Those who don't cheat know that we have a level playing field. Any defections of leading distance runners before the Games open on September 15 will start the rumour mills. Those who despair of eradicating drugs from a sport where advantages measured in split seconds can mean the difference between a gold medal and wealth, or fourth place and obscurity, could take heart from the women's world record list. Twelve women's world records remain unchanged since that date. The sudden halt in what should have been a graph of gradual improvement indicates an equally sudden stop in the use of performance-enhancing drugs, most probably anabolic steroids which mimic the effects of the male sex hormone testosterone.
Steroids dramatically alter a woman's shape and appearance.
The effects are not so startling in men but steroids do accentutate muscle growth and help in the recovery period from intensive training sessions. Johnson would not have looked out of place in a boxing ring or on a weightlifting platform. Athletics is one of a number of sports affected by a sudden increase in the number of positive tests for the steroid nandrolone and next week the IAAF's arbititration panel consider the nandrolone cases of three British runners, most notably the 1992 Olympic 100 metres champion Linford Christie. If Christie is banned, the IOC will be faced with the jarring reality that for two consecutive Games the winner of its glamour event was tarnished by drugs. Athletes themselves are troubled.