A former Mr Universe living in Bermuda claims almost all top athletes are using illegal steroids to help them perform better.

And he says it is no surprise that older competitors are turning to substances such as nandrolone as, among other things, it helps them recover from injuries more quickly.

Bill Cook, who won his weight class at the Montreal Mr Universe and later competed in the 1962 Commonwealth Games as a middleweight power lifter, was speaking in the wake of a series of positive tests for nandrolone among high profile athletes, culminating in one that trapped former Bermuda sprinter Troy Douglas.

Now competing for Holland, Douglas, along with the others such as 1992 Olympics 100m winner Linford Christie and Jamaican Merlene Ottey, all in their late 30s, have protested their innocence.

Douglas said last week: "It is ludicrous for us veteran athletes like Ottey and Christie to be taking any of these pills. I'm 36-years-old and I've done everything I want in the sport and I'm just in there having fun.'' But Cook, a former physical education trainer with the prison service, countered that argument, suggesting nandrolene had "greater appeal for the older athlete'' because of its "great ability to speed up the healing of injuries, reduce inflammation, and ease joint pains''; it also increases growth "by assisting the synthesis of protein in the liver, thus shortening recovery time from training,'' he said.

Cook, who gave up competitive body building before 1964 when steroids, available for the previous eight years only to those in the know, became much more freely available, added: "I am pretty certain that every top medal winner and most others are using something.

"I could name many male and female sprinters who are definitely using drugs.

In a way I feel sorry for Ben Johnson, who was so talented, when they tried to make out he was an exception -- he was not.'' He said clues to athletes using drugs were to be found in their appearance, which might include a thinner, stretched-looking skin, prominent veins and what he termed "unusual muscularity''.

It was no surprise that use of nandrolone had expanded sharply because it had minimal toxic side-effects -- to all extents and purposes it was a `safe' steroid.

But one effect athletes may have been unaware of was that it stayed in the body for quite a long time -- sometimes months -- making detection more likely.

Steroids, originally developed by the medical profession to help such conditions as stunted growth, work by increasing the amount of testosterone and growth hormone in the body, said Cook.

It was not until after the 1974 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand, when nine unnamed athletes tested positive for steroids, that the International Olympic Committee banned them.

Now, added Cook, mannufacturers in the multi-billion dollar industry were focusing research on developing prohormones -- `legal' steroids that would be available over the counter.

These `legal' steroids would effectively only mimic the effects of previous drugs but might be passed by drug administrations as safe enough for general sale.

This could leave sporting authorities in a quandary. If they were to try to ban such `legal' but performance-enhancing substances they might leave themselves open to court action.

However, Cook also believes the waters of steroid use can become increasinlgy murky because the science involved is so complicated.

Competitors such as Douglas could have been completely unaware of their so-called crime because substances in some food supplements could create a chemical reaction in an athlete's body that could lead to the formation of nandrolone.

Cook said: "If I was Mr Douglas I would have any food supplements I had taken tested thoroughly.'' Muscle man: Bill Cook, pictured here on the front of a 1960 Muscle Builder magazine, won the Mr Universe title that year before his sport and, later, many others, fell victim to widespread steroid use among competitors.