IN ONE of many interviews immediately before the London Olympics, Lord Coe was asked what he wanted out of it.

His reply was, “lots of inspiring performances and no positive doping tests.”

It stuck in my mind because it was an odd way of putting what he undoubtedly meant to say and did say more clearly in other interviews, which was that the Games should be remembered for spectacular clean sport.

His words could have been interpreted as meaning that he didn’t want doping athletes caught.

I can understand why the great and the good of sport don’t want scandal enveloping their showpiece events. If I say Seoul Olympics 1988, what do you remember about it, other than Ben Johnson testing positive after winning the 100 metres with a since disqualified world record time of 9.79 seconds? The shock of what has been dubbed the Dirtiest Race in History has overshadowed everything else that happened at those Games.

What Lord Coe really wanted was for the cheats to be caught elsewhere and, if they weren’t, for them to behave like gentlemen and not come to the Games which he hoped would inspire a generation.

That was never going to happen. An Albanian weightlifter was thrown out of the London Games for drug taking the day after the opening ceremony and others, including two Russians, tested positive later. Now we hear that there may have been others on the victory podiums who cheated and didn’t get caught. Hoping that they would be caught elsewhere didn’t stop them arriving in London and in the words of the WADA report “sabotaging” the 2012 Olympics.

It is not surprising to hear allegations that the IAAF covered up positive doping tests. It wouldn’t be the first international sporting body to do so.

How do the Russians who cheered on their athletes at London feel about the news that they were cheering on cheats? Are they sickened by what their national organisations and athletes have been up to, or are they sickened that the cheating and corruption has been exposed? What will they do next time Russians compete in international sport? Will they cheer their team?

This has been a scandal that has been coming for a long time and it will get a lot worse. The Russian authorities are displaying the ugly side of patriotism where the intolerable is tolerated because it is done for one’s country. International sporting success can now win so much kudos for a country, it is worth a country’s while putting its reputation on the line. It would be naive in the extreme to believe that Russia is the only country where national organisations bend or break the sporting rules to get international success.

There have been other countries with medals and world champions whose anti-doping authorities have gone on holiday in the crucial months before major competitions or where there have been other allegations of systematic cheating.

The fans may feel powerless other than voting with their feet and abandoning the sport. But if you love athletics, that isn’t an option. There is another way. If we want to restore faith in international sport, We the fans have to make it absolutely clear that we will not tolerate shady tactics by any nation.

If a country is caught cheating, if its anti-doping agency is lacking or if its national bodies are involved in corruption, bribery or other underhand tactics, then we should boo all their athletes and shout so loudly if they win that their national anthem cannot be heard.

Then those who lead that country may be shamed into changing things. It is of course, grossly unfair on the clean athletes from that country, but how can we distinguish them from the state-approved cheats?