DRUG SCANDALS PUT OLYMPICS AT CROSSROADS

SYDNEY -- Ran into Pat Borders, an old favourite, at the ballpark the
other night and he was positively beaming.

He had that familiar chaw - almost all gum now - making his cheek jut
out and he was still grumbling (and worse) about a runaway Cuban who
had flattened him.

"Having any fun here?" he was asked.

"This is a blast," he said. "The most fun I've ever had in baseball."

This was before the Yankees, the real ones, defeated South Korea in a
superb semi-final and then, yesterday morning, cracked those previously
unbeatable Cubans 4-0 in the gold-medal game.

There was Borders, when the game was 1-0 in the fifth, lining a double
up the gap in right-centre for a vital second run and standing on
second base, trying to affect that intense look Blue Jay fans used to
know so well. There he was a moment later, with a rolling, tumbling
head-first slide into third base when they tried to bunt him - yeah,
right - over to third base.

This was a tremendous feel-good moment at an Olympics that, world-wide,
has had more than a few. Here were a bunch of kids and castoffs,
reminiscent of the kind of hockey teams we Canadians used to send to
the Olympics before Gary Bettman got the five-ring religion, pulling
off the big shocker. Borders grinned like a madman, flag-bearing the
team out for the medal presentation.

We in Canada had our own moments a couple of hours earlier, that
doubles tennis gold medal possibly even making us forget the sweet
flavour of all those trampoline medals.

Anyway, whatever else is happening here to make people happy worldwide,
the spectre of cheating druggies won't go away and it is clear that the
Olympic product is taking a tremendous beating.

The Olympic Games as a whole is nearing a crossroads. The idea that the
U.S. has been leading a drug-coverup existence, cheating with the best
of them, no longer is simply a rumour and an allegation from somebody
not winning as many medals as it wants to.

It's out in the open now. Some U.S. track officials are revealed as the
lying cheats they have been for years. People who think the C.J. Hunter
case is an isolated incident are going to be disappointed.

The situation is going to deteriorate. When that happens, the Olympic
Games as we know them are in serious trouble.

The Games are a massive, multi-billion-dollar enterprise. This is an
entire sub-city here in Sydney, this Olympic world. It is too big and
sprawling and demands far too much in the way of resources. But that's
another story.

U.S. TV money basically runs the show, though, and if American cheaters
are going to be exposed regularly - and there seems to be the scent of
blood in some IOC nostrils - then NBC is going to lose its enthusiasm
in a hurry.

Already the TV numbers are terrible. NBC will be giving back hundreds
of millions in give-backs to advertisers. Now this?

Worse, those very corporations are going to be rethinking their
participation in a drugfest. It is one thing to have bad medal results
and lose corporate sponsorship, as surely will happen in Canada after
this mini-medal haul. It is another thing to have money men pulling out
because they don't want to take a chance on being associated with the
druggie du jour.

While Hunter is drawing the ink so far for his four failed steroid
tests and his tearful denials on behalf of his wife, the great Marion
Jones, it isn't limited to that. The Romanians are having a terrible
time and their world champion hammer-thrower was escorted off the track
moments before her competition yesterday because of a steroid
suspension. Meanwhile, at the track yesterday, rumours were flying
about a half-dozen medal winners - did they test dirty or didn't they? -
and when such a luminary as Gail Devers pulled up at the fourth
hurdle, before the field had even finished the race, reporters were
wondering out loud whether she was trying to avoid testing.

The IOC does nothing to help the issue. It has inconsistent rules. It
goes after 80-pound gymnasts who take a cold pill and party-drug users
far more aggressively than it chases down the steroid cheats from the
top of the heap.

Perhaps the public already thinks it is a giant pharmaceutical
convention and the athletes who don't get caught are only the smart
ones, or those with the good lawyers and lying officials on their
sides.

If enough people think that way, they'll change the channels and stop
buying the running shoes. That's the danger the Olympics face. There
aren't enough stories like Pat Borders and there are too many like C.J.
Hunter.