Athletics: Jones Fights Back As Conte Offers to Sing

In what is turning into a compelling game of call my bluff, Marion Jones last night chose to address the world in an effort to convince it of her innocence only hours after Victor Conte, the man at the centre of the doping scandal, sent a letter to the White House that could blow the whole case apart.

The letter promised he is willing to provide incriminating information about athletes, coaches and officials involved in drugs to ensure the United States team that travels to the Athens Olympics in August is clean.

In exchange Conte, the founder and owner of the San Francisco-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, was seeking President George Bush's intervention in his plea-bargain agreements with the United States Attorney's Office.

Conte's lawyer, Robert Holley, asked Bush to help the US avoid "the shame of being branded a country of 'cheaters'" and his client said he would answer questions from the Department of Justice, the US Olympic Committee and the US Anti-Doping Agency. Conte has also offered to assemble a group of experts to help get rid of performance-enhancing drugs if Bush promised to keep him and his partner James Valente out of jail.

They face two years if they are found guilty of a number of offences, including tax evasion and money laundering, but if Bush ignores Conte's offer it could lead to the fascinating prospect of him helping Jones, whose legal team have been seeking his assistance.

They wrote to him last month asking whether he would voluntarily appear or require a subpoena to testify because he has relevant information.

It highlights the pressure on both Usada and Jones, winner of a record five Olympic medals in Sydney four years ago, as Usada tries to decide whether it has enough evidence acquired in a federal raid of Balco to bring charges against her.

Jones, who has repeatedly insisted she has been drug-free throughout her career, has threatened to sue Usada if it attempts to bar her from the games on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

The agency has already notified five US athletes - Tim Montgomery, the father of Jones's son; Chryste Gaines; Michelle Collins; and the twins Alvin and Calvin Harrison - of possible drug charges. None has been formally charged and they have until the end of the week to respond.

Conte and Valente have been charged with distributing steroids to elite athletes in company with Greg Anderson, the personal trainer of baseball's Barry Bonds, and Remi Korchemny, the Ukrainian-born coach of Britain's Dwain Chambers, banned for two years after testing positive for the designer steroid THG.

In his letter, Conte said he was willing to "reveal everything he knows about officials, coaches and athletes in order to clean up the Olympics".

Usada needs Conte's help in authenticating and translating various documents, including alleged steroid calendars. His assistance, though, would come only if a plea agreement were reached with the government; without this, Conte would not be unlikely to corroborate or explain the documents or his statements.

It is not only the likes of Jones and Montgomery who have need to be fearful: the letter also indicates that Conte could expose corruption among officials and coaches. For instance, an email he sent in August 2002 shows he had insider knowledge of the actions of drug testers, according to an unsealed government affidavit.

Writing to an international coach, whose name was deleted before the document became public, Conte said he had learned that three individuals had sent International Olympic Committee drug-testers a sample of "clear", a name for the designer steroid THG. But it was not until the following year, when a sample was sent to the International Olympic Committee-accredited laboratory in Los Angeles, that a test was developed for the drug.

The letter came as Usada continues to examine tens of thousands of pages of documents from the federal case against Conte and three other men. Those documents include purported drug-use calendars for athletes, as well as statements Conte made to federal agents during the September raid.

Those documents, obtained by a Senate committee from the Justice Department and then turned over to Usada, have already led the sprinter Kelli White, the world 100 and 200 metres champion, to acknowledge drug use and accept a two-year ban.