BALCO : The Straight Dope on Steroids, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, and What We Can Do to Save Sports

The boss tells all! Victor Conte, founder and president of BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative), and the centerpiece of the New York Times bestseller Game of Shadows , finally tells his side of the "BALCO Affair," the steroids-in-sports scandal that has shocked and captured the attention of the entire world. Because of his first-hand involvement, Conte can tell it all exactly as it went down, from the illegalities of the original BALCO raid to the truth regarding the involvement of Marion Jones, Barry Bonds, Shane Mosley, and the other elite athletes implicated in the scandal. This is a one-of-a-kind book that cannot be recreated or mimicked. No one has the complete inside knowledge of BALCO that Victor Conte does, and no one else dares to reveal the truth about the steroids-in-sports investigations, the charges, the behind-the-scenes negotiations, the sentencings, and the dark side of the sports world.BALCO is a controversial sports nutrition center in Burlingame, California, which the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) says developed banned steroids. In 2003, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada began investigating the company's role in a drug sports scandal later referred to as "the BALCO Affair," and revealed their findings in the 2006 bestseller Game of Shadows. BALCO's offices were raided by officials from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration, and the San Mateo County narcotics taskforce, and Conte eventually entered guilty pleas in July 2005 to one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids and a second count of laundering a small portion of a check. He was sentenced in October 2005 to serve four months in a minimum security prison and another four in home detention. Since his release from prison, Conte has worked with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and other organizations to help seek a solution to the doping epidemic in sports today.