The Drug Charade: DOPE DEAL >> The IOC promises the cleanest Games ever, thanks to tough new tests. We'll see.(Olympic Preview)(International Olympic Committee cracks down on drug use)

Can we have a round of applause, sports fans, for the International Olympic Committee? Although hardly an athletic event has escaped the taint of doping--the red-blood-cell booster EPO has been blamed for the deaths of at least 25 cyclists since 1987, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids in Seoul in 1988, 1996 Olympic shot-put champion Randy Barnes was banned for life in 1998 after he tested positive for the steroid androstenedione and Irish swimmer Michelle Smith de Bruin was found guilty of tampering with a surprise drug test two years after soaring from obscurity to win three golds in Atlanta in '96, to name just a few who have been caught up in doping controversies--the IOC has vowed to make the Sydney Olympics cleaner than a Ping-Pong match in a convent. To that end, it will have many, many doping experts in Sydney. Sure, physicians, scientists and technicians conducting drug tests will be there too. But the real experts on drug testing are athletes like German track star Dieter Baumann, who won the 5,000-meter run in Atlanta and tested positive for the body-building steroid nandrolone last year. And Cuban high-jumper Javier Sotomayor, who won Olympic gold in 1992 and tested positive for cocaine in '99. And Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey, who tested positive for nandrolone last July. And French cyclist Emmanuel Magnien, whose urine showed traces of corticosteroids. All denied knowingly taking banned compounds (as did Johnson, Barnes and Smith), arguing, for instance, that they tested positive because they unwittingly took nutritional supplements spiked with contraband. All were cleared by athletic federations and the IOC to compete Down Under.

Fans should be forgiven for concluding that the IOC and the world's sport…