"The athlete is either clean or he is fighting for gold. Both are not compatible."

Michael Lohberg, Brazil swimming coach.

"If you work really hard and get world records they just want to chop your head off and that is such a sad thing. But right now I'm above all those accusations. It doesn't mean anything because I have the gold medal."

Dutch swimmer Inge de Bruijn.

"I don't think there is morality in the sport now. There's no morality in any part of it. There's gamesmanship, drugs, disrespect. I think there were positive tests covered up in Atlanta. I think there were positive tests covered up before that. I don't have the desire to be close to it any more."

A disillusioned Carl Lewis.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you guys wanted to photograph me more than my wife."

CJ Hunter, aka Mr Marion Jones.

"Athletes always say: `It can't be possible', followed by, "there must be a mistake in the sample', followed by, `I must have got it from the toilet seat', followed by, `here's a writ for $12 million from my lawyer'. It's a classic profile."

The response of Dick Pound, the IOC vice president, to CJ Hunter's insistence that he was drug free.