Have you ever cheated on a high school exam? Have you ever wanted to cheat on a high school exam but no one was around to cheat off of, and no one was there to assure you you’re not really doing anything wrong. It’s really hard to resist the temptation of taking just a little something to make it easier for you to excel, especially when the really tough times emerge, and there is a gold medal at stake. Superior athletes such as those competing at the Olympic games can be very tempted when their coaches or others around them are recommending them to take a little something to help them work through the ‘burn’ during the competition. There are numerous drugs out there that can be taken to enhance your abilities, whether it be to lengthen your stamina (EPO-erythropoietin), to allow your muscles to grow bigger (anabolic steroids), and many other hormones. It is extremely hard for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to test for every drug available to athletes competing in the Olympics, especially because there are so many different athletes, so many different sports, and each sport has their own ‘favourite’ drugs to do to enhance their skills. As well, not only is there numerous drugs they could do, many hormones, such as the human growth hormone, cannot be currently detected by the tests available to the IOC. As a result of the athlete using this growth hormone during training, and not just prior to the games, it is much harder to detect whether it had indeed been used to improve performance. At the Beijing Olympics there will very strict control placed upon athletes to ensure there are no ‘cheaters’ in the competitions. At the Sydney Olympics, the detection of EPO was first used, and by the Salt Lake City games another EPO type drug (a delayed-reaction EPO) could be detected. By the time the Olympic games in Athens took place, hemotransfusion and hemoglobin synthesis (HBOC) use was able to be identified, which causes over-production of red blood cells (which carry oxygen) to help them last longer in the competition. There will be approximately 4,550 drugs, hormones, and other banned substances being tested for at the Beijing Olympics; this is close to a 1000 more than Athens. As well, there will be more tests being done prior to the competitions as well as during the competitions. Both urinary and blood tests will be done to assure that the best effort is put towards detecting these substances in a variety of ways. As well, samples taken from medal winners at the Beijing Olympics will be saved for eight years, which is just another way the International Olympic Committee is enforcing their strict no drug policy. So why, if there is so many policies and tests designed to catch the cheaters, would an athlete use a performance enhancing drug? Perhaps because they know they are just not good enough to win without one. Or maybe it’s their coach that tempted them to take just a little ‘help’. It is hard to say what provokes an athlete to risk their entire career and medal win for a little extra boost. Hopefully for the Beijing Olympics, athletes will think long and hard about the consequences of doping, especially because there are so many tests out there to catch them in the act, and now they will have to hold their breath for eight years before they get off without penalty.