The new playing field
Drug tests will be tough. The sun is brutal and Anti-Americanism could sway judges and crowds
American athletes are training to overcome this hurdle as well. Andre Ward, a 20-year-old light heavyweight who is one of the top U.S. boxers, is practicing "straight punches that the judges can see. It would be horrible to get to this point and not be judged fairly."
Another kind of unfairness, however, may finally be on its way out. For the past 40 years or so, it has been almost--but not quite entirely--impossible for athletes to break into the very top ranks without using drugs, charges Charles Yesalis, a Pennsylvania State University professor and coauthor of Performance-Enhancing Substances in Sport and Exercise. He argues that official opposition to doping has long been lip service, since broadcasters, advertisers, and audiences all like athletes who set amazing new records. "The vast majority of world records have been drug assisted," says Yesalis. Many women's track, weightlifting, and swimming records, for example, are still held by East Germans, who were fed steroids, and by Chinese athletes, whose teammates have been discovered with vials of until now undetectable drugs like human growth hormone (HGH). Marion Jones, the top U.S. long-jumper and a member of a record-holding relay team, is battling allegations she benefited from THG, a designer steroid developed by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO).
The men's records are just as suspect. American Tim Montgomery, another alleged BALCO customer, holds the world record in the 100-meter dash (although he didn't make the U.S. Olympic team this year). This spring, world time-trial champion cyclist David Millar of Britain lost his chance to compete for gold in Athens when he was caught with EPO, a drug that boosts red blood cells and endurance.
Officials say the ongoing BALCO investigation and a ratcheting up of drug testing prove they really are serious about making the competition cleaner. Forty-nine physicians will test not only every winner but more than 30 percent of all the competitors. They'll check urine, and in some cases blood, for much more than the standard steroids, hormones, and amphetamines. For the first time, Olympic athletes will be tested for HGH, EPO, THG, and even transfusions of their own blood, which can boost stamina. "Years before, we were behind in the science," says Christina Tsitsimpikou, section manager of the doping control services for Athens 2004. "Now we have the means" to catch dopers.
The crackdown gives hope to many athletes that the competition may be fairer. But some clean athletes worry that the anti-doping crusade could go overboard. Every elite competitor is painfully aware of the revocation of the 2000 all-around gymnastics gold from 16-year-old Andreea Raducan of Romania. She had taken a cold medication containing a trace of a compound that was then on the banned list but has since been taken off, because it has been proved not to enhance performance.
Dirty water. A growing number of athletes wonder if their competitors will use the zero-tolerance policy to sabotage them. Adam Nelson, America's top shot-putter, says he now casts a suspicious eye over food and drink. "We don't pick up a bottle of water after it has left our sight" for fear a competitor might drop a banned substance into it. Those who flunk tests have sometimes blamed sabotage (although it's never been proved). And it would be an effective way to eliminate a competitor. The standard penalty for flunking a drug test is a two-year competition ban.
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