Sydney will be affected by illegal substances and methods, including EPO. The drug’s introduction in 1987 was followed by a series of mysterious heart attacks among Dutch cyclists.

It isn’t cheating if everybody else is doing it.” So declared Canadian track coach Charlie Francis in 1988 when his sprinter Ben Johnson became the Olympics’ highest-profile disqualification ever by testing positive for steroids. But of 8,465 competitors at Seoul, only Johnson and nine others were booted for drugs. What’s…

EPO doping is well known in the Netherlands: several cyclists have died from its complications in recent years. Dutch discus champion Erik de Bruin, is under a four-year ban for doping.

Amy Van Dyken went shopping a few weeks ago and ran into some old high school classmates. The very girls, it happened, who once tried to keep her off the school’s relay swim team by complaining to the coach, throwing her clothes in the pool and spitting in her…