Doping focus intensifies.

Byline: Jacob Goldstein

Drugs work.

They make us run faster, throw farther and swim longer. They build muscle for strength and add red blood cells for stamina.

So it should come as no surprise that some Olympians pop pills and shoot up, even though the same potions that boost performance also damage the heart, shrivel men's testicles and put hair on women's chins.

Taking drugs is against the rules, of course. But critics contend that Olympic officials, eager to see record-shattering performances, have long turned a blind eye to the drug use insiders call doping.

``Doping creates bigger-than-life people doing superhuman things, and that is what sells sport,'' says Charles Yesalis, a Penn State epidemiologist who authored a textbook on drug use among athletes.

Optimists say the Olympics are changing. They point to the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, an independent group created five years ago and given broad powers to catch Olympic dopers. But even WADA President Dick Pound admits that the edge still goes to the cheaters.

``There will be a small percentage of people who cheat'' in Athens, he says. ``Some of them will get caught, and some of them may not get caught.''

Yesalis parses the numbers differently.

``In many sports, there are only…