In a scathing report released just weeks before the start of the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, the White House Office of Drug Policy criticized the International Olympic Committee's drug testing program. The report, based on a two-year, $1 million study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, concludes that that the financial windfall available to medal-winning athletes motivates many competitors to use performance-enhancing substances. The report also highlights the IOC's conflict of interest in conducting drug testing: while the organization claims to want drug-free competition, the image of the Games, and their ability to attract lucrative corporate sponsors, would be damaged if star athletes were eliminated from competition by positive drug tests. The body responsible for overseeing drug testing at the Games, the World Anti-Doping Agency, is a part of the IOC. A new worldwide anti-doping agency, independent of the IOC, should be established to ensure fair and effective testing of athletes, the report concludes.

According to the IOC, athletes at the Summer Games in Sydney will be subjected to the most rigorous drug testing in Olympic history. A new blood test has been added to detect erythropoietin (EPO), a substance that causes the body to produce more red blood cells, which help athletes in endurance events. In addition, athletes will be given random out-of-competition urine tests to detect other popular performance enhancing substances such as anabolic steroids. However, there is still no reliable test to detect human growth hormone (HGH), which aids in muscle building, and some critics have charged that the IOC tests for EPO are useless because they may only be able to detect the drug if it was ingested within three days of the test.

When the Chinese Olympic team announced in early September that it was voluntarily withdrawing 27 members of its squad from competition in Sydney, the IOC cited the move as proof that its new anti-doping policy was a strong deterrent to athletes using performance-enhancing drugs. But others have commented that the Chinese might have other motives: they desperately want the summer games to be held in Beijing in 2008, and appearing to hold a hard line against doping may improve their chances.

On One Hand...

The IOC has made a clear commitment to a dope-free Games. The organizers of the Olympics know the public will lose interest in the Games if they suspect most athletic feats occur only because the competitors have used performance-enhancing drugs. The thrill of watching an athlete break a long-standing record would be forever tainted. The IOC cannot afford another Ben Johnson — the Canadian sprinting star who was stripped of his 1999 gold medal after testing positive for steroid use. Such incidents tarnish the image of the Games, and the new drug testing procedures adopted by the IOC for Sydney are a clear sign that the committee is serious about eliminating drug-using athletes from competition.

On the Other Hand...

The IOC's drug testing program is woefully insufficient. The committee has purposely selected tests that allow drug-using athletes to pass, because they know that more stringent tests would knock countless athletes out of competition. A rash of positive drug tests would be bad for the image of the Games, and bad for sponsorship revenues. The IOC has made itself complicit with the athletes and coaches who privately regard doping as a necessary part of competition. Until the IOC adopts tougher drug testing, athletes will be able to get away with using performance-enhancing drugs, and aspiring Olympians will continue to get the message that doping is the only way to compete with top athletes.

• The word 'dope' originated from a South African language. Dope referred to a primitive alcoholic drink that was used as a stimulant in ceremonial dances (ASDA)

• In ancient Greece, competitors in sporting events were reputedly willing to ingest any preparation that might enhance their performance, including extracts of mushrooms and plant seeds.

• The first significant international anti-doping development occurred in 1960 when the Council of Europe, a group of twenty-one western European nations, tabled a resolution against the use of doping substances in sport.

• Since a list of banned drugs was introduced at the 1968 Olympics, 11,053 tests have been conducted at the Games. Only 48, or 0.43 percent, have come up positive.

• At the 1904 Games, marathoner Thomas Hicks drank the stimulant strychnine and brandy during his wobbly run to victory.

• In 1960, Danish cyclist Knut Jensen died during the road race after ingesting amphetamines.

• During the 1980s, East Germans regularly passed drug tests even as they participated in a government-sponsored testosterone-doping program.

• When asked in surveys whether they would take a drug that would ensure victory but kill them within five years, about 50 percent of elite athletes picked the dope.

Miami Herald, ASDA