China's meteoric rise from nowhere in the 1990s saw them win four swimming gold medals at the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona.

Two years later, at the World Championships in Rome, they captured 12 out of the 16 women's titles in an amazing show of force.

But rumours of steroid use were already circulating and at the 1994 Asian Games held in Hiroshima they were found out.

Due to a breakthrough in a Japanese laboratory, a test was able to detect for the first time dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

DHT is a sophisticated endogenously produced hormone similar to testosterone, although it is much more potent and clears out of the system faster.

There were calls by the American and Australian swimming federations for China to be banned from international swimming competitions but the protests went unheard.

The squad though was decimated and at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, they won only one gold swimming medal.

However in 1997, young Wu Yanyan set the 200 metre individual world record with a time of 2mins 9.79 seconds.

Doping suspicions again began circulating and at the 1998 World Swimming Championships in Perth, four swimmers tested positive for banned drugs.

And Australian customs officers found 13 vials of human growth hormone in the luggage of swimmer Yuan Yuan.

Disgraced

China's highest ranked swimmer Wu did compete, winning the 200m individual medley crown.

After that win, her times dramatically dropped off but then suddenly improved at the national championships in May, which were also the Sydney Olympics qualifiers.

Wu was dope tested and on 14 July it was announced she had tested positive for anabolic steroids.

The disgraced swimmer was thrown out of the Olympic team as drug accusations were finally proved right.

China has finally taken a lead in stamping out doping after years of criticism from foreign coaches.

Now the demise of this drug-tainted team is for all to see.

The Sydney squad is full of young hopefuls or former champions, whose times have notably decreased since the drug testing began.

Even the coaches believe China is unlikely to win a single gold at Sydney.

Head coach Zhao Ke said: "With our standards now, securing even one gold medal is very difficult.

"There is not one event where we are ranked world number one.

"For our swimmers to contribute gold medals to China's entire Olympic team is difficult."

However swimming federations around the world will not be sympathising with China's dramatic fall from grace.