KEY POINTS:
I so desperately want to believe. Maybe it's because I'm a lapsed Catholic. Suspending your belief in Catholicism leaves a big void if you've been immersed in the faith from day one. You need to fill the gap with something.
And I so desperately want to believe that
Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt have won their world records and extraordinary benchmarks in Olympics sport through talent, hard work and sheer strength of character.
Over the past 20 years, I've become disenchanted with the Olympics. In the past I had sat, spellbound, as Carl Lewis, Ben Johnson and Flo-Jo flashed across the screen, only to find out later their wins were tainted.
All that glittered was not, in fact, gold. And as I became older and more cynical, the huge corporate involvement and the drug taking and the stories of the abuse suffered by some of the athletes at the hands of their coaches and indeed their governments made me turn off when it came to the Olympic Games.
But these games have made me a believer again. Phelps hooked me in, with his self belief and joy in accomplishing what has never been done before.
As did the incredible Bolt, who jogged his way to a couple of golds and blasted two world records in the men's 100 and 200 metres.
The sprint events have been saturated with drugs in recent times but to my inexpert eye, Bolt looks like he's a natural athlete. And there's absolutely no doubt that he'll have had every fibre of his being tested for chemicals.
Bolt's showboating and exuberant chest beating has drawn the ire of the president of the IOC but if that's the worst that Bolt is accused of, I'll be thrilled.
As for Phelps, he's part of Project Believe, a voluntary drug-testing programme run in the States.
It appears the only drug he's ever taken was to cope with his ADHD and even then, his momma, a middle-school principal who looks like one woman you would never want to argue with, says managing his ADHD was more about putting boundaries in place rather than relying on pharmaceuticals.
Please, please let these Games be the ones in which the superstars owe their performances to the magic of freakish genes and superhuman determination, not the evil alchemy of the laboratory.
