THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC Committee (IOC) is a more credible organisation on doping since the Beijing Games where only eight athletes were suspended for using banned substances, according to president Jacques Rogge.
The Belgian said another three athletes have doping cases pending under appeal, as have four showjumpers whose horses tested positive. This meant a maximum possible total of 15 cases, according to Rogge who had expected about 30-40 cases of doping at last month's Olympics.
Rogge also said China had "opened up" during the Games, leaving an important legacy in terms of new sporting sites, infrastructure and environmental awareness. "We are convinced our (anti-doping) efforts have borne fruit," Rogge told a news conference in Geneva yesterday.
"Even if doping will never be resolved of course, we are more credible than ever and it is more difficult for athletes to use drugs."
About 4,500 doping tests were carried out during the Games compared to 3,500 in Athens four years ago. In addition 40 athletes were banned during months of extensive testing before the Olympics, said the IOC chief.
"Doping will never disappear out of society because doping is to sport what criminality is in society and every society in the world needs police, justice and prisons. The same goes for doping," added Rogge. "We are fighting very hard to reduce it to the lowest possible level."
Rogge, asked about human rights and media freedoms in China including control of Internet access, said the Olympics were a "force for good" and had a "positive influence" on the host nation.
"The Olympic Games are only a catalyst for change, not a panacea. People cannot expect the Games to achieve what others haven't been able to achieve," he said while pointing to the fact Beijing had a new airport terminal and better metro.
Rogge, asked whether the global credit crisis might endanger future Games, said the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics were "financially secure".
He also added Olympic construction authorities in London, hosts of the 2012 Games, told the IOC in a recent report that they would manage to find proper funding.
Rogge, whose eight-year term ends in 2009, declined to say whether he would run for another four years.
Meanwhile, a Greek sprinter who failed a dope test days before the Beijing Olympics told a prosecutor yesterday he was not aware he was being given performance-enhancing drugs.
Tassos Gousis (29) said he and disgraced 2004 Olympic champion Fani Halkia had presented a case against unknown individuals for putting their life in danger by administering the drugs without their knowledge, court officials said. "Gousis said he didn't know anything about the supplements he was taking and that no athlete would put his career at risk days before the Olympics," a court official, who declined to be named, said.
Gousis had been due to compete in the 200 metres at the Games but failed a test conducted by the Greek anti-doping agency and had to return from a pre-Olympic training camp in Japan.
Halkia, who won the 400 metres hurdles at the Athens Olympics, tested positive in Beijing for the steroid methyltrienolone (M3) in the highest-profile setback for the Greek team.
The IOC has presented a lawsuit against Halkia's coach, George Panagiotopoulos, who appeared before the prosecutor last week and said she had never deliberately taken performance-enhancing steroids.
Greece has launched an investigation of Greek anti-doping law violations after 19 of its athletes tested positive in the run-up to the Beijing Games.
It had more athletes banned than medals won - two silvers and two bronze.
The prosecutor is expected to call Halkia and her coach to testify later this week, after their lawyer asked for an extension.