Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Tim Montgomery was transformed from an unheralded sprinter into the world’s fastest man by an American drugs guru, a report has claimed.
The San Jose Mercury News claims Vincent Conte’s Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) secretly assembled a team of five, including infamous Canadian coach Charlie Francis, to oversee a programme dubbed “project world record” designed to make Montgomery a world record-beater. Montgomery ran a world best 9.78 sec in Paris in September 2002.
Besides Francis, coach to disgraced 1988 Olympic champion Ben Johnson, the group included Conte, Montgomery, track coach Trevor Graham and strength coach and former Yugoslav bodybuilder Milos Sarcev.
Four of the five agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Montgomery opted out of signing. The newspaper said it had seen corroborating documents and talked to sources who confirmed the existence of project world record.
Francis’ job was to create a workout regime while Graham worked with Montgomery at the track.
As part of the programme, Montgomery was given the non-detectable designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG). Montgomery was told to take thg eight times in May 2001, including at the modes to relays on May 12 and in Eugene, Oregon, two weeks later. Montgomery has never tested positive and denies taking banned performance-enhancing supplements.
