Chapter 465: The Father of Prohormone

On the plane back to Los Angeles, Aylwin and Alexander were seated together.

“Justin, did you hear that the national team asked us to provide our blood samples?” asked Aylwin.

“Yes, I’ve been informed.” Alexander nodded. “I’ve heard that they are going to make personal biological information files for athletes, so they have to collect blood samples for that.”

“What the hell is a ‘personal biological information file’? I have been in the national team for several years, and I’ve been to the Olympics three times, but I’ve never heard of it,” said Aylwin.

“I was confused too, so I called the staff who are taking charge of it and they told me that they made it with the aim to keep us safe. They seem to be worried about kidnappings or terrorists during the Olympics.” Alexander shrugged.

“We’re just athletes, not politicians. Terrorists won’t bother us!” Aylwin complained.

“That’s not necessarily true. This Olympics is being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the security isn’t good. So we Americans are just like walking wallets there.” When Alexander said this, he stopped and looked at Aylwin with a smile. “Especially you, you are the world’s top sports star. If I were a terrorist, I would kidnap you!”

“If someone kidnaps me, I’ll run. No one can surpass me within four hundred meters,” Aylwin joked.

…

“I made an excuse to get the blood samples of Jimmy Aylwin, Justin Alexander, and Shawn Ford. And I’ve asked very reliable people to send the samples to you, so please be ready to receive them,” Sebastian’s voice came over the phone.

“I see. I’ll ask someone to follow up,” Franklin said.

Sebastian asked, “What should we do if we can’t find anything in his blood sample?”

“If we can’t find any problems in his blood sample, we can do something else. I’m waiting for the investigation’s results,” said Franklin.

“Is there any progress from the private investigation company?” Sebastian asked eagerly.

“Nothing. They even sent someone to pretend to be customers in Dai Li’s training center, but they still found out nothing.” Franklin sighed and continued, “You’re now the head coach of the national team, so can you use your authority to help us.”

“I see. There will be an assembly for training two days from now, and I will try to ask them some questions. Hopefully I can get some information.” When Sebastian said this, he heard a knock at the door.

“Someone has come to visit me, so I need to go. Please let me know if you have any news.” Sebastian hung up the phone eagerly.

The creation of personal biological information was an excuse, Sebastian just wanted to get the blood samples of Aylwin, Alexander, and Ford. As the head coach of the US team, Sebastian had the authority to do this.

In front of Franklin sat a man in his 60s with a long face and deep-set eye sockets. But the most obvious feature was his big aquiline nose, which resembled the nose of Penguin in a Batman movie.

When Sebastian talked with Franklin on the phone, it was obvious that he didn’t know there was someone else in Franklin’s room. If he had known, he would never have talked to Franklin, because they were talking about something that couldn’t be overheard by others.

The only reason that Franklin let the man remain in the room was because the man was already an insider.

When Franklin put down the phone, and he immediately explained to the man, “That was a call from Sebastian. He has the blood sample, and it can be delivered today.”

“As soon as the blood sample arrives, we can test it at once. I hope we can find some clues,” the man with the aquiline nose said.

“I’ll try to. But I couldn’t find any problems in their urine samples, so I’m worried that we might not be able to find any problems in their blood samples either,” said Franklin.

“Don’t worry, just go ahead and do your job. And please remind the research firm not to stop their work; it might be crucial for finding other clues. I still have plan B,” the aquiline nose said.

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“As you wish, Mr. Blecher,” Franklin answered.

If Sebastian had been in the room, he would have been very surprised when he saw the aquiline nose. And then Sebastian would have chosen to leave at once and stay away from the aquiline nose, and he would have chosen to terminate his contract with Franklin’s Laboratory.

The name “Blecher” was well-known to sports coaches and athletes, and they weren’t allowed have any contact with him.

Blecher was a scientist and the owner of a pharmaceutical company. And his nickname was “the father of prohormone.”

Prohormone was a kind of synthetic metabolic hormone formed by enzymatic transformation in the body. Prohormone could increase the circumference and strength of muscle, reduce internal fat, and improve sexual function. Once they entered the body, they would be transformed into steroid analogues. For athletes, Prohormone was a kind of performance-enhancing drug.

Since he could be called “the father of Prohormone,” then there was no doubt that he was the most senior expert in this field; what’s more, he was a world-famous expert with many research achievements under his belt.

