BEIJING (Reuters) - When the International Olympic Committee ordered federations and Olympic committees around the world to boost drugs tests ahead of the Beijing Games, few would have predicted only six positive tests at the Olympics.

An A and a B bottle, used for the collection of urine samples in doping tests, stand at production site of Swiss Berlinger & Co. AG in Ganterschwil east of Zurich August 15, 2008. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Even IOC President Jacques Rogge, weeks before the Games when dozens of athletes across the world were being suspended for testing positive for banned substances, expected about 30-40 cases in Beijing.

In Athens, 26 athletes violated anti-doping rules from about 3,300 tests. About 5,000 tests have been conducted in Beijing.

Doping had severely tarnished the reputation of past Olympics. Medals were stripped, world records annulled and suspensions handed out as late as eight years after competition.

The IOC, fully aware of the Games’ lagging popularity among young people partly because of doping, issued a “zero tolerance on drugs” policy and eyed Beijing as a way to make up lost ground with the most extensive drugs control program ever.

Some 50 athletes were caught before the Games and many others were scared off.

A new rule brought forward to just before the Games warned athletes that if suspended for a doping offence for longer than six months they would not only miss the Beijing Olympics but also the London 2012 Games.

The work has seemingly paid off in Beijing with no big name caught for drugs taking.

Equestrian suffered a setback though as four show jumpers were suspended from the Games after their horses tested positive for banned substances.

Overall though records have tumbled. The Games found new sporting heroes in U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps and sprinter Usain Bolt, and television viewing numbers are up 30 percent.

PRAGMATIC APPROACH

“I am a pragmatic and realistic man,” Rogge said in an interview with news agencies during the second week of competition. “The war is not won. That is why we are freezing the samples for eight years.”

Past experience has shown cheats get away by using cutting edge drugs but sooner or later testers catch up.

This time round though the IOC will not only be punishing the athletes. It will crack down on offenders in their entourage, coaches and officials.

Already one of the cases involving Greek hurdler Fani Halkia has made its way to the Greek courts, with the IOC preparing to take legal action against her and her coach.

Halkia, the 2004 Games 400m hurdles gold medalist, failed a doping test in Japan days before she was due to compete.

The same goes for Lyudmila Blonska, Ukraine’s heptathlon silver medalist who had her medal taken away just days after failing a test.

Her coach is now also under investigation with the IOC reserving the right to sanction him as well.

The other cases a North Korean shooter who had his silver and bronze medals taken away, a Spanish cyclist caught before she competed, a Vietnamese gymnast who finished 59th and a Ukrainian weightlifter who finished sixth.

The big doping case may not have come in Beijing but judging from the past it may surface at any time in the coming weeks, months or years.