SYDNEY, July 26 (AFP) - Stringent drug-testing procedures were catching up with American athletes, Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) president John Coates said on Monday.
Coates said it seemed clear some US athletes had used performance-enhancing drugs at recent Olympics, but the testers were making inroads.
He said there were doubts if anyone would break a track and field world record at Athens, while there had to be concerns about previous performances, especially by US athletes.
"It just hasn't been happening (breaking of world records), so the indications are the Americans in particular were certainly receiving some assistance at recent Olympics," Coates told ABC television.
"We know that they didn't have a government testing agency that was independent of their Olympic committee as we've had now for 10 or 15 years.
"There's certainly been catch-up happening in America now and we should be pleased with that."
This month's US Olympic track and field trials in Sacramento began with six competitors fighting doping charges and ended with revelations about three other athletes from coach John Smith's highly regard HSI group.
Coates said he was resigned to drug cheats competing at the Athens Games, but warned there was a greater chance of picking them up through random testing.
He said the absence of track and field world records at the 2000 Sydney games would probably be replicated at Athens because countries were getting better at testing for drugs.
Coates said it was likely athletes would be found positive for drugs at Athens, but it was another reason to keep testing.
The health problems of East German athletes, exposed to performance enhancing drugs from the 1960s onwards, was enough reason to keep cheats out of the Games.
"I think we have a great responsibility for that reason we're doing whatever we can to stop the cheats," he said. "We've had 11 or 12 positives in Sydney and I'm sure that will happen again in Athens.
"If it does, it means we are catching some of the cheats, whether we catch all of them depends on the latest research and certainly there's a will for these games."