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Asthmatics are allowed to use their medications during the games but they have to have prior permission. The form is online for athletes to fill out and send in.

It seems that there are more asthmatics among Olympians than in the general population. . One survey of participants in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., showed that 15% had been diagnosed with asthma, and that 10% were on asthma medication. Out of 699 athletes, 117 had some history of asthma.

Asthmatics are more prevalent among those involved in cycling, mountain biking, and long-distance running, and a relatively lower incidence in weightlifting and diving. Could it be that air pollution is a factor for those sports as well? With the air conditions in China will these athletes be in danger?

During their bid for the games China promised to put $12.2 billion in cleaning up their air quality. Was that too large a task for this country? They made a promise to clear up atmospheric concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide to meet the requirements of the World Health Organization. How close are they to that goal?

With the games scheduled for August will the heat make this task of clean air even more difficult? In Toronto the hotter the day the higher the smog. Consider how much larger Beijing is compared to Toronto and you can understand how daunting a task China has before it.

Randy Wilber is an air pollution connoisseur. Senior sport physiologist for the US Olympic Committee, he has made five trips to Beijing since March 2006, lugging an air-quality monitor to all 31 Olympic venues. The city's atmosphere, he says tactfully, is "significantly worse" than that of Los Angeles, the US standard for big-city pollution. Then there's the heat. In August, Wilber recorded daytime temperatures consistently in the 90s, with relative humidity approaching 95 percent. "For endurance events," he says, "that's borderline hazardous." His overall assessment: "Not good."

Another factor in the air quality is how the wind is blowing. Even if the main areas are greened up outskirts may not have as much clean air.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has admitted that some events may have to be rescheduled depending on the air quality.

The Olympics should have a fixed time and place because the athletes and coaches train very specifically for the day and the course," said Yilma Berta, Ethiopia's national marathon coach. "If the race is changed, then we may travel to the site too early, and then we are not having the proper training for the days before the race. It would be a very, very big problem for us."

This Olympics may proof a difficult test of a city turning pollution levels around. The asthmatics at the games may very well be the "lab rats" in the end. Although all cities should have a chance at the games, shouldn't better air quality be a key factor when it comes to who wins the prize?