As a scientist, there was nothing wrong with engaging himself in the research of prohormone, but what Blecher had done has beyond the limits of ethical science.

During the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in politics, economics, military, science, and other fields, including sports. In order to achieve better scores, Athletes in both countries began to take various drugs, which resulted in the rapid development of performance enhancers drugs.

The International Olympic Committee launched a campaign against doping in 1968, but it didn’t work. Especially in the 1980s, when doping was rampant among athletes, there were many incredible world records, and thanks to doping, some of them weren’t even broken for a couple decades.

Blecher was active in that era, and when he was a doctor, his research project was prohormone. He even had patents on it.

After getting his PhD, Blecher turned down a number of offers from many pharmaceutical companies. He sold his patent, found some sponsors, and set up a small laboratory to continue his prohormone research.

Blecher’s research went well, and he made numerous research advancements and gained more sponsors. In addition, his small laboratory became a big laboratory. His research in prohormone was highly valued by large-scale pharmaceutical companies, so he was paid a lot of patent royalties. Then Blecher started his own pharmaceutical company in the mid-nineties.

Blecher’s excellent performance and research achievements earned him the title “the father of prohormone.”

He was very famous at that time. His had his own research achievements, he had great fame and his pharmaceutical company, and it was obvious that he was a successful scientist. In addition, he often donated money everywhere with the aim of packaging himself as a philanthropist.

But great changes took place in 1990, when the World Anti-Doping Agency Council was established in Lausanne. And at the same time, the International Olympic Committee announced that it would provide the World Anti-Doping Agency with the full cost of doping control in the next two of three years. In 1999, the International Olympic Committee gave $2,500 to the World Anti-Doping Agency for anti-doping.

In 1999, $2,500 meant you could do many things; for example, setting up a special committee to take responsibility for out-of-competition drug tests, setting up a research group to research new types of drugs, and buying new equipment to upgrade the existing techniques of drug tests.

With the money given by the IOC, the World Anti-Doping Agency made several achievements. In 2000, many American athletes were found doping by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and some of them were former world champions and world record holders. It even alarmed the FBI.

Soon, the FBI found that the sudden deaths of some athletes in recent years had been related to the usage of performance-enhancing drugs. If athletes just used the drugs in competition, then it was only a moral problem that violated the fairness of the competition. But if there were many cases of deaths, then the situation was more serious than anyone had realized.

As the investigation of the FBI went further, Blecher became the focus of the FBI, and the truth began to surface. The FBI found that Blecher not only provided drugs to many athletes, but also provided them with drugs that had never gone through clinical trials. What’s more, many kinds of drugs had shown obvious side effects in animal tests, but Blecher still provided them to athletes. This was also the cause of the sudden death of some athletes.

Apart from providing athletes with drugs, Blecher also collected athletes’ body indicators as experimental data for his further research. It meant that he used the athletes as guinea pigs, which also equivalent to conducting human trials without any safety measures.

In recent years, Blecher’s rapid progress in prohormone research had also benefited from his disregard of proper clinical trials. Other scientists conducted their research step by step, but Blecher ignored the safety of athletes and conducted his experiments on living athletes, which was definitely faster than normal research.

His behavior violated not only the law, but also the basic morality of human beings. It caused a great sensation in the US that year, and Blecher turned from a successful scientist into a person hated by everyone. He was suddenly facing legal punishment.

But the law is biased towards the rich in many cases, and a wealthy man such as Blecher could hire the best lawyers and find plenty of scapegoats. Most of the charges against Blecher ended up being untenable, and he was eventually sentenced to only six months in prison. But several coaches of the athletes who died were suddenly accused of manslaughter and forced to serve several years in prison.

After this, Blecher became a pariah in the eyes of coaches and athletes. His lack of morals allowed him to provide athletes with drugs that had not passed animal experiments, and the drugs he provided to these athletes were fatal. Although all athletes were eager to improve their performance, their lives were more important than performance.

Blecher was blacklisted by sports coaches and athletes, and even Sebastian, who provided drugs to athletes, would never be willing to contact Blecher or talk with him. Blecher’s reputation was so terrible, if a coach had contact with him, then the coach would instantly become the target of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and his athletes, fearing for their health and lives, would choose to be far away.

But Franklin’s Laboratory, which he had worked with for several years, was actually being sponsored by Blecher. If Sebastian had known that Franklin’s Laboratory had always been sponsored by Blecher, he would never have dared to use any of the products of Franklin’s Laboratory.