The complete inside story of the shocking steroids
scandal that turned the sports world upside down
For years, in the shadowy reaches of the world of
sport, there were rumors that some of our nation�s greatest
athletes were using steroids, human growth hormone, and
other drugs to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. But
as track stars like Marion Jones blazed their way to
Olympic medals and sluggers such as Mark McGwire brought
fans back to baseball with stratospheric home runs, sports
officials, the media, and fans looked past the rumors and
cheered on the stars to ever-higher levels of performance.
Then, in December 2004, after more than fifteen months of
relentless reporting, San Francisco Chronicle
reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams broke the
story of the Bay Area Lab Co-operative, a tiny nutritional
supplement company that according to sworn testimony was
supplying elite athletes, including baseball MVP Jason
Giambi, with banned drugs. The stories, exposing rampant
cheating at the highest levels of athletics, shocked the
nation as sports heroes were brought low and their records
were tainted. The exposes led to Congressional hearings on
baseball�s drug problems, and a revived effort to purge the
U.S. Olympic movement of drug cheats.
Now, in Game of
Shadows, Fainaru-Wada and Williams tell the complete
story of BALCO and the investigation that has shaken the
foundations of the sporting world. They reveal how an
obscure, self-proclaimed nutritionist, Victor Conte, became
a steroid svengali to multi-millionaire athletes desperate
for a competitive edge, and how he created superstars with
his potent cocktails of miracle drugs. They expose the
international web of coaches and trainers who funneled
athletes to BALCO, and how the drug cheats stayed a step
ahead of the testing agencies and the law. They detail how
an aggressive IRS investigator doggedly gathered evidence
until Conte and his co-conspirators were brought to justice.
And at the center of the story is the biggest star of them
all, Barry Bonds, the muscle-bound MVP outfielder of the San
Francisco Giants whose suspicious late-career renaissance
has him threatening Hank Aaron�s all-time home run record.
Shocking, revelatory, and page-turning, Game of
Shadows casts light into the shadows of American sport
to reveal the dark truths at the heart of the game today.
About the Author MARK FAINARU-WADA and LANCE WILLIAMS are
investigative reporters for the San Francisco
Chronicle. After fifteen months of covering steroid use
in sports, in December 2004 they reported in the
Chronicle on the secret grand jury testimony of pro
baseball players Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds, making
headlines around the world. Fainaru- Wada and Williams won
the Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award, the
George Polk Award, and the White House Correspondents�
Association�s Edgar A. Poe Award for their reporting.
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