But then German-turned-Spaniard Johann Muehlegg and Russian greats Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova were exposed as drug cheats through a newly developed doping test the International Olympic Committee hadn't acknowledged was in its arsenal. After protracted hearings, all three were stripped of their medals, their 2002 Olympic results were annulled and all were relegated to positions of ignominy in sports history.

With seven doping cases in all, "Salt Lake was good" for advancing the perception that cheaters will be caught, said Canadian IOC member Richard Pound, who also oversees the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

No dreamy optimist, Pound is realistic enough to know cheaters are usually a step or two ahead of the doping police. But he also believes enough progress has been made in the past four years to make would-be cheaters think twice before using performance-enhancing drugs to improve their results at next month's Turin Winter Games.

"We have to operate on the assumption that there are some cheaters out there," he said. "So there are some [performance-enhancing drugs] for which we have tests that we haven't announced yet. . . . I hope there will be some nasty surprises for people who come [to Turin] thinking they have something that won't get caught."

As director of the U.S. Nordic program, Luke Bodensteiner said he has observed a major change on the cross country circuit since the crackdown at the 2002 Games, a second blow to the sport after nearly every member of the Finnish cross country team

was caught doping on its home soil during the 2001 world championships.

"There was a real change in spirit within the World Cup athletes, within the leadership of their teams," he said. "There seemed to be an understanding that if this kind of thing continues, we're going to destroy our sport. People will quit paying attention to us. That was a pretty good attitude change."

But then Bodensteiner added, "It may have been temporary, I don't know."

Why the nagging doubt? Simple. The will to succeed compels some already super-competitive athletes to do whatever is necessary to reach the top. Also, the financial rewards that come with gold medals are sources of motivation.

To combat the practice regardless of the cause, the IOC, WADA and international sports federations have been trying for years to synchronize their approaches to in- and out-of-competition drug testing. In October, they finally were able to forge a working relationship with the world's governments.

In the months before the 2004 Athens Games, a uniform code of anti-doping policies, rules and regulations was adopted by the IOC, International Paralympic Committee, all Olympic sports, national Olympic and Paralympic committees, athletes, national anti-doping organizations and representatives of 183 governments.

Then, last October, the United Nations ratified the first International Convention against Doping in Sport, providing the legal means for governments to enforce provisions of the anti-doping code.

"Now we have the sound of two hands clapping," said Pound, instead of the figurative silence that resulted from sports organizations and governments pursuing their goals independently.

"Sport can't do everything that's necessary to make this work," he added. "We can't regulate [drug] trafficking. We can't do any searching at customs. And governments, for their part, don't know where the athletes are. So they can't do it all, either. . . . Now the sports movement and governments are going to use the code as the basis for their fight against doping in sport."

Pound said the public's attitude toward doping also is changing - even in the United States, where sports organizations such as Major League Baseball have been slow to embrace the tougher standards that apply to Olympic sports.

"Think of the difference in public awareness between 2002 and today," he said, attributing the heightened sensitivity to revelations in the BALCO scandal, in which Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative founder Victor Conte testified to a federal grand jury that he supplied steroids to numerous athletes. He also pointed out "the idiotic statements that were made in public by athletes" such as Baltimore Orioles slugger Rafael Palmeiro, who told Congress he never used steroids, then tested positive shortly thereafter.

In addition, WADA has invested roughly $30 million into scientific research projects to detect new doping methods, including efforts to enhance an individual's genetic makeup. This year the agency also set aside $100,000 for social behavioral research into the motivation for becoming involved in doping.

Part of that investment has gone into out-of-competition testing.

Doping control officials from WADA alone showed up unannounced to perform 5,004 urine or blood tests in 2003 and 2,300 in 2004. Similarly, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said it conducted nearly 6,100 in- and out-of-competition tests last year, after 7,630 in 2004 and almost 6,800 in 2003.

During the Turin Olympics, the IOC said it intends to perform 1,200 tests, up from 825 in Salt Lake City and 621 at the 1998 Nagano Games.

Athletes who dare to take the risk in Turin face another possible repercussion.

Tough Italian drug laws call for criminal prosecution of sports doping offenders, a far more rigorous penalty than the IOC's threat to disqualify violators, take away their medals and boot them out of the athletes' village - but not accuse them of a crime.

The IOC attempted to persuade the Italian government to suspend that provision, which technically could result in a police raid on the athletes' village. But Italian legislators said no.

The tough Italian law doesn't bother freestyle skiing aerialist Emily Cook, who said it may help diminish cheating in Turin.

"I would hope everyone goes into Turin clean," said the 28-year-old Cook, who is headed to Turin after missing the Salt Lake Games because of an injury late in 2001. "I know that's wishful thinking, but maybe with Italy being harder on [doping], it will keep more athletes clean."

mikeg@sltrib.com

USADA tests

Between October 2001 and the end of the 2004-05 winter sports season in March, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency performed more than 1,000 doping tests on athletes in all disciplines:

356 skiers and snowboarders

189 speedskaters

168 bobsled and skeleton racers

130 figure skaters

96 ice hockey players

73 biathletes

72 curlers

40 lugers

Source: U.S. Anti-Doping Agency