Ra-Hooligan

Remember in middle school, when officer Holmberg of the D.A.R.E. program told you drugs aren't cool?

Apparently Olympic athletes never met officer Holmberg.

In the latest string of drug-related incidents at the Games in Sydney, authorities revealed that American shot putter C.J. Hunter, the husband of star sprinter Marion Jones, tested positive four times this summer for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. Even more disturbing, it seems as though U.S. and international track and field officials never told this to the International Olympic Committee, the Games' governing body.

While Hunter pulled out of the Olympics a few weeks before they started, citing injury (or perhaps he knew he'd be caught?), his story only emphasizes the notion that the Olympics are populated with athletes who are all on varying degrees of performance-enhancing medications.

So far, in these Games, the casualties include several eastern European weightlifters and a young Romanian gymnast who was stripped of her gold medal.

In retrospect, you had to see it coming. The Australians had boasted for years that the 2000 Olympics would be "the cleanest Games ever" and that they were going to test athletes on an even more stringent standard than the ones the IOC usually uses.

Of course, that meant more people would get caught, considering how the use of certain drugs is almost ingrained in the culture of some Olympic sports, including track and field.

Even though the Aussies' hearts are in the right place, the idea of having "clean Games" is laughable. The IOC almost makes sure of it.

Consider:

Since 1998, when the first stories broke about the scandals involved in picking Olympic cities, the IOC has been desperately looking to clean up its image. It instituted some internal reforms and put a lot of money into the 2000 Sydney Games.

The success of the Games, the IOC knows, largely depends on stories of success and achievement, of overcoming obstacles and setting records. It helps when those athletes are from the home country--like Australian super-swimmer Ian "Thorpedo" Thorpe--or America, where the big bucks come from. So far this Olympics has not disappointed, with swimming records galore and exciting new teams like the U.S. men's soccer squad.

Behind the shine, however, I hardly find it surprising to see more and more scandal. For a while now, the anti-doping movement has been picking up speed, to the point where there is even a vigilant independent organization dedicated to making sure the Games have no druggies. But the doped athletes and their doctors are always one step ahead.

No matter how many drugs the IOC adds to its banned list, and despite new and more effective testing methods, many athletes will slip under the radar. Complicating the increasing number of rules is the lack of enforcement. IOC officials admit the random drug-testing method it employs is an inadequate mess.

No wonder that those who get caught are often the unfortunate or stupid. Some of the recent athletes caught were using "old-school" drugs like steroids that are easily detectable; if they had some more time or money they could find a doctor who knows how to manipulate results. In the case of the young Romanian gold-medallist gymnast, she was duped by her doctor, who had put some banned drugs (not even performance-enhancing) in her cold medicine. But, as IOC drug czar Prince Alexandre de Merode pointed out, rules are rules.

The end result of all this nonsense is that nobody knows who's doped and who's clean, and so a cloud of suspicion is cast over all.

Mr. De Merode isn't helping things, either. While rightfully punishing Hunter, he also made remarks that the U.S. track and field association has habitually hid positive drug results from the IOC. De Merode's claims are something to look into, but his lack of evidence doesn't engender any trustworthy feelings.

So what can be done? Obviously, the athletes and coaches themselves must take the first steps. Training, exercise and diet are proper paths; banned substances aren't. They also ought to educate themselves more (with help from their countries) about what exactly is and isn't banned, to avoid any mistakes.

Second, there has to be more communication among the various national associations, sports federations and the IOC. It is absolutely preposterous that the IOC isn't required to be informed of every drug infraction. Drug testing may be a joke in smaller events, but at the Olympics it should be of paramount importance.

Sadly, I expect over the course of the next several days, as the 2000 Games wind down, that there will probably be more drug violations. Even sadder, there will be medal winners who will never be caught, perhaps denying a "clean" athlete of a medal. It is unfortunate that every young swimmer, runner or rower should be suspected of drug use when he wins a medal, but it is a fair price to pay for perhaps one day having "the cleanest Games ever."