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Early in the summer, the United States Anti-Doping Agency sent Dr. Don Catlin a used syringe.

The needle was given to the USADA by an anonymous “high profile” track and field coach concerned that athletes might be using a mysterious performance-enhancing drug.

It had just a few drops of residue in it. That’s all Catlin needed.

After months of work and dozens of tests, the head of UCLA’s Olympic Analytical Laboratory made some momentous discoveries: The residue was a previously unknown and undetectable anabolic steroid, and that steroid was present in urine samples of athletes who had been cleared for previous competition.

Now, USADA officials say they may have uncovered the biggest steroid scandal in history – what the agency’s chief executive, Terry Madden, called “intentional doping of the worst sort.”

Olympians could be suspended for the 2004 games in Athens, Greece.

And it all started at UCLA with what Catlin called “a needle-in-a-haystack-type project.”

When the lab received the substance, the first step was to develop a chemical “fingerprint” of it. That required a process called gas chromatography/mass spectrometry – or, GC/MS – analysis.

GC/MC analysis involves separating all component compounds of a sample and, once separated, putting them through a mass spectrometer, which maps compounds’ chemical structure in a series of peaks and valleys.

After completing the GC/MS process, it was clear to Catlin and researchers working with him that they were dealing with a substance they had not seen before. Working with an unfamiliar compound, they were faced with the challenge of discovering its molecular make-up.

The researchers were able to conclude the substance was not a stimulant after about a week, Catlin said. Soon after, it became apparent that they had a steroid.

Finally, they mapped out a molecular structure of an anabolic steroid they felt matched that of the substance in the syringe.

And then, “We synthesized it. We made our own,” Catlin said.

After putting the synthesized material – tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG – through the spectrometer, they found it to be chemically identical to the substance in the syringe.

“We knew we had it,” Catlin said.

Lab researchers developed a test for the steroid and ran tests on hundreds of old urine samples.

Catlin found that samples that failed the new steroid test, had passed old ones. Catlin did not specify how many samples failed, but the USADA said Thursday that several track athletes tested positive for a steroid that was not detectable in late June, at the time of their first tests.

The steroid appears to have been designed to have the same effect as other steroids, but to be chemically different enough to slip by tests, Catlin said.

“They were clever,” he said.

He later added, “I wish I could talk to the chemist (who made it).”

Though the chemist’s identity remains a mystery, USADA officials say they have a good idea who was dispensing THG.

In a statement, the USADA said the coach who provided the syringe identified the source of the substance in it as Victor Conte, owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame, Calif.

In e-mails to The Associated Press, Conte both denied that he distributed THG and said there is no chemical proof that THG has the same effect as other steroids.

There is little empirical evidence open to public about what THG can do to the body.

“The people who’ve taken it won’t tell what happened to them,” Catlin said.

Still, officials maintain they are fairly certain BALCO was distributing the steroid.

BALCO was raided in early September by the Internal Revenue Service and a local drug enforcement task force.

Numerous media reports say that as many as 40 athletes have been called to testify before a grand jury regarding BALCO, whose clients reportedly included baseball sluggers Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, All-Pro NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski, and world-class sprinters Kelli White and Marion Jones.

Catlin said the THG discovery was unlike anything he had ever seen.

But the doctor’s reputation as a leader in the efforts to stop doping was already established.

A few years ago Catlin discovered that a substance that created higher blood-oxygen levels – thus giving boosts to athletes competing in endurance competitions – was slipping through tests.

The UCLA lab he runs is the only International Olympic Committee-accredited lab in the United States. When the winter Olympics came to Salt Lake City, Catlin led a team of 60 members of UCLA’s lab who were responsible for testing athletes.

At that point, Catlin expressed confidence in his ability to detect drugs for which tests existed, but acknowledged that some tests still needed to be developed.

And now, even after developing a test that could have devastating impacts for those intent on cheating in sports, Catlin said there still could be work to do.

“There could be more out there that we don’t know about,” he said.

With Associated Press reports.