Not fair, perhaps, to judge Colin Russell in the dark mirror of his parent's doping past but the sins of the father will undoubtedly follow the Canadian 4x200m freestyle quartet all the way to the blocks and beyond in Beijing.

Cecil Russell was barred from coaching because he was twice convicted for being involved in drug rings, he also testified in a case in which an associate in a steroid ring burned a murder victim's body. His lifetime ban from coaching and the pool deck was reinstated in June last year after an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled that the 55-year-old purposely deceived an arbitrator when he claimed he was fully exonerated in an ecstasy trafficking ring.

Colin Russell his son, qualified for the Beijing Olympics and confirmed that his father still coaches him, along with Byron MacDonald of the University of Toronto. 'My dad is the main, most integral coach, but Byron has always been there for me, travels with me, I train at his pool most of the time, but my dad always writes my workouts. He is extremely involved no matter what. Whether he can go to Beijing is a different story and I'll have to deal with it if he can't.'

He most certainly should not be anywhere near the Olympic pool, of course. And the Canadian federation should be sitting down with young Colin and explaining to him that the sport has no place for criminals who would dabble drugs. It taints the sport, it damages lives, it is everything that the sport of swimming does not need.

'At this point in time, there's no issue with his kid being on the team because coach of record is Byron MacDonald,' Pierre Lafontaine, CEO of Swim Canada, told the Canadian media. 'I've coached and I've asked advice to parents and if that's the way Byron works, that's his prerogative. Unless ... (Russell senior) is the coach of record, there's not much we can do.'

The swimmer has made a strong comeback from a shoulder injury this season and has sits at world No11 at the moment. Every inch of his progress and development will be under the spotlight because of the sins of his father. That's life. Pity the national relay which, by association, will also come under scrutiny of a kind that they do not deserve.

Russell senior has been jailed in Canada and the US. He is reported to still be working with the Dolphins Swim Clubs based in Oakville and Barrie, stating his role as 'consultant' and 'trainer'. Are they made in Oakville and Barrie? I only ask because I would no longer hand by sons over to a man with Russell's record than I would throw them off a steep cliff in a storm.

The Dolphins Swim Club has pictures on its website showing him coaching children at a camp in March on Margarita Island. Lafontaine sums up what any sane mind would conclude: 'It boggles my mind that parents would allow their kids to be coached if he's going to camps like this and (there's) coaching by someone who's not certified and legal.'

Pity Brent Hayden, a man looking forward to standing on the podium with his teammates in Beijing. 'Our relay team's looking stronger than it has any of those two years,' he said. 'Medals, we got a shot. I'll be surprised if we don't get one.'

And I'd be surprised if the talk surrounding any such medal descends into the dark pit of Russell senior's own making. Those who keep their lives clean of the muck in which Russell senior has swum would imagine that anyone caught doing the things he has done would not have the nerve to appear anywhere near an Olympic pool. Don't hold your breath. There he is answering questions from the media at Canadian trials. Such people have no shame, it seems.