Olympics 2008

The revelation that 11 Bulgarian weightlifters have failed drugs tests so hard on the heels of a similar scandal involving 11 of the Greek team must call into question the sport's Olympic future.

Don't be surprised, with pressure on the programme to make space for new sports like Rugby 7s and squash, that one of the oldest, and most discredited Olympic events, will now have to fight for its place in 2012.

Behind the scenes, the International Weightlifting Federation was basically told in no uncertain terms after Sydney that it was going to have to get its act together on doping, or face the chop.

Then, three Bulgarians, (surprise surprise,) were caught and had to hand back their medals.

The team was expelled from the Games, repeating the pattern begun in Seoul in 1988, where the Bulgars were ejected after two gold medals had to be returned.

Despite the best efforts of the IWF, (and they have tried, anyone at Wada will tell you that) the sport remains vulnerable to the cheats.

Such are the gains in performance to be made by increasing muscle bulk and stamina, that for many, the temptations are too great.

Post Sydney, the IWF got stuck in, instigating a huge out-of-competition testing programme: but still, in the months running up to the Athens Games, 28 weightlifters worldwide were caught cheating.

Statistically, that was 1 in 13 of those who qualified for the Games.

Don't think this is just the Bulgarians, either.

Three Indians were caught out around the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, leading to the national federation's second 12-month suspension from competition, and a grand total of nine Australian lifters have been banned since 2006.

Search for weightlifting and drugs on the internet and you'll see for yourself.

Some of the stories are pretty lurid: one Romanian competitor was caught trying to siphon his father's urine out of a condom and into the test pot.

How low can you go?

Weightlifting's hit a new nadir, and sadly, for those who are competing clean, the organised cheating that's going on in these recent team revelations has utterly discredited the sport, exposing collusion and deception of the worst kind.

In Melbourne, I had the pleasure of watching some of the weightlifting competition, and it was a great spectacle.

Exciting, engrossing, but who knows how clean?

The paying public shouldn't have to enter the sports hall in Beijing or London and voluntarily suspend their disbelief like they were about to watch a film or a play, but that's where weightlifting's at.