Drug Tests

Breaking four years of silence, two-time Olympian Diane Williams said Sunday that she took anabolic steroids before the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Williams, 28, who finished fourth in the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials in July, 1984, also said in an interview with ABC's Donna de Varona that she failed a drug test during the trials in the Coliseum.

Tyrann Mathieu, Louisiana State's big-play defensive back known as the "Honey Badger," will join former Tigers stars Patrick Peterson and Kevin Minter in Arizona after the Cardinals used a third-round pick on the troubled star Friday. Mathieu, the runner-up in the 2011 Heisman Trophy voting, did not play last season after he was kicked off the LSU football team by Coach Les Miles for repeatedly failing drug tests. Peterson, an all-pro cornerback and friend of Mathieu, was selected with the fifth overall pick two years ago by the Cardinals, who used a second-round choice Friday on Minter, an all-SEC linebacker and Butkus Award finalist.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and owner Jeremy Mayfield has been suspended indefinitely after failing a random drug test administered at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway last week. "We have zero tolerance for violation of our substance-abuse policy," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of corporate communication. "We've made it very clear that we're going to stick to that. . . . Overall I think the random testing program is working.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission fined and suspended boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Thursday over a failed drug test last year before a Mexican Independence Day fight in Las Vegas. The popular 27-year-old fighter, who's the son of a famous boxer by the same name, tested positive for marijuana in September after his first professional loss. Chavez (46-1-1) was suspended for nine months from the date of the fight and fined $900,000, which amounts to 30% of his $3-million purse for the bout against Sergio Martinez . Chavez, who spoke by phone from Mexico, said through an interpreter that he was sorry for his actions and had taken the drug to curb his stress eight or nine days before the much-anticipated fight.

Steroid and other performance-enhancing drug tests given to Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao were declared negative Friday by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Marquez, 39, became noticeably more muscular before avenging two close losses by decisions and a draw by knocking out Pacquiao in the sixth round of their Saturday welterweight fight at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In a Monday telephone conversation with The Times, Marquez expressed full confidence that his drug tests would be negative.

The privacy of a physician, bus driver, airline pilot or others holding positions affecting public health and/or safety is not more important than my life or the lives of others. People in those occupational categories should be required to have periodic drug tests. If they feel this is an invasion of their privacy they are free to resign, enter an occupation where they are not responsible for the safety and well-being of others, and snort, shoot up, or smoke themselves into oblivion.

LAS VEGAS - The erratic state of drug testing in boxing is perhaps best revealed in the absence of scrutiny faced by Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez before their Saturday fight. Neither boxer has submitted a blood or urine sample. "I would like uniform testing, but there's no plan," said veteran fight promoter Gary Shaw, who is not involved in the Pacquiao-Marquez bout. "It has to start with the boxing commissions, and they have to get serious about it. Barry Bonds, he was hitting baseballs for home runs.

Shaun White slumps on a couch inside a cavernous chalet rented by one of his corporate sponsors. The millionaire snowboarder appears weary from a party thrown the previous night by another sponsor. It's Thursday afternoon and beyond the patio, on Aspen's Buttermilk Mountain, the Winter X Games have begun. White, 22, is two days from winning the popular slopestyle competition, and three days from repeating as halfpipe champion.

The chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission has ordered Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. to take immediate out-of-competition urine tests, even as the sides bicker heatedly over a drug-testing policy that threatens to scrap their scheduled March 13 mega-fight in Las Vegas. Nevada Athletic Commission Chairman Pat Lundvall ordered Executive Director Keith Kizer to point Mayweather and Pacquiao to accredited drug-testing labs in the United States and Philippines, respectively, for tests that must be completed by Wednesday, Kizer told The Times.

One student plays the trumpet and French horn competitively. Another competes with her flute ensemble. A third has been raising his prized market hog for a livestock show. Under a policy adopted by a school district in Redding, Calif., about 200 miles north of San Francisco, those students are subject to random drug tests, like any others participating in competitive activities.

Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez, who was named in a Miami New Times report as receiving performance-enhancing drugs from an anti-aging clinic, says tests for PEDs he was given by Major League Baseball have come back negative. “Like I said before, I've never taken performance-enhancing drugs and I never will,” Gonzalez said Friday. “Two days after the story broke, I was tested for blood and urine, and both came out negative, like I expected. Throughout my entire career, it's been like that.

With losses in his last two fights, Manny Pacquiao is no longer the elite fighter he once was. And once you drop out of the elite ranks, others start taking shots at you they may not have before. Case in point, Jorge Arce, who says Pacquiao has to be using some sort of performance-enhancing supplements. "Pacquiao is getting something, that's for sure,” Arce said told boxingscene.com . “He never comes up positive during drug tests, so it is logical that he is using something that is legal or not detectable in his urine.

As spring training dawned in 2009, Alex Rodriguez faced the cameras and confessed to his use of performance-enhancing substances from 2001 to 2003. “My mistake … I was immature and I was stupid,” he said then . Yet that very same year, the New York Yankees star was supplied with performance-enhancing drugs , according to a report posted Tuesday by Miami New Times. The newspaper cited 16 records from a now-closed Florida clinic that indicated Rodriguez was provided with human growth hormone and other substances as recently as last year.

If Lance Armstrong's mea culpa to Oprah Winfrey is being done as a bid for forgiveness, Kathy LeMond will be watching with deaf ears. "There is no limit to what he would do to protect his secret," said LeMond, the wife of three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, "and not one word could come out of his mouth that would convince me to change his opinion of who he really is. "I can't describe to you the level of fear he brings to a family,...

Steroid and other performance-enhancing drug tests given to Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao were declared negative Friday by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Marquez, 39, became noticeably more muscular before avenging two close losses by decisions and a draw by knocking out Pacquiao in the sixth round of their Saturday welterweight fight at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In a Monday telephone conversation with The Times, Marquez expressed full confidence that his drug tests would be negative.

LAS VEGAS -- Juan Manuel Marquez on Monday vowed, “I am a clean fighter,” predicting his drug tests in Nevada will come back negative while adding that he'll seek to do random, Olympic-style testing before his next fight. “I feel very happy with my training, I feel great about the tests,” Marquez told The Times in a telephone conversation from his MGM Grand suite before boarding a flight home to Mexico. “I won't have a problem.” Marquez, 39, rallied from three bitterly contested fights against Manny Pacquiao - - two losses and a draw - - to knock out Pacquiao with a precise and brutal right counter-punch late in the sixth round in a likely fight-of-the-year performance Saturday night.

Elaine Bogart had no second thoughts about subjecting her children to drug tests. When the Santa Clarita mother learned of a program through her school district that allows parents to track the results of random tests of their children's urine, she enrolled her two teenagers right away. "It was my decision," she said. "They do have some rights, but I'm responsible for them. I need to make sure they're safe. " The William S. Hart Union High School District program is believed to be the only one of its kind in the country, according to program administrators.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants Manny Pacquiao to submit to Olympic-style drug tests, including a blood test within days of their tentatively scheduled March 13 bout, and failing to agree to these terms could threaten the fight, Mayweather's camp said Tuesday. Pacquiao has expressed reluctance to submit to a blood test within 30 days of the proposed world welterweight title fight, which will be staged at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. "As management for Floyd, we're insisting this Olympic-style, random [blood]

LAS VEGAS - The erratic state of drug testing in boxing is perhaps best revealed in the absence of scrutiny faced by Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez before their Saturday fight. Neither boxer has submitted a blood or urine sample. "I would like uniform testing, but there's no plan," said veteran fight promoter Gary Shaw, who is not involved in the Pacquiao-Marquez bout. "It has to start with the boxing commissions, and they have to get serious about it. Barry Bonds, he was hitting baseballs for home runs.