Victor Conte is a sports coach who designed doping programs with world-class athletes. Through his platform, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, or BALCO, he supplied an untraceable designer steroid among other drugs to competitors who dominated the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics.
Conte used a transparent anabolic steroid nicknamed "the clear" in training programs with track athletes such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery. He also developed doping programs for athletes in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and other sports federations.
Conte served four months in prison for illegal distribution of steroids and money laundering. He later rebuilt his career as a sports promoter and anti-doping advocate in boxing, and he's since worked with Nonito Donaire, Andre Ward, Andre Berto, and Devin Haney.
Conte talks about the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Enhanced Games, and the future of doping in sports.
For more:
https://x.com/victorconte
www.snac.com
Conte used a transparent anabolic steroid nicknamed "the clear" in training programs with track athletes such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery. He also developed doping programs for athletes in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and other sports federations.
Conte served four months in prison for illegal distribution of steroids and money laundering. He later rebuilt his career as a sports promoter and anti-doping advocate in boxing, and he's since worked with Nonito Donaire, Andre Ward, Andre Berto, and Devin Haney.
Conte talks about the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Enhanced Games, and the future of doping in sports.
For more:
https://x.com/victorconte
www.snac.com
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TechTranscript
00:00My name is Victor Conti, and I was the mastermind behind the distribution of designer steroids
00:05in the Olympics and other international competitions.
00:09This is how crime works.
00:13I know because I was on the dark side for four years.
00:18Circumventing the testing was like taking candy from a baby.
00:21A lot of the athletes that I worked with got very good results
00:25and broke world records and won gold medals.
00:27Of course, that brought attention to me and brought scrutiny and eventually law enforcement.
00:37Balco was founded in 1984, Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.
00:42I got a facility, and I built the laboratory from the ground up.
00:47We did comprehensive blood testing for athletes,
00:50and then I designed supplement programs for them.
00:54The clear I was buying from a chemist, Patrick Arnold.
00:58And he told me that he had this liquid substance that seemed to help with athletes' recovery.
01:05So I bought a bottle of this stuff for, I think, $150.
01:09It was a 100cc bottle.
01:11And you took an eyedropper, and you put a couple drops under your tongue.
01:15He called it stuff, which now is referred to as THG, tetrahydrogesterone.
01:22Somehow, this chemist, he created a whole new steroid.
01:28And so I got some, I tried it myself.
01:32When I tested my own urine, it came back clean.
01:35It was because they weren't testing for that because it wasn't on the market.
01:40And if it was not illegal and it was undetectable,
01:44then I started giving it to athletes, what became known as the clear at the time,
01:50which was simply an undetectable designer steroid.
01:53The first athlete that I gave the clear to was Bill Romanowski, a football player.
01:58And then I started giving it to other world-class athletes, like sprinter Tim Montgomery
02:04and some other track members of the 2000 Olympic team.
02:09We started with the blood testing to determine what specific nutrients that the athlete would need.
02:17And it's not about taking megadoses of any one nutrient or any one drug.
02:24It's about a proper balance.
02:26We were using multiple different drugs.
02:29The clear, I realized that this is way too strong to be used in the manner that I was told.
02:37I had the athletes take a very different dosage, much lower, on Monday.
02:43And then on Tuesday, I developed this cream that had epitestosterone and testosterone
02:50to keep your TE ratio in balance that was kind of a masking agent.
02:55So they would take the clear Monday, the cream Tuesday, the clear Wednesday, the cream Thursday,
03:01the clear Wednesday, the cream Thursday, then be off on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
03:07Now, they were taking other drugs, like growth hormone.
03:11You typically do that daily at night.
03:14A lot of people believe that it was all about the clear.
03:18We were using other types of drugs, including EPO.
03:23EPO is a hormone that your body naturally produces.
03:28It gets manufactured in the bone marrow, and it stimulates the production of red blood cells.
03:35So this really enhances stamina and endurance.
03:40You can do more repetitions at a higher intensity.
03:44The definition that I got one time from a world-class sprinter was,
03:48it turns you into a machine.
03:51You simply do not get tired.
03:58Once I received the drugs from the various sources,
04:02I would create a calendar for the next month on what days to take the cream,
04:07what days to take the clear, what days to inject the growth hormone, what days to inject the EPO.
04:13Everybody called it Victor's short leash.
04:16I would send the clear and the cream in little packets and use FedEx.
04:21Now, of course, I would talk to them on the phone and consult with them.
04:24Some of them came and actually, you know, we would go train near Balco at the time.
04:29And so I was creating the programs and supervising the programs.
04:35And of course I knew I was breaking the law.
04:38But I also knew that these crimes were very soft.
04:41So in my thinking, it was, okay, if something happens, then do the crime, serve the time.
