Hardy tests positive for little known drug

Swimmers Michael Phelps, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin are among the Olympians who signed up this year for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's new pilot drug-testing program that is similar to the one Catlin favors.

Torres is on her fifth Olympic team at age 41. She said she sought the extra testing to quiet rampant speculation that she uses performance-enhancing drugs.

"I have to prove it now and that's why I have done this," she said.

Torres' coach, Michael Lohberg, has been in the sport more than 30 years and agrees with Hall that swimming has its share of cheats.

"I don't think we will ever have a clean sport," he said. "The testers can only find what they are looking for and there will always be people in this world for whatever reason — fame, money — will always find ways to cheat and be ahead of everyone else."

Lohberg blames the increased sponsor money that has flowed into swimming in recent years for providing greater incentives to cheat.

"If there is no prize, why would you do it?" he said. "It's a part of the game and you have to make that decision for yourself, and can you live with yourself and what kind of person you are."

Wielgus agrees the temptation to cheat exists, but, outside a superstar like Phelps, most swimmers don't earn millions.

"You can make a comfortable, middle-class living," he said. "But it's not going to send you into the stratosphere where you have five Rolls Royces in the garage."

Hall has called for WADA to create a list of allowed supplements instead of just the current list of what is banned. He said calling the WADA hot line and asking if a certain supplement is acceptable gets the same response: take it at your own risk.

"There's not an OK list, maybe we should create an OK list," Hall said. "It would make it a lot easier for the athletes. It certainly doesn't help the athletes that are kind of in the dark on these things."