Australian Sports Minister Andrew Thomson said on Tuesday he was stunned by reports that IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch had suggested that athletes should be allowed to take some of the more benign drugs. Our own Sports Minister, Dr Jim McDaid, stated on RTE radio that he was equally baffled.

"It just leaves me gobsmacked," Thomson told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.

"I must admit I'm baffled by the comment," said Minister McDaid to Myles Dungan on RTE radio.

"Anything that doesn't adversely affect the health of the athlete, for me, isn't doping," Samaranch was quoted as saying in the Spanish daily El Mundo. It was fine timing by the president and no doubt deliberate, coming after Michelle de Bruin's hearing in Lausanne and the Tour de France debacle.

So what was Samaranch on about? Maybe he was alluding to the legal drug creatin which aids muscle building, or the frequently taken insulin which aids energy production in the muscles, or the vast array of complex vitamins which are routinely swallowed and injected, or the small doses of caffeine, alcohol and even testosterone which can be taken if levels do not exceed a defined ratio of 6:1 with epitestosterone. Maybe Samaranch was saying that ever since the pioneering marathon runners took nips of brandy to keep them going, drugs have always been a factor in sporting endeavour. Drawing the line between good drugs and bad drugs? Now that's another matter.