Several doping cases dominated the headlines this year.

The doping case of Marion Jones would probably take first place in the most controversial doping case of 2008. The once proud and impressive star of the track tearfully confessed on Oprah her doping sins. She served her jail term in connection with her use of steroids and her involvement in a check fraud case in March this year. She was released September 5 but remains on probation.

The guts of the Russian track and field athletes to manipulate urine samples also grabbed international attention. Seven women athletes attempted, but failed, to pass detection by swapping urine samples. The International Association of Athletics Federation smelled something pissy, er, fishy when said athletes provided untroubled access during unannounced random testing. The Russians were punctual, ready and happy to comply with the testing. When IAAF officials carried out further investigation they found out that the athletes’ DNA did not match those in the stored urine samples.

The Greek athletes systematic doping also shocked many including their countrymen, prompting Greek authorities to implement tougher penalties for wayward athletes.

In March, eleven of the 14 members of the Greek weightlifting team tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone in out-of-competition testing in Athens. Swimmers Yiannis Drymonakos and Maria Demertzi, rower Yiannis Tsamis and an unnamed boxer were also disqualified from joining the Beijing Olympics due to failed dope tests.

Fani Halkia, 2004 gold medalist in 400-meter hurdles, sprinter Dimitris Regas, and Anastasios Gousis also got banned for testing positive also for methyltrienolone. The spate of failed dope tests allegedly prompted IOC president Jacques Rogge of saying “Greece had won the gold medal in doping”.

The sport of cycling, considered to be the most doped sport by many, also got its share of newspaper columns.  Four riders in the Tour de France, including the Tour’s best climber and third finisher Bernhard Kohl, were suspended for testing positive for the blood booster CERA.

In the NFL, the several athletes tested positive for the loop diuretic bumetanide. Pat Williams and Kevin Williams of the Vikings were among the players who tested positive for the banned compound which is considered to be a masking agent for anabolic steroids.

The repercussions of the Mitchell Report of last year and the BALCO scandal of eons ago are still huge this year and possibly up to 2009. The cases of Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds warranted ample media coverage and the frenzy could double once Bonds’ doping trial starts March 2009

Seven Russian women athletes, including World Indoor 1500m champion Yelena Soboleva, each received two-year suspension for switching urine samples. The announcement was made by the country’s athletics federation Oct. 20.

The other six athletes were middle distance runners Svetlana Cherkasova, Yulia Fomenko, former double world champion Tatyana Tomashova and Olga Yegorova, hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva – a former world champion, and reigning European discus champion Darya Pishchalnikova.

The bans are retroactive, coming into effect April 2007 when said samples had been taken. The athletes were initially suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations out of the Beijing Olympics in August after discovery of doping test irregularities. DNA sampling pointed to their illegal activity.

Valentin Balakhnichev, the head of the Russian athletics federation, said Monday: “We suspended for two years all of the seven athletes involved in the case for violations of the doping code.

According to AFP report, Pishchalnikova gave samples on April 10, Cherkasova and Soboleva on April 26, Fomenko on April 27, Khanafeyeva on May 9, and Tomashova on May 23. Yegorova’s date would be determined later.