As the joyful celebration of human excellence that is the Sydney Olympics gets underway, G. Hall's dismal, misinformed letter regarding drug misuse at the Games (Opinion, September 18) is a real disappointment.

A very small minority of Olympic athletes take performance-enhancing drugs. Few of these actually contravene British law, just the rightly high standards of the International Olympic Committee.

Anyone wishing to obtain products containing Nandrolone, for example, can do so legally at most bodybuilding shops. They don't have to search it out at raves or nightclubs.

This hardly makes the Games - viewed by 3.7 billion viewers over the fortnight - an affront to public morals, as he argues.

-William Fraser, Summerheath Road, Hailsham