BEIJING - The numbers haven't been quite what doping experts predicted, but no one is doubting that increased testing has had an impact at the Beijing Olympics.
The Games came advertised as a new watershed in the fight against doping, with the International Olympic Committee performing an unprecedented 5,000 tests.
As of Friday, 4,620 tests had been completed -- 3,681 urine tests and 939 blood -- yielding just six positive tests, far short of estimates.
While most athletes have responded positively to increased testing, it hasn't gone unnoticed.
Canadian Simon Whitfield, who won a silver medal in the men's triathlon, wrote about one of his doping tests administered Aug. 16, and after 12 years of testing, found humour in the idea that part of his job involves having to pee in a cup.
"Bring it on," Whitfield said later in an interview.
"I want to get drug tested over and over again. I want them to give me a GPS wrist band and then say 'Track me down, I don't care."'
Whitfield was tested at home in Victoria before he travelled to Beijing, then four days before his event and then after his event.
"Obviously it's inconvenient but I tell you what, it's inconvenient if people affect you by cheating," said Whitfield. "Test me as much as you need to and follow me around as much as you need to."
Former Namibian sprinter Frankie Fredericks, newly elected as the IOC's athlete commission chairman, also welcomed increased testing and the continued fight against performance-enhancing drugs.
"I think about the 99.9 per cent of athletes that are clean, so we have to make sure that we keep the playing field level. I'm very happy with the many tests that were taken before and during the Games," Fredericks said.
"We are telling the cheats there won't be a possibility to cheat anymore."
Star Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell complained shortly before the men's 100 metre that the increased scrutiny was disrupting his training regimen.
Canadian track and field head coach Les Gramantik said the Canadian team was accosted as it landed in Beijing from Singapore, with testers keying in on three Canadian track medal hopefuls including Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, bronze medal winner in the women's 100-metre hurdles.
About 3,600 tests were performed four years ago in Athens and there were 26 positive tests, more than double the previous high of 12 at Los Angeles in 1984. Based on the Athens numbers, IOC president Jacques Rogge had predicted between 30 and 40 positive tests prior to these Games.
It normally takes 24 hours for a negative test to be confirmed, 48 hours for positive tests for steroids, and 72 hours for positive results for the blood-booster EPO. Barring a plethora of positive results, Beijing numbers won't come close to Athens.
IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies says the sheer number of tests is having a deterrent effect.
"Athletes know that at this event the IOC, which is the organization running the doping programs, means business when it comes to not having those who cheat be part of this event," Davies said.
Tests were conducted anywhere and at any time -- whether in Beijing or abroad. The results, being determined at a state-of-the-art, heavily guarded facility in Beijing will be kept for the next eight years as testing procedures improve.
Star kayaker Adam van Koeverden of Oakville, Ont., who won a silver medal in the K-1 500 race, says he has no issues with more testing.
"I wouldn't want to find out that one of the guys I was racing against doesn't get drug tested on a regular basis because I certainly do. I offer my urine to any takers that can see it so that they know that I'm a clean athlete and I follow the rules," van Koeverden said.
"I live and breathe and die by the rules of this sport and cherish drug-free sport more than anything because I think (cheating) is just a total demolition of the construct on which sport was based. It disgusts me to think that people would cheat so I'm absolutely happy to provide my sample at any time."
The highest profile athlete to be caught in China is women's heptathlon silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska, who had her medal stripped following her positive doping test.
Also disqualified were Ukrainian weightlifter Igor Razoronov, Greek hurdler Fani Halkia, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su, Spanish cyclist Isabel Moreno and Vietnamese gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do.
But officials say an increase in out-of-competition testing helped to weed out some cheaters ahead of the Games. Davies said this week that 39 athletes missed the Games because of doping accusations, including 22 weightlifters from Bulgaria and Greece.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has lamented that a spate of doping scandals involving high-profile athletes such as Marion Jones and Floyd Landis has plagued sports recently, and has only served to erode people's confidence in performances.
Canadian athletes have been clean at the Beijing Games, 20 years after disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive in Seoul.
And while more testing is part of the solution, a change in attitude among athletes is also necessary, Whitfield adds.
"We're making progress but we need to change our culture too," said the two-time Olympic medallist who captured a gold medal in Sydney in 2000.
"This win-at-all-costs breeds cheating and we need to get back to this Olympic spirit which is much more beyond just win at costs and medal counts and all that crazy stuff."
