Get ready for the super Olympians

Forget the steroid jabs or hormone therapy. My favourite example of an athlete taking short cuts has got to be Hermann Ratjen, who in 1936 bound up his genitals, walked into the Olympic stadium as "Dora" and competed in the female high jump.He didn't even win.At this year's Olympics we can be pretty sure that women athletes are indeed women. But can we really be sure the games are cheat-free?Of course we can't. Just last month the entire Bulgarian weightlifting team was forced to withdraw after 11 of its members tested positive for steroids. Meanwhile the current 100m Olympic champion is serving a four year ban for failing a drugs test in July 2006.At least we can catch these cheats. At the European Science Open Forum in Barcelona, members of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Sporting Integrity and the World Association of... [read full story]