BRUSSELS, July 26: International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge expects up to 40 athletes to be caught doping at the Beijing Olympics, compared to 26 at the 2004 Athens Games.

In an interview published in the weekend edition of the De Standaard daily, Rogge credited the increased number and improved quality of urine analysis in out-of-competition testing and at sporting events for the projected figure.

“The number of tests has increased significantly,” Rogge said. “I am sure the doping problem has improved. In athletics, the performances of 20, 30 years ago are not being improved on. Racers don’t climb as fast any more in the Tour de France.”

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, there were 12 positive doping results from 2,500 urine tests. Rogge said at Beijing there will be 4,500 tests.

“How many positive cases will there be in Beijing? More than in Athens. Based on the number of doping tests in Beijing, you can expect 30 to 40 positive cases,” Rogge said.

Rogge believes the Beijing Games have led to more media and personal freedoms in China as well as a tightening of child labor laws, but said there are limits to the Olympic movement’s powers of generating change within the country.

“The IOC is not authorized and has no means to interfere in sovereign matters,” Rogge said. “China’s relations with Taiwan, the situation in Tibet, those are matters over which the IOC has no authority and must be addressed by other institutions.”

Rogge denied the Olympics legitimizes the Chinese government, which is widely accused of rights violations, saying the games “hold up a mirror (and) show what’s happening” in the country.—AP