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THE Olympic oath, the pledge made by all athletes to a free and fair Games, has been altered for the first time in 80 years to reflect the scourge of drugs in sport.

The "athlete's oath", now includes a public commitment not to sully the Olympic ideal by taking performance-enhancing substances. The International Olympic Committee said the idea came from the athletes. The oath was sworn for the first time at yesterday's spectacular Olympics opening ceremony in Sydney which was watched by three billion people around the world.

Rachelle Hawkes, the captain of Australia's gold medal hockey team in Atlanta, spoke the pledge on behalf of all 11,600 athletes who will compete over the next fortnight. "In the name of all the competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams."

Even as Hawkes was proclaiming these high ideals, drugs were back on the agenda when Barry McCaffrey, the United States drugs co-ordinator, announced further positive tests in Sydney. Among them was Stain Grimseth, a Norwegian weightlifter who tested positive for the steroid nandrolone on Sept 2.