There have been promises from athletes, assurances from national Olympic committees and guarantees from the International Olympic Committee.   They’re good steps in the fight against doping. They’re not enough to lift the cloud of suspicion hanging over the Beijing Games.   Forty years after the first Olympic doping tests, the 10,500 athletes headed to the Chinese capital, including an estimated 600 Americans, face unprecedented scrutiny in attempts to prove they’re clean.   Reeling from a record 26 doping cases at the 2004 Athens Games, the IOC has ramped up for Beijing, with more tests, far-reaching testing measures and harsher penalties.   Of all places for the doping crackdown, China is appropriate, considering the country of 1.3 billion is among the world’s largest manufacturers of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.   “We are at the forefront of the effort to eradicate doping,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said. “Most athletes compete honestly and fairly. They treasure the Olympic experience. We owe it to these ath- letes who train so hard to ensure the Games are as free of prohibited drugs as possible.”   According to the IOC’s anti-doping rule book, the top five finishers plus two other finishers in individual events are subject to testing; athletes can be tested any time or place without advance notice; and athletes who miss two tests during the Olympics will be sanctioned.   An IOC rule ratified last month states drug cheats suspended at least six months in the four years before the Olympics aren’t eligible for the Games. The nonretroactive provision initially applies to the 2010 Vancouver Games.   The IOC, which has busted 44 Olympic medalists for doping violations, plans to conduct 4,500 tests in Beijing, a 25 percent increase since Athens and a 90 percent jump since the 2000 Sydney Games.   More than 700 of the tests should be urine tests for the performance-enhancing drug EPO. About 740 of the tests should be blood tests – 400 for HGH.   “While it is to our advantage to not release all the details, enhanced testing will be administered in Beijing,” IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist said.   The Colorado Springsbased U.S. Olympic Committee, embarrassed last year when track and field star Marion Jones admitted she used steroids in winning five medals in Sydney, has offered countless resources toward the doping battle.   It contributed $3 million and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, also headquartered in Colorado Springs, gave $1 million to the “Partnership for Clean Competition,” a collaborative established in January to boost anti-doping research.   In February, USADA launched Project Believe, a voluntary program to improve the accuracy of doping tests. The program features 12 athletes, most notably swimmer Michael Phelps, sprinter Allyson Felix and decathlete Bryan Clay.   “This will be a clean team,” USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth said. “We want to do everything we can that’s available to us to make sure we can back up the words. We want to build the reputation of bringing clean teams.”   Clay deemed positive tests a “major blow” to track and field.   “It’s even more of a blow to athletes who are trying to do it the right way,” he said. “It takes away from what we’re doing. And we’re doing it the correct way.”   Added Phelps, “The only person I can worry about is myself. I know I’m clean, and that’s all that matters.”

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