Drugs in sport - who should we believe?

The Olympics have been rocked by a string of drugs allegations, the latest surrounding world champion shot putter CJ Hunter. Can we still trust our athletes?

Shot putter CJ Hunter has made a tearful appearance at a press conference to plead his innocence after failing four separate drug tests.

Hunter, the high-profile husband of US sprint queen Marion Jones, tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone - with levels 1,000 times over the permitted level.

He insists he is clean and has no idea how it could have happened. He was backed up by nutritionist Victor Conte, who said the positive tests were caused by an iron supplement.

The IOC are less than impressed, accusing the US of being in a state of denial. Executive committe member Jacques Rogge said Hunter's explanation was "impossible", adding: "The only way to have such levels is either by injection or by taking pills."

Hunter is by no means the first to offer the explanation, however. Linford Christie, Gary Cadogan and Dougie Walker and Mark Richardson have all protested their innocence following positive tests for nandrolone.

They say food supplements and intensive exercise caused the positive tests, and they are back by the findings of a scientific study by Aberdeen University.

So what should the armchair fans make of it? Is the testing procedure in a mess, pinning blame on innocent athletes. Or are the IOC right to treat the explanations with disdain?

What do you think? Who should be believe?

It is great that there is such a diversity in the sports provided by the Olympics

  Sabrina, Australia

I think it is great that there is such a diversity in the sports provided by the Olympics. I was proud to see the triatletes compete, showing the true dedication and strength of these athletes.The Games are there to let top athletes shine and would be a shame if a talented athlete wasn't able to reach their ultimate goal because people limited which sports are included in the Games.
Sabrina, Australia

I agree with those who would like to drop those sports that are already well represented by professional bodies, with huge rewards such as tennis and football. I would bring in other sports such as squash or even something like the Indian sport, Kabbadi.
Dominic Foster, UK

There is absolutely little doubt that athletes cannot be trusted. Just when you feel good about having seen a great performance that feeling is snatched away by some revelation of wrongdoing. The whole Olympics ideal reeks with the stench of corruption and drugtaking. It is extremely sad to see the number of athletes in Sydney who have won gold and tested positive in the past. What beats me is how you can cheat and then get back on the playing field in two years. Perhaps we should forget about the Olympian ideal and just let the athletes perform on what ever cocktail of drugs they wish to take. At least then we the public would know that anything goes, and not delude ourselves that were looking at people who played by the rules.
Allan Milne, Scotland

The whole point of banning drugs is that it allows people to compete fairly. This is so obvious it seems odd to have to say it, but reading some of the comments it does appear to be overlooked. Anyone can win the 100m if allowed to use artificial aids. In my case I would probably need a motorbike to do it but the point is that whether you've taken drugs or use a motorbike to help you win a race it all becomes irrelevant. It's no longer you but some hybrid entity that has won and stolen the race from anyone who tries to compete fairly
Henryk, UK

I'd be quite happy to watch the Olympics with all the athletes taking drugs. Seriously. Public attitudes to what should and should not be allowed seem odd to say the least. The health argument doesn't wash - these guys are damaging their health just by competing at this level. Each time Dean Macey throws the javelin he further ruins his elbow. But that's allowed and his bravery's applauded. Some complain that the 'true' spirit of Olympian competition is being perverted. Rubbish - the Olympics, along with the rest of society, develops and changes. No one cares any more that the athletes are able to train full-time - in fact we're delighted that lottery cash enables this. So the days of amateurism are gone and no one bats an eyelid - and soon enough the drug debate will also seem anachronistic. The Olympics are all about going faster, further or higher than anyone else.
James Fulford, England

Where big business and large amounts of money collide people are usually prepared to do anything to succeed

  Seyi Aiyegbusi, Nigerian - UK

Let's not kid ourselves. International athletics these days is a multi-billion pound industry. To remain successful it needs to attract big audiences. The easiest way to do this is make the competitions spectacular and highly interesting. To attract the athletes they need big prizes. Where big business and large amounts of money collide people are usually prepared to do anything to succeed. Including athletes taking banned substances and officials covering up positive tests.
Seyi Aiyegbusi, Nigerian - UK

It's just a shame that so many sportsmen and women take supplements. I really start to get suspicious if people are so much ahead of others or break one world record after the other. One watches Inge de Bruijn and one always has to ask oneself: has she used drugs to achieve all this. These doping scandals put a negative light on all athletes and that limits the joy of watching sports.
Karina, Austria

As a sportsman, I never have any time for people who take drugs to cheat. However, I am also well aware that there is a difference between a drug that will enhance your performance, and a drug that will enable you to live a normal life like any other human being. I used to get chronic hayfever & asthma, but since Beconase became available, I no longer get it. I guess this makes me a drug cheat, and gives them the right to ruin my life. If any member of the IOC can hold his or hand up & swear that if they get a cold, they just give in to it & suffer, then I would call them stupid, or a liar. Every person on the planet practically, takes medicine, so it is absolutely disgusting for them to strip a 16 year old child of a medal, and label her a cheat, for doing the same thing. Or am I wrong here? Maybe the medicine she took is so powerful that it turns you into an superhuman ? Perhaps his eminence Mr Samaranch would like to demonstrate this by taking the same medicine and then doing a floor excercise, or a vault to prove his case ? People might just be willing to accept the decision then.
David Talbot, England

Stripping Andreea Raducan from her gold medal for taking a medicine for cold, is like banning a driver for having half a shandy at dinner time. Its a decision that has been take without any thought or common sense by the IOC.
Richard Sykes, England

These doping scandals put a negative light on all athletes and that limits the joy of watching sports.

