Anti-doping experts reported progress Thursday in the search for a reliable test for gene doping, although they still don't know when it will be ready for use in competition.

IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist said a test would be put into use at the Olympics and other events as soon as a method is proven reliable regardless of whether hard evidence exists that athletes are manipulating their genes to improve performance.

No such evidence exists so far, although the World Anti-Doping Agency has received information that "there is an interest out there in certain circles," particularly among coaches and other members of athletes' entourages, Ljungqvist said.

"We will certainly as soon as we have a reliable method available make use of it for the purpose of identifying whether there is something going on based on strategic information," the Swedish official said.

"I would really estimate that people realize that it's probably a bit risky today, perhaps very risky if they should jump to misuse. But there seems to be mental readiness to take it on once it is available in some sort of safe way," he said.

With tests now able to reliably detect more conventional forms of doping, gene doping is considered the potential future of cheating in sports. While it offers the potential for enhancing muscle growth and increasing strength and endurance, gene doping also carries potential risks such as serious genetic damage, including cancer.

Regulating gene and cell doping is especially complicated because the line between their use as treatment for muscle diseases and misuse for performance enhancement is blurred, said Ljungqvist, who is also a WADA vice president and chairman of its health, medical and research committee.

Signs of gene doping are also varied and subtle and can be easily confused with physiological changes resulting from diet or simple illness, said Theodore Friedmann, chairman of WADA's gene doping panel.

Still, he said experts were "cautiously optimistic, that we are making progress, and that will help sport and will help future athletes do what they do best, and that is compete in the clean world."

"So that's why I feel optimistic that we are being proactive at this stage, not reactive," Friedmann said, adding that testing remained at the laboratory stage at present.

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Gene doping test for athletes in the works

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