KEY POINTS:
More stars are likely to be exposed following Marion Jones' fall from grace, says David Howman, the New Zealander heading the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
Jones earlier this month abandoned years of denial and admitted doping, including during the 2000 Sydney Olympics where her five medals made her the Games' pin-up athlete.
Growing co-operation between Government agencies and sports would ensure she was not the last big name exposed without a failing a drug test, Wada's director-general told the Weekend Herald.
Jones was on borrowed time since United States tax investigators in 2003 raided Balco, the San Francisco company that produced and distributed undetectable doping products.
She was one of several athletes whose names emerged during that inquiry and was further pulled into the net when a counterfeit cheque from her former partner Tim Montgomery (stripped of 100m record, banned for doping) for US$25,000 ($32,470) was deposited into her account.
Jones perjured herself in the grand jury regarding this and her doping denials. In a plea bargain expected to reduce her prison term from five years to six months Jones admitted the criminal charges and having doped from 1999.
She has been banned for two years and forfeits medals won at and since the Sydney Olympics. She is due for sentence in January on the criminal charges.
Howman said Jones' emphatic public denials - she threatened to sue Balco owner Victor Conte, who claimed he witnessed her inject steroids, and her proclamations that her success was based solely on her "God-given talent" - may have played a role in her downfall.
"Those who were investigating her knew a lot more than she probably thought and her brazen lies may have given them more enthusiasm to continue.
"It's a considerable step because first of all it shows governments are willing to join the fight to make sure the evidence they gather is made available to sport and second, we are well beyond recognising that science was going to be the answer."
Wada's code allowed for doping violations that don't require urinary or blood analysis. "The real issue is how do you get the evidence to prove those cases and [Jones] is one of the ways that we can see it is possible. It requires a lot of a partnership between anti-doping agencies and governmental authorities."
This will be bolstered by an agreement Wada and Interpol are about to sign at the World Conference on Doping in Sport next month in Madrid.
Wada estimates international trafficking in sports doping drugs is bigger than some of the so-called recreational illicit drugs.
Since Wada was established in 1999, almost all sports and governments had signed its anti-doping code.
Maintaining the impetus required:
* Smart testing, using intelligence to target suspect sports and individuals.
* Investment in science to combat new doping products and methods.
* Expanding ways of collecting evidence, including harnessing advances in forensic sciences, the proposed athletes' passport (whereby athletes provide physiological profiles), and partnership with government agencies.
Information sharing depended on the laws of each country.
New Zealand's Sports Anti-Doping Act 2006 authorises "a member of the police, a Customs officer, or any other person" to provide evidence to Drug Free Sport New Zealand.
Drug Free Sport chief executive Graeme Steel said the agency had occasionally received information but until the 2006 legislation had been solely a testing agency.
They are now empowered to collect evidence, investigate and present cases to the Sports Tribunal. Steel recalled an instance many years ago when the agency was given a banned sports drug, intercepted by Customs. It had been addressed to a New Zealand international athlete.
His agency had not received any significant information since the act was passed. Steel is meeting Customs officials next week to discuss information sharing.
Howman said many athletes could eventually be exposed as a result of the biggest-ever steroid bust. Called Operation Raw Deal, it involved 2000 officers in eight countries, resulted in 124 arrests in the United States, the seizure of 242kg of raw steroid powder, US$50 million in product and US$6.5 million cash, and identified 37 factories in China exporting raw materials to drug makers.
Investigators are collating thousands of emails which may identify end users around the world. Australia is one of nine countries cooperating with the inquiry.
Howman was optimistic athletes implicated could be disciplined before the next Olympics.
The message from Jones' case was that "no cheating athlete can rest easy at night", he said.
"They can't say 'I have got away with it because my urine didn't test positive. There are other ways of ensuring that those who cheat can be detected."
Jones and numerous scandals in baseball, gridiron and the NHL had shaken the North American public. "The big signal up here is that we live in a cheating society, that maybe we should wake up and look at the message we are giving to our kids."
