By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
 SYDNEY - This is not Ben Johnson. But it will have the same effect. It will still soil and spoil an Olympic Games although it doesn't involve an athlete who is actually competing in the Olympics.

 The effect of Marion Jones's husband and coach C. J. Hunter testing positive for the banned substance nandrolone can be felt all over the world today. And there are few places where it will be felt more so than half a world away where this is an absolute knee-wobbling blow to Edmonton 2001.

 Already cursed by a Canadian track and field team which couldn't win a medal at these Olympics, Donovan Bailey talking about retiring and Bruny Surin telling French Canadian writers that he may end his career at the Francophone Games instead of at Edmonton 2001, this might be an even greater blow.

 Whatever happened with the Canadian team, they still had Marion Jones to sell.

 Now ... now she doesn't sell as well.

 Guilt by association

 This is guilt by association for Jones, the queen of track and the person poised to put her name on the XXVII Olympic Games.

 Maybe she's clean. She wouldn't be the first woman to marry badly, if you choose to look at it that way.

 But there's more involved here. Much more.

 The world is going to view this as a coverup by the Americans. That darkens the cloud which will now hang over her head for the rest of these Olympics and all the way to Edmonton next summer.

 Just two days earlier, Marion Jones wowed the world with her 100-metre win, her smile, her heart and the way she handled herself here. She was the picture of everything good and great about her sport.

 Supposedly injured, her husband, who won gold at the Worlds in Seville last year, isn't competing at these Olympics. But a confirmed - by everybody involved except the United States Track and Field Association - positive International Amateur Athletics Federation drug test has poisoned the brew of another Olympic Games. By extension, it has done the same thing to next year's show in Edmonton.

 "The IAAF confirms that shot putter C.J. Hunter of the United States has tested positive for a banned substance within the IAAF doping control system. The case is being referred to U.S. Track and Field Association which will deal with it in accordance with the relevant rules,'' said Istvan Gyulai of a July 28 test from the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway.

 And C.J. Hunter himself has admitted there's a positive drug test with his name on it.

 "I know what's going on and I am aware of the allegations and I am going to defend myself vigorously,'' said the shot putter who withdrew from the Olympics Sept. 11 allegedly due to arthroscopic knee surgery.

 Arne Ljungquist of Sweden, the IAAF anti-dope division boss, has accused the Americans of "failing to disclose 12 to 15'' positive drug cases in the past two years.''

 And an International Olympic Committee member goes further in suggesting the IAAF, long accused of covering up positive competition drug tests by the American superstars of the sport, is having fingers pointed at them again as well.

 "The athletes feel that the IAAF and U.S. Track and Field are covering up and have special rules for American athletes,'' said Johann Olav Koss, a Norwegian member of the IOC.

 The Americans refused to admit it because of "confidentiality'' rules.

 Craig Masback, CEO of the U.S. federation, held a press conference which was almost slapstick. He wouldn't answer any question of why this has apparently been covered up for two months.

 "I don't know anything,'' he said at one point. "I have no idea about any facts.''

 The closest he even came to identifying the situation was to say "the challenge faced by Marion Jones is a very substantial one. A very real athletic challenge has only been made more difficult by these reports.

 "People may assume everybody is cheating but I don't believe that,'' he added.

 "I don't believe the vast majority of athletes are cheating.''

 I've always felt the vast majority of athletes in this sport are dirty, have once been dirty or one day will become dirty.

 Suspend that belief

 But it's nice to suspend that belief at an Olympic Games and at a World Championship in Athletics. That suspension of belief is now gone in Sydney 2000 and it's gone for Edmonton 2001.

 "Any positive drug test, particularly to a high-profile athlete, is a concern. And C.J. Hunter, the winner of a gold medal in Seville, would be considered a high-profile athlete,'' said Edmonton 2001 CEO Rick LeLacheur.

 "Unfortunately, every incident like this takes away from the excitement of the sport itself.

 "It did tonight.''

 Indeed it did.

 While Australia's Cathy Freeman and the United States' Michael Johnson were winning 400-metre gold medals last night and Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Paul Tergat of Kenya were running one of the greatest 10,000-metre races ever run, the press centre was full of writers ignoring the live action to write about drugs again.