I've found, as I'm sure many of you have, that if you do not write exactly what you mean, in the most literal sense of every word, then people will read into it whatever they want. I do that too. It's one of my favorite things about language. Words are beautiful in that way. They are abstract paintings you can interpret however you want, see angles no one else sees, glean meaning from a sentence someone else skimmed right through.

Many people took from this column that I thought Michael Phelps was on steroids, or EPO, or HGH, or whatever drug it is that might possibly help a person swim from one end of a pool to the other the fastest. There is a drug for that. I promise you. I just don't know what it is.

Others readers felt like I was trying to backhandedly link Phelps to steroids because he had achieved an astounding physical feat, and because so many others have been busted for performance-enhancing drugs after achieving astounding physical feats, then he too must be guilty.

Still others were angry about something else. They wondered how I could possibly even bring up steroids after such a proud moment in our country's history. How could I not be out on my front lawn, waving an American flag, eating a hot dog, greeting my neighbors, playing catch with children, taking my best gal for apple pie in a '57 Chevy?

Several emails had some version* of this line: "... the water hadn't even gone still in the pool, and already you were ..." If you think I am exaggerating about the amount of negative feedback, then you not been reading the letters to the editor this week. There have been many and I'm told there will be more. My email box is heavy with them. I'll try to print them all in my next post, or at least the ones without the cursing, or the "not for print" warning at the bottom.

*By far my favorite version of the you-did-something-too-soon cliché was, "the water wasn't even dry in the pool ..." This is probably not exactly what the writer intended, but I've been sitting here for 20 minutes wondering exactly how long it would take all the water in an Olympic size pool to evaporate. The next Summer Games would be here by the time it was finally OK to write about Phelps and steroids.

My point was a pretty simple one. Steroids and their use have brought into question the authenticity of athletic achievement. All athletic achievement. If a 96-pound ping-pong player from a remote island only reachable by raft gets busted, I will not be surprised. In my mind, everything is suspicious. How could it not? If you can watch an Olympic event these days and say to yourself, "I'm sure all of these people are clean. Yeah. I'm positive. No cheaters here. Completely even playing field," then you are a positive person. And very naive. It's not a small issue. And I'm not one of those people who thinks this is a new issue. It's been going on for a long time, decades, and we're just finally becoming aware of the extent because of admitted use, and money being invested in testing, and government officials finally going after some people.

Think of all the people who have been busted since BALCO. Marion Jones. Antonio Pettigrew. Tim Montgomery. Justin Gatlin. We could go on for some time. Maurice Greene has been accused by a steroids supplier. Greene has denied it, but hasn't explained why bank records show he transferred $10,000 to the steroids supplier.

Ah, but those are track stars, you say. Michael Phelps is a swimmer, and swimming is pretty clean, you say. Except, of course, for American Jessica Hardy, who was busted at the U.S. Trials in Omaha this year. And Amy Van Dyken, whose name was on the same BALCO list as Marion Jones. Don't forget Michelle Smith, the Irish swimmer who suspiciously won three gold medals in Atlanta, and was later suspended from the sport when testers showed up at her house and she tried to poor alcohol in her urine test. This year there have been suspensions for Brazilian Rebeca Gusmao, China's Ouyang Kunpeng and Israeli swimmer Max Jaben.

I'm still not exactly sure how many world records were broken in Beijing during these games. I've read 25. I've read 36. I'd believe 183. It was a lot. They are giving all sorts of credit for that. They say it's Speedo's new LZR swimsuit. It's the extra-deep pool at "The Cube," as they call the facility there. The new suit thing was said in the '70s and '80s, when the East Germans were winning everything. And then years later, coaches admitted steroids were part of the state-sponsored training regimine. In the '90s it was the Chinese swimmers who were winning medals and setting world records. Then 40 Chinese swimmers failed drug tests in little more than a decade. (The Chinese government was, as you can imagine, shocked and saddened.)

It happens. It is happening. To say performance-enhancing drugs aren't a problem, or aren't reality, is just denial. And to say, "Well he or she hasn't failed a drug test," isn't a good defense, or even a defense at all. Marion Jones never failed a drug test. Neither did Pettigrew. Neither did Greene. Athletes cycle off the drugs for competition. It's like calling your husband and saying, "I'll be home in 30 minutes to see if you're having an affair," then not catching him with anyone and saying, "See, there's proof. He's not an adulterer."

It's why the Jamaican track team is under so much suspicion now, and not just because Usain Bolt broke the 100 meter and the 200 meter world records by the distance between my house and Singapore. Jamaica's won three-fourths of all the medals in the sprints. According to several reports, the off-season testing isn't all that stringent in the Caribbean* and that's when the training and real improvement would be taking place. (Fresno's own Victor Conte has said it, and although maybe not completely trustworth, he does know his steroids.) Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Frasier, for instance, won the 100 meters in Beijing in 10.78 when her previous best was 11.31. Melanie Walker won in the hurdles for Jamaica and took her personal best down a full second. It's that kind of improvement that makes people wonder.

*For the life of me, that's the one word I never know if I'm pronouncing correctly. Is it Ca-RIB-ean? Or is it Cari-BEE-an? This is why I sleep three hours per night.

Another thing that makes people wonder is when a swimming sprinter is faster in her 40s than she was in her 20s. That sentence did not include American swimmer Dara Torres, but it might as well have. There is no logical explanation for a woman who has retired twice and had a couple surgeries, to be racing faster than she did 20 years ago. It goes against logic, much the way Roger Clemens fastball and Barry Bonds home run swing did at that age. "You don't put an age limit on your dreams," is her catchphrase. It sounds good. She is 41 years old. Her feel-good story gets repeated. She wins two silver medals in China. She's ABC's person of the week. She lands endorsement deals. She is paid thousands for speaking engagments.

Is it fair to her? Probably not. OK, of course it isn't. Especially if she's clean. But we've been suckers so many times the last few decades, how could a logical person be asked to believe something so unbelievable?

So that brings us to Phelps. There is no overwhelming reason to believe Phelps is on performance-enhancers, besides, well, the fact that his performances are so amazing. He has not failed a test. He's been a phenomenon since he was a teenager, so there isn't that out-of-nowhere factor. But if a guy from Bulgaria had done the same thing, had beaten Phelps in all eight races (this theory predicates the guy could have found three world-class countrymen to win the relays, too), what would we think then? Would Americans see it as a legendary feat, or some European who probably cheated to beat our all-American boy.

My point was that I couldn't completely forget about the past when watching Phelps, couldn't completely block out the possibility of chemical enhancement. Could I enjoy it? Sure. It was exciting. His performances were awe-inspiring. The butterfly win was, literally, unbelievable to the naked eye. Another was a miracle performed by a teammate. How could you not feel patriotic? But that doesn't mean I'm going to assume he's clean. It doesn't matter that he's America's Golden Boy. Doesn't matter that he seems nice and tells his mother he loves her. For me, those days are gone.

It stinks, huh? Nobody wants to think about that stuff when all we should be doing is cheering. That's probably why people get so frustrated when some columnist brings up steroids when it should be such a posive moment. And the truly frustrating part is there's nothing we can do about it. We can't go perform the drug tests. We can't investigate what new drug is being made somewhere. We can't monitor the athletes 24-hours a day. As of now, there is no way to know if what we're seeing is natural.

We can just watch, and hope against hope.