U.S. cyclist guilty of lying about steroids

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a case that could foreshadow the perjury indictment against baseball's home run king Barry Bonds, a federal jury in San Francisco on Friday found a cyclist guilty of lying to a federal grand jury about past steroid use.

Tammy Thomas, a silver medalist in the sprint competition at the 2001 World Championships, was one of many professional athletes who either saw their careers end or had their reputations sullied in the wake of the BALCO steroid scandal.

She is the first person charged in the BALCO cases to go to trial. The head of the BALCO laboratory, Victor Conte, reached a plea deal and has already served his time in prison, as has Patrick Arnold, the Illinois-based chemist who prepared the doping drugs.