04:49Marion Jones's coach approached me first.
04:52They were at a track meet over in Europe.
04:55And basically, initially, the communication was between her husband and I and her coach and I.
05:01So I sent a box to North Carolina that had these substances in it.
05:07And she started using them.
05:09We designed the highest and best use of the growth hormone that we had.
05:14So after specific events, to aid recovery for the next event, she was using growth hormone.
05:21During the games, with us fully knowing that they were not testing for growth hormone.
05:27She won three gold medals and two bronze at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia in the year 2000.
05:34She was the absolute golden girl of the Olympic Games.
05:38She was doing Nike commercials.
05:41Can you dig it?
05:42General Motors, Sports Illustrated.
05:45I was very excited to be there sitting at the 100-meter finish line when she ran that very fast race and won by over four meters.
05:53My role was very small.
05:56So I can't take credit for her victories or her medals.
05:59She was a great number one from 1997 until 2000.
06:04So she dominated for three years.
06:07Let me for a moment just say that I feel very bad for Marion Jones.
06:13What I know is that the other girls that were in that 100-meter race with her,
06:19they didn't get their emails or tap their phone or do the things that they did to Marion Jones.
06:25You know, she was held to a different standard.
06:27I don't think that's right.
06:29And I feel very sad for what happened to her.
06:33Steroids are prohibited.
06:35They're on what's called a prohibited substances list.
06:38In Olympic sport, the first testing was in 1968.
06:42In 1976, they only had a test for anabolic steroids, about a dozen.
06:48But no test for testosterone.
06:50The granddaddy.
06:51So everybody there, they called it the testosterone game.
06:54Thereafter, they didn't have out-of-competition testing compared to in-competition testing
07:00until it was implemented in 1990.
07:03So in 1988, when Flojo broke the world record in the 100 meters and 200 meters and all that,
07:10there was no testing out-of-competition.
07:13All they had to do was taper off the end of the test.
07:16And that was it.
07:19There was no testing out-of-competition.
07:22All they had to do was taper off these drugs, show up at the Olympics, and put on these monstrous performances.
07:28You know, when you use these powerful drugs, it's during training camp where the benefits come.
07:35And they carry over for months and months, if not years.
07:41So an athlete that's competing in September in the Olympics is using drugs the previous October, November, December, right,
07:50with intensive weight training.
07:52Even now, today, people, they test you at a competition,
07:57but the athletes are not stupid enough to have this in their system.
08:01It's when they were using it months before, and then they get the carryover benefits.
08:06What the testers were doing before Balco, even at the Olympic level,
08:10is they only tested endurance athletes that were running 10,000 meters or a marathon
08:17because they didn't understand that EPO is not a performance drug that you use on the day of the competition.
08:25It's a training drug.
08:27As an example, in Sydney, Australia in 2000,
08:31they did not test anybody except the long-distance runners for EPO.
08:36So the sprinters, Marion Jones, and other athletes that I worked with there,
08:42they weren't even tested for growth hormone, which we used, or EPO, which we used.
08:47These are both endogenous hormones.
08:49So circumventing the testing was like taking candy from a baby.
08:54It was very simple.
08:56So we were actually using growth hormone at the competition between events.
09:02I never had any contact directly with the International Olympic Committee
09:08or the United States Olympic Committee,
09:10even though later I did meet with WADA, USADA, the actual drug testing entities.
09:15So that's not the Olympic Committee.
09:17WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, was founded in the year 1999 for the 2000 Olympics
09:23where I was in Sydney with Marion.
09:26Was it founded for the health and safety of the athletes and to create a level playing field?
09:31In my opinion, it was founded to protect the logos of the sponsors of the Olympic Games.
09:39You have what is called TOP.
09:41TOP stands for the Olympic Partner Program.
09:45That's how they raised the $2 billion, and that comes from 14 companies,
09:51originally McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Panasonic, now it's Airbnb.
09:57The reason they have all these loopholes is because they, in my opinion,
10:01they generally don't desire to catch these athletes because it's bad for business.
10:13I had met an Olympic official who had told me about some positive drug test cover-ups
10:18that he knew about that occurred at the 1988 Olympics.
10:22And at the 1992 trials, US track and field trials in New Orleans,
10:28I was working with a shot putter named Greg Trafalis,
10:32and he was taking steroids, including Dianabol.
10:37So he got fourth. He didn't make the team.
10:40But he'd been on the previous 1988 Olympic team, and I went with him to Seoul, Korea.
10:46A few days after the competition, I got a call from this Olympic official,
10:50and he said, your boy has tested positive.
10:54A few days after that, I get a second call from this Olympic official,
10:59and he says, tell your boy that he's off the hook.
11:03I said, what do you mean he's off the hook?
