Traditional Chinese herbal medicine will not to be used to treat athletes during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in order to avoid doping problems.

Dai Jianping, of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games (BOCOG), said: “It doesn’t necessarily mean herbal medicine contains provocative substances. As other host countries haven’t used it before, we chose not to use it too.”

However, non-drug traditional treatments, such as acupuncture, will still be used.