Doctor in BALCO steroids scandal could lose license

Friday, September 8th 2006, 12:45 pm

By: News On 6

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ The former medical director of the clinic at the center of a massive sports-doping scandal could lose his license for allegedly giving a prescription stimulant to a champion sprinter without examining her.

The state medical board is seeking to revoke or suspend the medical license of Fairfield psychiatrist Dr. Brian Halevie-Goldman, who was medical director for the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative that gave steroids to top athletes.

Halevie-Goldman allegedly provided the drug modafinil to the unnamed athlete at the request of BALCO founder Victor Conte, who served four months in federal prison for dealing steroids.

The board identified the athlete by the initials K.W., but details in the report indicate it was elite sprinter Kelli White, a BALCO client who tested positive for modafinil after winning gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter races at the World Championships in Paris in 2003.

When White tested positive for the stimulant at a track meet, Halevie-Goldman concocted a medical history and diagnosis in an effort to excuse the doping offense, the medical board charged.

White was stripped of her gold medals from the 2003 World meet and suspended for two years.

She provided information to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on her former coach Remi Korchemny and Conte.

BALCO created performance-enhancing drugs designed to avoid detection by the USADA and professional sporting leagues, including Major League Baseball and the National Football League.

The names of several prominent athletes have surfaced in the federal probe, including other track stars and baseball players, such as Giants slugger Barry Bonds.

The BALCO probe brought guilty pleas in U.S. District Court from Conte, Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson, BALCO vice president James Valente, Korchemny and Patrick Arnold, the chemist who designed a previously undetectable steroid.