11:06And he said, well, the elder statesman got together and decided
11:10that this was just not a good time for these positive drug tests to come out.
11:14Apparently, there were five positive drug tests, including a high jumper,
11:18and my shot putter, Greg, was one of them.
11:21And he said, they've just decided it's not a good time,
11:24and they're going to sweep him under the rug.
11:27I realized that basically, from the top to the bottom,
11:31I mean the television networks, the International Olympic Committee,
11:35WADA, the testing agency, the athletes,
11:39they are all a part of this corruption.
11:43And I believe the athletes are the victims of this corruption.
11:48They're in a system, and they get there,
11:51and they realize that there's a rampant use of drugs,
11:54and it develops a use or lose mentality.
11:58And if you know that your competitor's doing it,
12:0280% of the time, in my opinion,
12:04that enables you to make that decision to join that culture.
12:08But the athletes basically have no choice.
12:12Click, click.
12:15Click, click.
12:18Russia had state-sponsored doping.
12:21There was a massive conspiracy there where I believe,
12:26from the very top, meaning Putin down,
12:29and I actually talked to Grigory Rodchenkov,
12:32who was the head of the Moscow lab that is featured in the Icarus film.
12:37What he was doing was, he used, similar to what I did,
12:41with liquid under the tongue,
12:44he took 1,000 athletes, and he collected urine samples.
12:49Then he gave them all these designer-type,
12:52it had alcohol in it to help the absorption,
12:55to all these athletes.
12:57They won big medals in 2012 at the Olympics,
13:002013 at the track and field,
13:03and he paid enormous dollars to bring these events into Russia
13:07so that the samples, when they came in, they were all marked,
13:10they knew who the Russian athletes were,
13:12they cut a hole in the wall and put a piece of furniture in front of it,
13:16and next door, the FSB, the equivalent of the FBI over there,
13:21they were removing the urine that had steroids in it from the competition,
13:28they'd figured out a way to take the lid off,
13:30clean it, and put in the clean urine.
13:33Then they pushed it back through the wall,
13:35and they ran a report on that.
13:38So it was a huge conspiracy, very smart.
13:42He had to escape.
13:44He's under the Witness Protection Program here in the United States.
13:53Well, Snack is the name of my company,
13:55and ZMA is the name of the product.
13:57I first created the idea for ZMA in 1996.
14:02It is a nighttime anabolic formula
14:06to help you get a deeper sleep
14:09so that your body secretes more growth hormone.
14:12Many people fail to realize that the product that I developed, ZMA,
14:17with over 100 distributors around the world,
14:20that I had made millions of dollars.
14:23So in 1999 and 2000,
14:26I'd already made probably $5 million by that point.
14:30I was not doing this for the money.
14:33I was doing this really for the challenge,
14:36for the excitement, for the fun.
14:38It was like a hobby for me.
14:40They tried to put me into this classification
14:43of a strength and conditioning coach or trainer or sports nutritionist.
14:47I call myself a project team leader.
14:50Whatever that project is, that means that I finance it,
14:54I hire the people that are involved,
14:56I pay them, they don't pay me.
14:58In general, I was never paid by athletes.
15:01For Marion Jones specifically, there was one check,
15:04and I believe it was in the amount of $7,000 and change.
15:07After the Olympic Games in 2000,
15:10when we put together what I called Project World Record,
15:14and this involved Charlie Francis, who I hired.
15:18He was the sprint coach for Ben Johnson,
15:20who in 1988 tested positive at the Olympic Games.
15:23I hired Milos Sarchev, who was a very popular bodybuilder,
15:27probably been on over 100 magazine covers,
15:30to do the strength and conditioning.
15:32It was Tim Montgomery, the athlete,
15:34and his coach at the time was Trevor Graham.
15:38So I flew everybody out from Toronto, Los Angeles, North Carolina.
15:42We met at Balco, and we created this plan.
15:46And in the 2001 season,
15:49he won silver indoor and silver outdoor world championship medals.
15:55During Project World Record, I did not pay Tim Montgomery,
15:59I did not pay Trevor Graham,
16:01but I did pay Charlie Francis, and I did pay Milos Sarchev.
16:06And this is 20 years ago, but I believe Charlie,
16:10I paid him something like $2,000 a day.
16:13What I was gaining from that is the promotion.
16:17Back then, the athletes were wearing shirts and promoting ZMA,
16:22and of course, Tim Montgomery wore the ZMA logo,
16:26and he won the United States championship in the 100 meters in 2001.
16:36Marion Jones did not actually go to prison for using drugs.
16:41She became involved in a check fraud scheme
16:45and also for lying to a federal agent.
16:48She didn't go to prison, actually, for anything to do with doping in sport.
16:53Ultimately, what I went to prison for was for distributing.
16:58I had a prescription for cream, testosterone cream.
