updated 6:37 p.m. ET July 26, 2004

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Olympic and world champion hurdler Allen Johnson believes “athletics is cleaner that it’s ever been,” despite widespread allegations of drug use against U.S. track and field athletes.

“I want to go on record saying that it’s a misperception that there’s a problem with athletics, or track and field as we call it in the United States,” Johnson, a four-time world champion and the 1996 Olympic champion in the 110-meter hurdles, said Monday on the eve of the DN Galan meet. “The sport was the dirtiest when nobody was talking about it. Now that everybody is talking about doping, athletics is cleaner than it’s ever been.”

Four U.S. track and field athletes have received multiyear suspensions this year after testing positively for the steroid THG.

THG was a previously undetectable steroid that was identified by anti-doping officials last summer. The Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative allegedly distributed the THG.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency also has charged four sprinters — including Tim Montgomery, the world record holder in the 100 and the boyfriend of triple Olympic champion Marion Jones — with use of THG and other steroids. All have denied steroid use and requested arbitration hearings. If found guilty, they face lifetime bans.

Still, Johnson insisted banned substances aren’t prevalent among U.S. track and field athletes.

“The United States is cleaner right now than any other country in the world,” Johnson said. “There are countries participating in the Olympics that don’t have out-of-competition testing.

“We do. We get tested by USADA. We’re the only country in the world that has an independent agency for testing. Everybody has federation tests. I got tested two days in a row in my Olympic trials. Tell me another country that tests like that.”

Johnson said he has been tested several times recently.

“Since the 17th of July, I’ve been tested three times,” he said. “I was tested on the 17th, the 18th of July and last night.”

Two medal favorites in the sprints, American Kelli White and Dwain Chambers of England, already are out of the Athens Games after receiving two-year suspensions for steroid use.

And three-time Olympic champion Jones is being investigated by the anti-doping agency, though no formal charges have been filed. She says she never used banned substances.

They aren’t the only subjects of doping investigations that will affect the Olympics. There’s a growing doping scandal in cycling. Pakistan’s top boxer has been barred from the Athens Games for flunking a drug test. And Olympic women’s shot put champion Yanina Korolchik of Belarus won’t defend her title in Athens because of a two-year steroid ban.

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