Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative

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The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) is a controversial sports nutrition center in Burlingame, California, USA. The company achieved infamy due to a long investigation in accusations that the lab provided anabolic steroids and other banned performance-enhancing drugs to athletes, many of them famous American elites. It has also been alleged that BALCO was responsible for the first production of the designer drug THG, a steroid specifically created to evade the current drug testing in professional sports.

The investigation involved charges of drug distribution directed to BALCO's founder Victor Conte, vice president James Valente, trainer Greg Anderson and track coach Remi Korchemny. On July 15, 2005, Conte and Anderson cut plea bargains, pled guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering and avoided an embarrassing trial. They will spend about four months in jail and four months on probation.

Sportsmen implicated or accused in the ensuing scandal include athletes Dwain Chambers, C.J. Hunter, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, baseball players Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Benito Santiago, and Gary Sheffield, and several members of the Oakland Raiders including Bill Romanowski, Tyrone Wheatley, Barrett Robbins and Dana Stubblefield. Conte was also connected with supplying "vitamin supplements" to the U.S. Olympic Judo team coached by Willy Cahill of San Bruno, CA.

The 2006 book Game of Shadows, by Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, featured an investigation into the questionable tactics used at BALCO.

On June 6, 2006, the house of Jason Grimsley, a relief pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks, was searched as part of the ongoing BALCO probe. Grimsley later said that federal investigators wanted him to wear a wire in order to get information against Barry Bonds. He told people which players used performance enhancing drugs. When the dust cleared, Grimsley was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks and was given a 50 game suspension by the MLB.