Cheating athletes find roadblocks to China

Olympics drug testers are working overtime before the games begin.

BEIJING (AP) — There’s one good way of avoiding a rash of damaging doping scandals at the Olympics: Catch the drug cheats before they get there.

The policy seems to be working ahead of the Beijing Games, with dozens of Olympic athletes from different sports and countries nabbed in recent weeks and months for various doping offenses.

The drug busts are the result of a global program of increased out-of-competition screenings, including targeted testing of suspected dopers, to weed out as many dirty athletes as possible from the 10,000 competitors coming to Beijing for the games.

“Our message has been: ‘Leave the cheats at home. Catch them before they leave your shores,’ ” World Anti-Doping Agency president John Fahey told The Associated Press. “We’re seeing the dividends.”

An unofficial count by The Associated Press found at least 45 athletes from 11 countries have been ruled out of the Olympics in the last few weeks for drug violations. The list includes athletes in track and field, swimming, wrestling, weightlifting, boxing, fencing and cycling.

“You’ll probably find the number is even higher,” WADA director general David Howman said. “Many countries now have realized that the shame that falls upon them from a positive test at the games themselves is something they want to avoid, so they put their athletes through rigorous testing before they leave.”

Surprise out-of-competition controls are considered the most effective way of catching dopers, although many can still slip through the net by evading the system or using undetectable substances.

The International Olympic Committee and WADA have worked with international sports federations to step up the number of pre-games tests and collaborate on intelligence gathering with law enforcement agencies to go after doping suspects.

“This is not a trend,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said. “It’s a deliberate policy.”

Among the athletes who will miss the Beijing Games because of doping cases:

U 11 Greek weightlifters

U The entire 11-member Bulgarian weightlifting team

U American swimmer Jessica Hardy

U Italian fencer Andrea Baldini and cyclist Marta Bastianelli

U Danish mountain bike champion Peter Riis Andersen

U Chinese race walker Song Hongjuan, swimmer Ouyang Kunpeng and wrestler Luo Meng

U Romanian middle distance runners Liliana Popescu, Elena Antoci and Cristina Vasiloiu

In one of the most dramatic cases, seven female Russian track and field athletes — including five Olympians — were suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations last Thursday for allegedly substituting their urine for someone else’s to beat doping controls. The group included Yelena Soboleva, a world record holder and gold medal favorite in the 800 and 1,500 meters, and two-time world 1,500 champion Tatyana Tomashova.