Lure of gold leaves Olympics prone to doping

Athletics is far from alone in the Olympics doping hall of shame. Weightlifting has had a notoriously close relationship with drugs and Bulgaria has already withdrawn its entire weightlifting team from Beijing after 11 competitors tested positive for steroids.In a major embarrassment for the Olympic host nation, one of China's leading hopes for a swimming medal failed a drugs test in June.

Ouyang Kunpeng, the country's leading backstroke swimmer who won three silver medals at the 2006 Asian Games, has been banned for life for steroid use, although an investigation will establish if the substance was taken accidentally.

The incident re-awakened unease about China's elite swimmers and track athletes, who were embroiled in numerous doping scandals in the 1990s and have been under a cloud of suspicion ever since.

Some observers argue that drugs use is not increasing, but the sophistication of testing is - which is netting more cheats.

For example, many of the gold medals won in remarkable performances by East Germany's women athletes and swimmers are now widely discredited because the extent of the former communist nation's state-sponsored doping system was only revealed after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

The IOC has promised that athletes who fail tests this summer will face increased penalties and will be banned from competing in London in 2012.

But faced with the lure of gold and the potential riches it can bring, it seems inevitable that some competitors in Beijing will still reach for the test tube.