Before BALCO: how Patrick Arnold and a bottle of Andro built the prohormone industry before got it banned

In August 1998, an Associated Press reporter spotted a brown bottle in Mark McGwire's locker at Busch Stadium. The bottle was androstenedione. McGwire was in the middle of the home-run chase that would end with him at 70 and Sammy Sosa at 66. He confirmed to reporters he had been taking the supplement for over…

ByJon LipseyMay 14, 20260Comments

NUTRITION Great minds

The second act of Patrick Arnold: the chemist who designed The Clear, then invented the ketone supplement industry

In 2011, a University of South Florida researcher called Dominic D'Agostino came to Patrick Arnold with a request. He needed a molecule synthesised. The molecule was a ketone ester, a compound that, taken orally, would metabolise in the body into acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyric acid, the two endogenous ketones the body produces when it fully metabolises…

ByJon LipseyMay 13, 20260Comments

TRAINING Icon

Patrick Arnold: the chemist behind BALCO on doping, ketones, and the rules he tried to live around

The chemist who designed the most consequential undetectable steroid in the history of professional sport spent the last decade of his life trying to build something else. A ketone ester for a Navy-funded research lab. BHB salts. NAD precursors. A longevity formula he was developing with an old partner. A gram of NMN every morning.…

ByJon LipseyMay 13, 20260Comments

TRAINING

BALCO exclusive: master chemist Patrick Arnold reveals the inside story of sport’s biggest scandal

Patrick Arnold Patrick Arnold is a synthetic organic chemist best known for his role in creating designer steroids, specifically The Clear, that were used by elite athletes in what became known as the BALCO Scandal. He also introduced the nutritional supplement Andro (androstenedione) and created the class of sports supplements known as prohormones. Arnold also…

ByDr Jonny ReesApril 1, 20240Comments

Before BALCO: how Patrick Arnold and a bottle of Andro built the prohormone industry before got it banned

The second act of Patrick Arnold: the chemist who designed The Clear, then invented the ketone supplement industry

Patrick Arnold: the chemist behind BALCO on doping, ketones, and the rules he tried to live around

BALCO exclusive: master chemist Patrick Arnold reveals the inside story of sport’s biggest scandal

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