17:03So I took that, and I added some epitestosterone to it,
17:07but with each time you would do it, you'd only do like a half a gram.
17:11So I had enough to supply twice a week, maybe max 25, 30 athletes.
17:18The entire amount of drugs that they confiscated that I was charged with
17:24was $1,700 worth street value and fit in a shoebox.
17:30So it was under 250 units, and the crime was 0 to 6 months.
17:36I served 4 months in a prison camp.
17:39I have a lot of regrets.
17:41The most difficult part of all for me was the shame that I brought to my family.
17:49And I was reckless because I didn't think about my own family.
17:55I didn't think about the family of the athletes that were involved.
18:00I didn't understand in the beginning that those on the peripheral,
18:07those not directly involved, how widespread the damage that I had caused would be.
18:19The drug testing that they are doing now before the 2024 Olympics
18:25has got all sorts of loopholes in it,
18:28and it is very easy for the athletes to use PEDs.
18:32They have in-competition tests and out-of-competition tests.
18:37And during the out-of-competition,
18:40they don't even test for about 80 stimulants and narcotics.
18:46So you can use all these drugs in training,
18:49but they only test for them at the competition.
18:53So right there is a loophole you can drive a Mack truck through.
18:57The other substances, they're not using designer steroids.
19:01They're using endogenous hormones, which is testosterone, growth hormone, insulin, EPO.
19:08And they're micro-dosing, and they're often times doing this at night.
19:13So when the collectors come in the morning,
19:15their levels are back down below the allowable limits, as they say.
19:20Many supplements that are widely available, ZMA, creatine,
19:28there's a lot of supplements that really help to accelerate healing and tissue repair.
19:34There are a lot of things that are legal performance-enhancing substances.
19:38The sensitivity of the equipment, they can detect at lower levels.
19:42So the testing is getting better,
19:45and I believe that if the athletes became of the opinion
19:51that the testing was effective, that they'd like to compete without using drugs.
19:57They really would.
19:58They'd like to know that they're the best athlete out there,
20:01and they did it with all the hard work, and it wasn't just about PEDs.
20:05But they're forced to do it because this is what it takes in order to be competitive.
20:11We know that in a 100-meter race, that the use of PEDs will make you 2 to 4 meters faster.
20:18You can't even get anywhere near the final of an Olympic 100-meter race without doing something.
20:26That's just the way it is. That's my opinion.
20:33If you remember back in the baseball days of Mark McGuire,
20:36Jose Canseco hitting all those home runs, this is what the fans want.
20:41They like the train wrecks.
20:44They want to know what's all the dirt, what's the secrets.
20:47And I don't know if you've heard about this new enhanced games that they're planning.
20:53One of the co-founders of PayPal, a billionaire, and others,
20:57supposedly in 2025, are going to allow the athletes under medical supervision to use drugs,
21:05and then hold a competition.
21:07I do not think it's a good idea.
21:10I think the general thinking of athletes is,
21:14if a little bit's good, a lot's going to be great.
21:17And then they have a tendency to overdo it,
21:19and the next thing you know, they're doing self-harm.
21:22Performance-enhancing drugs can be very dangerous.
21:25There have been Tour de France riders that have died from using EPO.
21:30Stimulants can cause cardiac arrest.
21:33Liver enzymes get elevated, and you damage your liver.
21:37I mean, there's a lot of potential side effects.
21:40Now, let me say that some substances, like testosterone,
21:45when used in moderation, are not that harmful.
21:50I myself have a prescription and use testosterone.
21:59I've done everything in my power to be outspoken
22:03and work with people that have the same desire as I do,
22:06which is to reduce the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs.
22:11So, it's kind of given me a purpose.
22:14It's important for me, for people to understand,
22:19that ever since I walked out of that prison camp,
22:23that I've been clean.
22:25I first became an anti-doping advocate in February of 2005.
22:31Right now, my focus is on working with world-class boxers.
22:35In the last decade, I have worked with 28 world champions.
22:38We have a training facility called SNAC,
22:41which that acronym stands for
22:42Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning.
22:45And those boxers are tested by VADA,
22:48Voluntary Anti-Doping Association,
22:50which is very stringent testing.
22:52The very first athlete in the world
22:55that has done 24-7, 365 testing with VADA
22:59is Nonito Diner.
23:01Nonito Diner was my fighter.
23:03I believe my group of SNAC fighters
23:05are the cleanest fighters in the entire sport.
23:08People say, well, he's so smart
23:10that if he tricked us before, he can trick us again.
23:13It's now been 12 years that I've been involved with boxing
23:18and advocating drug testing.
23:20We do live in a society of second chances,
23:23and people can and do change.
24:10www.globalonenessproject.org
24:40www.globalonenessproject.org