The perfect deterrent for Olympic drug cheats: Lock them up

Every athlete that represents Britain at the Olympic Games this summer will have been subject to drugs tests funded by UK Sport.

In announcing the programme the director of the Drug-Free Sport initiative, John Scott, said: "We have a duty to ensure we do all we can to show the world that the British teams competing in Beijing are drug-free. In particular, we want the British public to have confidence that the performances they are watching are from athletes who have achieved success through four years of hard work, determination and dedication, and not through cheating."

He is, of course, quite correct and we should be able to have faith that we are not supporting cheats. It would be nice to know that our athletes are competing on a level playing field too, but sadly not every country takes the same rigorous approach to the issue as Britain does.

We can only make sure our house is in order and put pressure on other countries to do likewise. But still, the suspicion remains that we could be doing more and it is time for the government to get involved.