  Karina, Austria

Those who have worked inside the world of athletics are extremely cynical about these shows of innocence by athletes who have been caught with high levels of drugs in their system. Use of performance enhancing drugs is widespread on a scale that the public is totally unaware of. The current levels of the profession are such that it would be completely impossible to compete at an international level without them. The IOC knows this and tries its best to crack down. However, despite the number of banned substances, there are many more substances, which are performance enhancing and have not yet been banned by the IOC. Most athletes and their doctors know what these are. There are also apparently, ways of passing the drug tests and eluding detection. The IOC knows all this but they are powerless to do anything about it. I partly agree with one writer below who says that maybe we should just learn to live with it.
Peter, USA

I agree that the IOC should be doing everything in its power to stop athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, however I think that stripping a 16 year old gymnast of her gold medal for taking a couple of Nurofen to help a head cold is absolutely unforgivable. Gymnasts do not usually have the option of "having another go" at the next Olympics. I really think that, on this occasion, the IOC need to use their common sense and differentiate between long-term deliberate use of a performance-enhancing drug and the one-off taking of a cold remedy on doctor's orders. Raducan's gold medal should be returned to her immediately and an apology unreservedly given to her by the IOC for her appalling treatment.
Alison Gray, UK

Are athletes taking more performance enhancing drugs or are we just seeing more drug cheats caught? It is a shame that the young Romanian Gymnast had her Gold Medal taken away, but if she had taken a banned drug, it is only fair to the other athletes that the medal be revoked. These athletes have team doctors that really should know what can and can not be taken. If the doctors don't know, what chance do the athletes have?
Brad Parmenter, Australia

A large percentage of the sportsmen and women that are performing at these Olympics are obviously on some kind of drugs. Physical training alone cannot create the shape of some of the bodies that are on display. It's whether the drug is deemed as legal or not. It seems that athletes do not know what is and isn't...but in any case they're all enhancing their performance in some way by taking the legalised drugs
Neil, England

Are athletes taking more performance enhancing drugs or are we just seeing more drug cheats caught?

  Brad Parmenter, Australia

It is a shame that the US has such double standards. Clearly there has been a cover up in the Hunter case and his claims of innocence are sad. Yet the US resists the reinstatement of Cuban high jumper Sotomayor for use of cocaine, which I can't imagine did anything to make him physically jump higher! The Olympics is a political farce.
John Vance, USA

As Nandrolone, and indeed most other performance enhancing drugs, is found naturally in the body, there is room for some doubt with those athletes minimally over the 'accepted' level. But 1000 times! And in an event where strength is of paramount importance and numerous ex athletes have since admitted to taking such drugs and stated that it is almost impossible to compete in strength events without it? How stupid do these athletes think the public is?
Fran, UK

If his nutritional supplements were suspected, why keep taking them after positive test number one? Four positives in one season are starting to sound unlikely to be accidental.
Richard P, England

The IOC has a bad enough reputation already without furthering claims that they are soft on drugs. They must take a hard line. If a few athletes have to suffer unfairly then it is a small price to pay. According to Time Magazine, a 1995 survey of US athletes revealed that 195 out of the 198 questioned said that they would take a drug if they knew they wouldn't be caught. Half that number said they would do so even if they knew the drug would kill them in later years! With synthesised human hormones, masking injections and urine substitution, the situation now is that they are VERY unlikely to be caught. One can only assume that many top athletes are on drugs - quite possibly the majority of them.
Glen Buterol, UK

Four positives in one season are starting to sound unlikely to be accidental.

  Richard P, England

What is the difference between taking performance enhancing drugs and wearing performance-enhancing clothing? One is classed as a cheat and the other is not, however they both get you to the finish line before your body naturally would. In this modern age where success is classed higher than method should enhancement be allowed, but policed by the relative authorities. After all, we do not strip a climber of the achievement of conquering Everest because he/she used oxygen, when completing the task without is possible. Whatever the solution, stripping a sixteen-year-old of her Gold Medal for taking a cough medicine is obscene and undermines the respect Olympic Gold should demand.
Jason Brown, England

I find it extremely odd that athletes feel they have to take supplements. I would have thought they could afford to buy the right food and they surely have access to the best advice on nutrition and diet which would obviate the need for supplements. Unless the athlete has a medical condition requiring prescribed drugs or treatments I cannot imagine why the genuine athlete needs to take supplements that produce 1,000 times the permitted level of a banned substance. And in the case of Linford Christie, 100 times. With the incredibly high profile that the fight against drugs in sport has, I can only conclude that these athletes are not very bright or they are cheating!
Chris Crutchley, UK

It is clear that the testing procedure has been poorly conceived and even more poorly executed. Several items that have been banned are easily found in medicines and other foodstuffs. Furthermore many of the banned items have no discernible influence on performance levels. Many innocent athletes are paying a price they should not have to pay. For example, the young Gymnast who had her gold medal taken from her - an action that, in my opinion, is criminal. I find it rather sad that the careers of many fine athletes have been placed under stress or in jeopardy by incompetent and inept individuals.
Dr. Keith Weinman, Australia