So many weightlifters are getting busted for drugs at the Olympics, you?d think they?re gulping steroid shakes at the athletes? village ? under the table, of course.

They?re a United Nations of dopesters, part of a group of 21 lifters caught this year from places as diverse as Morocco, Hungary, Moldova, India, Myanmar, Armenia, Turkey, Bulgaria, China, Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Iraq and Kazakhstan.

It?s an equal opportunity scandal, though scandal may not apply in a sport where juicing up is the norm.

American lifters, happily absent from the list but also absent from the medal stand, are working a cynical strategy. As one coach close to the US team put it, the idea is to stay clean and hope that everyone else tests positive. Tara Nott did just that in Sydney and moved up from silver to gold when Izabela Dragneva of Bulgaria flunked the drug test.

Seven lifters have been suspended at these Olympics halfway through the competition ? and those are only the ones stupid enough to get caught. They know they?re going to get tested every time they turn around. Anyone with a tad higher IQ might have resorted to one of the many tricks athletes use to avoid detection.

Then again, it takes a certain amount of sophistication and cash to mask drugs completely from the men in white lab coats. It?s easier for athletes from the Third World to acquire steroids than it is to hide them.

Tamas Ajan, president of the International Weightlifting Federation, looked truly pained, if hardly surprised, Thursday when he reported the latest names on the cheating list -- six for anabolic steroids to boost strength and one for a diuretic to drop weight. All, he said, had their credentials yanked, were sent packing from the village and will be barred from the next Olympics.

« We have some moment in our lives when we are smiling, laughing, enjoying life, » Ajan said. « Unfortunately, many times we have some sad moments. One of my eyes is smiling because it is a very good competition. Seventy-nine countries are here. Weightlifting is a basic sport, an important (Olympic) sport since 1896. But my other eye is crying because of the positive tests. »

Between Jan. 1 and July 30, he said, the IWF conducted 1,000 drug tests. The federation ordered all lifters to be in Athens for tests six days before the Olympics, and all of the 260 competitors who qualified for the games were subjected to random out-of-competition testing.