End steroid use, says Arnie

CALIFORNIA governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is vowing to use his new position as editor of a muscle magazine to push for an end to steroid use in bodybuilding.

Mr Schwarzenegger spoke briefly to reporters while attending an annual bodybuilding event named in his honour, Arnold Fitness Weekend.

“It is very complicated,” said Mr Schwarzenegger, who was recently named executive editor of Flex and Muscle, and Fitness magazines.

About 2,500 people paid 350 each to have their picture taken with the former bodybuilder at the three-day event that featured over 11,000 competitors, the newspaper said. Mr Schwarzenegger has gone from Mr Olympia, to one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood to a political figure who is now in the fourth month of his new role as governor of California.

A dark cloud hung over this year’s Arnold event because of the arrival in Columbus of embattled drug-lab operator Victor Conte. Mr Conte, the head of BALCO Laboratories, has been accused by federal officials of giving performance-enhancing supplements to star athletes like San Francisco Giants baseball slugger Barry Bonds.

Mr Conte was in Columbus to promote one of his new products.

The event was part competition and part convention. Hundreds of vendor booths were staff with scantilly-clad women peddling plastic bags filled with the pills and powders designed to help the athletes bulk up.

Meanwhile, investigators want to limit the number of steroid test result subpoenas to seven athletes in the BALCO probe.