormone levels – which then remained unnoticeable in the doping test. The drug cocktail, supplemented with other substances, was intended to increase performance and at the same time bypass the control system.
Leaked syringe leads investigators on the trail
However, the authorities and the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) were on Conte and BALCO’s heels from 2002 onwards. In 2003, USADA received a syringe containing residues of a mysterious substance – it was THG.
Don Catlin, founder and then director of the analytical laboratory at the University of California (UCLA), then developed a test that could detect GHG. He checked 550 existing samples from athletes and found 20 positive results.
The scandal subsequently spread widely. Prominent, successful athletes were also convicted and lost their medals and bonuses. For example, US sprinter Kelli White, double world champion in Paris in 2003, or the Briton Dwain Chambers, who stayed under 10 seconds twice in the 100 meters at the 2001 World Cup.
Widespreader Steroid abuse
The fraud of two superstars attracted a lot of attention: 100-meter world record holder Tim Montgomery (USA) and his partner at the time, US sprint star Marion Jones. Montgomery’s world record was later revoked, Jones was sentenced to six months in prison in 2007 for making false statements and lost her five Olympic medals.
Marion Jones at the 2000 Olympics.
Other sports were also affected, with baseball star Barry Bonds and football player Bill Romanowski being exposed. In addition to Bonds, numerous other cases became known in baseball; the discovery of the widespread abuse of steroids was also fueled by the BALCO affair. The years in which Conte and his contacts were active in sport later went down in history as the “steroid era”.
Victor Conte: Between regret and desire for recognition
And Conte himself? He sought publicity, saying in an ABC interview in December 2004: “The entire history of the Olympics is just full of corruption, cover-ups and doping.” Six months later, he pleaded guilty, among other things, to being involved in a conspiracy to distribute steroids. He was sentenced to four months in prison and four months of house arrest.
After serving his sentence, he remained loyal to the nutritional supplements business and focused primarily on the boxing scene. He liked to portray the image of the reformed doping offender, saying for example: “It was wrong, everything was wrong. I was reckless back then, had no idea how much it would affect those around me, my friends and my family and how much damage it would cause.”
However, sentences like this were also used in the Netflix documentary: “When Marion Jones crossed the finish line and won the gold medal, when Barry Bonds hit all those home runs, you know, all those great performances – those are things I will always be proud of.”
Victor Conte with a photo signed by Marion Jones.
Whistleblower and convict
The BALCO scandal brought with it many notable stories, including that of Trevor Graham. The US track and field coach was the initially anonymous whistleblower who put USADA on Conte’s trail with the injection and the naming of suspects. At that time, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery were also his protégés.
In 2008, however, USADA revoked Graham’s coaching license for life because of his involvement. He was also sentenced to one year of house arrest for perjury.
The BALCO affair and its consequences
What is certain is that the scandal also changed the anti-doping fight. For example, Major League Baseball subsequently implemented a league-wide policy against steroid abuse for the first time.
In any case, Conte seemed satisfied with his life’s work. In one of his last interviews he said: “After I decided to do the right thing, my proposed changes were incorporated into the World Anti-Doping Agency Code. I changed the world.”