The problem with drug taking in sport is simple. Drug tests haven't been an adequate means of detection since the early 70s when the East Germans outstripped the policemen and the rest of the world shrugged its shoulders and eventually followed suit.

In the absence of definitive proofs we are left with the duck syndrome. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck then we have to consider the possibility that it is in fact, a duck.

China is in the business of mass producing ducks at the moment.

Honest hearts are in the business of pointing fingers. The blazers who run sport and the knownothing Pollyannas who trail around after it, have been loud in the horror.

All the evidence is circumstantial? Why spoil the beautiful illusion? Don't make the sponsors angry? Don't make the TV people go away?

They remind us of policemen at the scene of a massacre. Move along folks, move along, nothing to see here, nothing to see.

There has been plenty to see.

Before the Rome world championships in 1994, Australian, American and Canadian head coaches all spoke out about China. The usual clues were evident: Sudden and unlikely improvements in performance, women's breasts mysteriously vanishing, splendid muscles which showed no sign of being worn down by endless yardage in training, obsessiveness to the point of surly aggression. Also the improvements were restricted to women, who benefit most from banned substances.

The coaches blew the whistle and the blazers asked them in the name of all that was sacred and commercial to desist. Hey presto!

In Rome all the Chinese swimmers tested clean. They won 12 gold medals out of a possible 16.

Within six weeks of the games finishing 11 of them (including two world champions) had been discovered with DHT in their systems but the damage had been done.

Another 12 Chinese swimmers have since failed tests for the same substance.

They look like ducks, quack like ducks and walk like ducks but it isn't popular to suggest they might be ducks. Not if these cobwebbed testing machines aren't showing them to be ducks.

More strangeness. Cast your mind back to the summer of 1996 and the rumours which eddied and flowed around the Georgia Tech Aquatic Centre during the Olympic games.

The poor showing of the Chinese women in Atlanta was as bizarre as their total dominance in 1994 when they won those 12 medals in Rome.

They evaded questions and pretty soon we journalists had other equally strange fish to be frying. It was assumed that through their bumbling FINA had somehow made honest women of the Chinese. We forgot about them.

The only Chinese gold in Atlanta went to Jingyi Le in the 100m freestyle. She was coached by Zhou Ming, who had been suspended for a year after the great Chinese doping scandals of 1994.

There were a few other creditable performances. Butterflyer Limin Liu, lost the gold in the 100m butterfly by one hundredth of a second. Li Lin, managed a bronze in the 200m IM, swimming three seconds outside her personal best.

Strange things happened elsewhere. Strange failures. Cihong He, swam 1:05.87 in the 100m backstroke, more than five seconds over her world record time. She finished 26 of 36.

In the 100m freestyle Ying Shan, number one in the world, finished 9th in 55.74.

Yanyan Wu entered the 400m IM with a time of 4:41.20 and finished 18th with a 4:54.70. Indeed, Yanyan Wu was ranked first in the 200m IM and second in the 400m IM going to Atlanta, but finished 10th and 18th, respectively. Bizarre.

Most amazing of all was the case of Chen Yan (one of two Chinese swimmers bearing that name). The freestyle/medley Chen Yan came to Atlanta with a 4:11.33 entry time in the 400m freestyle. She swam 4:22.55 and finished in 29th place. In the 200m, she dropped out after qualifying last for the B final. Ranked first in the world in 400m IM with a time of 4:40.85, Chen managed a dismal 4:53.87 to finish 17th.

That was China at the Olympics. Nobody ever explained what had gone wrong. Most people just assumed they had gone straight.

Imagine the surprise then when during the Chinese games in Shanghai the week before last, Chen Yan slashed two seconds from the women's 400m IM world record, a mark which has stood for 15 years since being set by East Germany's Petra Schneider in Ecuador in August 1982. Today we know a lot more about the wondermaidens of East German swimming and how they never failed drug tests. Schneider's mark of 4:36.10 was considered unassailable before Chen Yan's swim of 4:34.79.

The other major sensation in the pool at Shanghai was Yanyan Wu, who broke the world record in the women's 200m individual medley. She swam more than 3,000 training kilometres in the pool this year, claimed her coach.

Sadly for sport, they look like ducks. It's not popular to suggest that. Some of the criticism has the racist edge which will be familiar to those who remember the outcry in 1993 when Chinese athletes beat Sonia O'Sullivan in Stuttgart.

Down in Australia last week they had a quick glimpse of the trouble that pointing the finger can cause. On the pool decks down under they are preparing for the world swimming championships which take place in Perth in January. The obsessiveness of their focus has been diminished by the amount of ducks which China suddenly seems to be producing. Coach Don Talbot, swimmers Susan O'Neill, Samantha Reilly and Scott Miller and Australian swimming president Terry Gathercole are all crying foul (Ok, Ok insert your own puns).

By late last week people were rounding on them. Suppose an Australian test positive, then we'll look stupid. Suppose they are innocent?

Athletics is dying a long, slow death at the moment. People who care about swimming feel the same symptoms ailing their sport.

The world championships at Perth in January will be a battleground on which the future of swimming is fought. In this bizarre and sick war, those who care most passionately about their sport are the ones in danger of becoming outcasts.

The cheats are on the verge of victory.

There can be no more room for official complacency. All drug test records should be made public immediately. Clean swimmers should be clean about their training methods. For 25 or more years, drug taking has shaped the history of women's swimming.

While the Pollyannas have fiddled, a great sport has been reduced to one big lie.