Dick Pound, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and Victor Conte, founder of Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (a.k.a. BALCO), met on Wednesday to discuss a topic that has been making headlines for some time now: the use of drugs in sports.

Conte, who served 4 months in prison for steroid distribution, emphasized certain elements which could help decrease the number of doping cases found each year. According to him, “Instead of testing the top 100 two times a year, test the top 20 ten times each.” He also said that the testing should be more intense off-season rather than during competition season, as “that’s when they’re using anabolic steroids, that’s when they do their intensive weight training and build their strength base.”

This meeting follows the BALCO conviction of Marion Jones, whose five Sydney Olympic gold medals have been withdrawn after pleading guilty of using steroids in October 2007.  The American athlete has been banned from all competitions for the year to come, including the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Another case that made headlines is that of Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball home-run record holder, who pleaded not guilty to the prosecutors’ accusations of lying about using steroids and obstruction of justice in the case of Conte and four others. His name is also expected to appear in the Mitchell report on the use of steroids in MLB.

Although he was expected to publicly name some of the athletes involved in drug or steroid use, Conte said:  “It was inaccurately reported before the meeting that I would be naming names, but that was never my intention nor is that what occurred. Without naming the athletes, I did provide specific information regarding how athletes involved with doping around the world are so easily able to circumvent the anti-doping procedures in place.”

Dick Pound’s comments on the talks with Conte were: “Those of us responsible for leading in the fight against doping look forward to the benefits of such knowledge and cooperation, very much in the same manner that we welcome information from athletes who have doped in the past and are now willing to help us have a greater understanding of the nature and extent of the doping problem and how to attack it.”