The Olympic ideal will be tarnished once again in the next few weeks when a number of competitors are booted out of the Games for failing drug tests. But rather than mourn what will inevitably be another high-profile sporting casualty, we are being urged - by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge - to celebrate when an athlete tests positive for a banned substance.

Every positive case, he suggests, will be another nail in the coffin of the dopers and another significant step towards making the Olympics clean. Is Rogge guilty of spin, of preparing us for the worst before it has even happened?

Maybe, but another leading figure in the fight against drugs insists he will witness the heat of battle in Athens without worrying if an athlete won gold by fair means or foul.

«When I watch the Olympics, drugs will be the last thing on my mind,» says Dr Stuart Cram, who works for the US-based firm Agilent Technologies.

As a leading figure with the company providing thousands of pounds worth of drug-testing equipment for the Athens Games, he knows just what efforts are being made to catch the drug cheats.

Agilent has overseen the construction of a purpose-built laboratory in the Greek capital, a site that will be staffed by 146 people and remain open 24 hours a day while the Olympics - and indeed the Paralympics - are on.

«It's a major, major project,» says Dr Cram. Around 2,400 urine samples and between 600 and 700 blood samples will be analysed in the laboratory and then stored away for retrospective testing. All medal winners will be tested, as will the competitor who finishes fourth.

The IOC will also select other Olympians for testing on a random basis, with special attention paid to athletes who have aroused suspicion in the past. With more than 400 substances on the banned list, testing is a laborious process.

«We are at the cutting edge of technology,» says Dr Cram.

It takes 24 hours for a negative result to be confirmed and 36 hours for a positive.

Therefore, any drug cheat who wins gold could be stripped of his medal before the cheers have died down in his or her home town.