Quotes of the Day

Sure, everybody talks about athletes using performance-enhancing drugs, but who does anything about it?

Here's a look at how three professional sports stack up against one another and the Olympics in what is often described as an arms race between athletes looking for a pharmacological advantage and would-be protectors of the integrity of sports trying to ensure a level playing field.

Baseball
TESTING: Notorious for dragging its feet, baseball is finally testing players — but only for steroids

PENALTIES: A first infraction results in treatment. For subsequent failures, players are punished by suspensions ranging from 30 days to two years

Football
TESTING: Football has the toughest pro policy. Since 1990, no steroids, growth hormones, street drugs or ephedrine stimulants allowed

PENALTIES: Flunk one test, and a player's out for four games; a second, and it's six games; a third means a year's suspension

Basketball
TESTING: Random tests for steroids, LSD, cocaine, heroin and marijuana but not for ephedra or other supplements

PENALTIES: First foul draws a five-game suspension; a second costs 10 games; a third, 25 games. The use of anabolic steroids benches a player for good

Olympics
TESTING: Began testing in '68. The 2004 prohibited list bans well over 100 drugs in addition to methods of blood and gene doping

PENALTIES: A two-year ban for the first offense, life for the second. Athletes failing drug tests at the Olympic Games lose their medals

• David Bjerklie