What is the point of sport? When a group of athletes line up and start legging it down the track, why should anyone care who wins?

It's because sport tells the truth. So much of life is about deals and compromises and dodges. It is often impossible to tell a winner from a loser, a hero from a villain, even sometimes wrong from right. Yet when a sportsman enters the field of play, things are different. Whatever may happen in the wings, whatever the business shenanigans, when they are competing athletes tell it like it is. It is all they can do.

That is why when Dwain Chambers started using drugs to enhance his performance as a sprinter he was doing more than cheating his fellow runners. He was negating the entire point of sport. And it is why the British Olympic Association (BOA) was right to forbid him from wearing the Team GB vest in Beijing. Its court victory is a cause for celebration (see page 88).

Being barred from the Olympics for life is a harsh, unforgiving punishment. Yet there is a maths to sentencing. Where the probability of being caught is low, the severity of the penalty must be high. Mr Chambers had been using banned substances for 18 months before his cheating was uncovered.

Other countries do not take the same stance as the BOA. This should be a source of pride, rather than a plank in the appeal case of disgraced competitors. Britain should be urging other nations to emulate BOA rules. The integrity of the Olympic Games depends upon it.

Lies must not be allowed to get halfway around the track while the truth is getting its trainers on.