There are a few worthy contenders for the "dirtiest race in history" title but the 2012 Olympic women's 1,500 meters probably takes the gold medal for not only the brazen nature of the cheating, but the sheer depth of it.
Athletics is by no means the only Olympic sport to be badly hit by doping cases over the last few decades but due to its premier profile and multiplied by the huge scale of Russian doping and evasion, it has endured a grim time.
It is somewhat laughable that no East German ever failed a test at the Games, that Ben Johnson, winner of a drug-fueled 100 meters, was the only athlete to officially fail one in 1988 and that only four, none of them medalists, were caught in 1992.