Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports [Paperback]

#1 National Bestseller | A riveting narrative about the biggest doping scandal in the history of sports

“A sober, skillful, and utterly damning account of not just the Bonds fiasco but the pervasive influence of steroids in sports.”—Los Angeles Times

Award-winning investigative journalists Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams provide a definitive account of the shocking steroids scandal that made headlines across the country. Drawing on more than two years of reporting, including interviews with hundreds of people, and exclusive access to secret grand jury testimony, confidential documents, audio recordings, and more, the authors provide a definitive account of the notorious scandal that turned the sports world upside down.

The book traces the career of Victor Conte, founder of the BALCO laboratory, an egomaniacal former rock musician and self-proclaimed nutritionist, who set out to corrupt sports by providing athletes with “designer” steroids that would be undetectable on “state-of-the-art” doping tests. Conte gave the undetectable drugs to 28 of the world’s greatest athletes: Olympians, NFL players and baseball stars—including Barry Bonds.

A landmark piece of reportage and a page-turning exposé, Game of Shadows casts light into the recesses of American sport to reveal the dark truths at the heart of the game. A sober, skillful and utterly damning account of not just the Bonds fiasco but the pervasive influence of steroids in sports. —Los Angeles Times

Devastating. . . . groundbreaking. . . . Necessary reading for anyone concerned with the steroids era in baseball and track and field and its fallout on sports history. —Michiko Kakutani