Track Keeps Banning Drug Cheats. It Worries That Other Sports Are Not.

The announcements of track and field’s latest doping case or multiyear suspension arrived on an almost weekly basis this spring. A world champion. An Olympic medalist. And, most recently, three record-holders in a month.

The most immediate consequence, according to the official charged with pursuing doping violations in the sport, has been to create the impression that track has a serious doping problem, one perhaps much bigger than that of other sports in the Paris Olympics. The reality, he said, is that catching athletes who break the rules is the point.

“I would be much more concerned to be a fan of other sports that don’t have any doping cases,” said Brett Clothier, the Australian lawyer who leads the Athletics Integrity Unit, the body charged with catching track’s doping cheats. “Having no cases doesn’t mean no doping.”

To Mr. Clothier, then, a string of investigations and suspensions in a sport with a well-documented doping history is not a cause for concern but rather an inherent contradiction: To restore his sport’s reputation, he and his colleagues must first in the eyes of some besmirch it even more.

As a case involving positive tests for Chinese swimmers hangs over the Olympic pool, Mr. Clothier also has joined elite athletes and government investigators in publicly questioning whether the current global antidoping system can ever fully eradicate drug cheats. Each sport is left to arrange its own antidoping procedures.