KEY POINTS:
There is little from the Ian Thorpe drugs saga that reflects well on anyone. Everyone - the leaker, media, global swimming body FINA, the drugs hunters and even Thorpe come out of this badly.
But the biggest loser is sport itself.
To recap: French sports newspaper L'Equipe runs
a story saying Thorpe showed "abnormal levels" of two banned substances six months before he retired.
He didn't fail a drugs test, mind - he just returned abnormal levels of testosterone. Swimming's governing body FINA latched on to the fact that the Australian Anti-Doping Agency (ASDA) had thrown out the case against Thorpe - and asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to clarify matters.
It all sounds bad. Very bad. It looks, on one hand, as if Thorpe has been guilty of something, among all the official and legalistic language.
On the other, it looked as if FINA were gunning for Thorpe - an outspoken critic of FINA's lack of drug-testing procedures and of drugs in swimming. In addition, the leak which made its way to L'Equipe may have come from FINA or the drug testers, although ranks have closed faster than shutters in a cyclone.
Then there is the whole, vast subject of 'where there's smoke, there's fire'. These days, when the drugs hunters are catching up with the cheats and the chemists, we are pre-conditioned to believe the worst.
Thorpe is right when he says the damage has already been done to his reputation - even if he is cleared.
Yet we are not strangers to the concept of gamekeepers unmasked as poachers. Olympic back-to-back 100m champion Carl Lewis was one of the most outspoken advocates against drugs in sport.
Then it was revealed Lewis competed in the 1988 Olympics even after he tested positive three times for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine - banned stimulants also found in cold medication.
He was initially and secretly banned from the Seoul Olympics and from competition for six months before the US Olympic Committee accepted his claim of inadvertent use and overturned the decision.
Current world and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin also uttered anti-drugs messages before he fell foul of a drugs test and was banned. If you feel cynical about this, you are not alone.
But, in the eyes of most objective observers, there is a great deal of sympathy for Thorpe (most believe he is cleaner than clean).
However, there is always that element of doubt.
Which is where the leaker and the media and even FINA come up in this lose-lose-lose equation.
The media - including this newspaper - reported the facts even though those facts looked damning for Thorpe, who may yet be proved innocent.
L'Equipe is famed for its ongoing years-long campaign against drugs in sport, including cyclist Lance Armstrong. But L'Equipe is by no means foolproof.
It is not for nothing they have enormous insurance policies underscoring their anti-drugs efforts. Campaigning does not always equal accuracy.
The world remains suspended, for instance, between L'Equipe's contention that Armstrong took EPO in the 1999 Tour de France and Armstrong's indisputable rejoinder that he has never tested positive for anything - even though there were no tests available for EPO in 1999.
Who knows what agenda was behind the leaker's actions? FINA have denied they were out to get Thorpe and it might yet be that their move to get CAS to rule on this matter sees his name cleared.
Whatever happens, Thorpe's reputation has been damaged and he is making noises about a legal suit against the leaker, should he or she be discovered.
And so we come to the inevitable conclusion: there are no winners from this, only losers.
I cannot watch a Tour de France without the belief that most of the field are on drugs. There is no doubt some swimmers are. But Thorpe? Surely not.
To his credit, Thorpe has said he doesn't believe FINA was out to get him.
However, the drugs hunters and FINA can tidy up their act. Surely their procedures have to be tightened so that the presumption of innocence is maintained - even if it is subsequently found Thorpe is guilty of some misdemeanour. But we shouldn't have Thorpe sentenced even before justice takes its course.
There have to be rigid, protected procedures from the drugs hunters so all sport does not lose more spectators to the notion that all sportspeople are cheats.
