Sport both unites and integrates in equal measure - it gives people from all different backgrounds, social classes and ethnicities the chance to put their differences aside to come together in support of one common goal.

But doping throws the very integrity of something we all love dearly into question.

It is a disgrace that millions of fans all over the world will attend certain sporting events with the fact that what they watch before them may not be as authentic as it first appears etched into their minds.

It is shameful that there are many athletes across various different sports - doping, I hasten to remind you, is not purely limited to athletics and cycling as some may believe it to be - have been denied their moment of glory by self-indulgent narcissists who chose to cheat their way to glory.

One such Texan - who needs and indeed deserves no introduction - has seemingly opened a can of worms after cycling’s most successful export was exposed as nothing more than a well-organised, vindictive, bullying cheat.

His case was truly marquee in a sense that very few athletes of his stature had been caught doping, and this in itself poses questions and problems for sport’s governing bodies.

While ousting high-profile dopers from sport is surely a positive, I get the sense that deep down in some International Federations the thought exists that they would rather keep a lid on the exploits of their most prized assets rather than working tirelessly to show their true colours to the world.

Cycling is a prime example. Now the aforementioned Texan has been rightly banned, it remains to be seen whether the sport will ever recover from the whole fiasco.

Yes, outing him prompted rigorous reports and inquiries into how he got away with it for so long and has led to changes in anti-doping testing in the sport, but did it really do that much good for cycling? Or did it just perpetuate the myth that everyone is still at it now?

Doping is now as prevalent an issue as ever, and there are both positives and negatives in that particular notion.

For instance, the fact that we are able to talk openly about it now where in previous times it may have been somewhat of a taboo subject clearly suggests steps, however minute, are being taken in the right direction.

Yet the fact that we’re still talking about it shows there is some way to go if a problem which has littered the sporting landscape all over the world is to be eradicated once and for all.

One key opinion which came to the fore among some of the headline speakers at the recent Sports Resolution Integrity and Athlete Welfare Conference, held in London this week, was the need for stronger sanctions to be imposed on those who choose to use prohibited substances.

In fact, Olympic champions Nicole Cooke and Denise Lewis, as well as UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner, were all in united in their calls for dopers to be banned from sport for life.

“We need to move towards lifetime bans and I don’t think they should be given a second chance,” Denise Lewis, Sydney 2000 Olympic heptathlon champion, said.

“Athletes who dope should be gone for good. You lose your integrity as soon as you choose to cheat and it never comes back.”

Cooke, who claimed gold in road cycling in thrilling fashion in the Chinese capital of Beijing in 2008, has been one of the most outspoken voices and a vehement advocate of anti-doping in her sport, which has been dragged through the mire on numerous occasions.

She shares her fellow Olympic gold medallist’s view, adding that it is often forgotten that one of the main impacts of an athlete who indulges in doping is on those who were left in their shadows as a result of the cheat’s clear immoral advantage over the rest of the field.

"I would definitely go for longer bans than are currently being given,” she said.

"On a personal level I know I have given my best without taking drugs and I am proud of every result I have ever achieved.

"Athletes who dope shouldn't be welcomed back into sport at all. I don’t think there have been many dopers whose lives have completely been ruined by doping but there are athletes out there that have had their lives ruined by cheating.”

It is an important fact that is often forgotten and very rarely is a thought ever spared for those who may have won Olympic gold or a world title had they been competing in a level-playing field.

In fairness to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as part of their well-document Agenda 2020 reform plan, passed unanimously in Monaco last year, they have committed to addressing the issue of retrospectively awarding medals to those who have been the victim of doping cheats.

Once they can get the medals back, of course.

But even then you can’t properly recapture what it would have been like for the athlete to stand proudly top of the podium, tears of joy streaming down their cheeks, belting out their national anthem with pride as they are handed the biggest prize of all.

You can’t truly recreate a moment they were denied purely because of the selfishness of another human being.

This is something that was thrust into the limelight only days ago when the IOC stripped the United States men’s 4x100 metres relay team of its London 2012 silver medal because of Tyson Gay's doping conviction.

Gay’s case is one that has caused particular controversy due to the appallingly lenient one-year ban he was given for testing positive for anabolic steroids last year.

“A one-year ban for Tyson gave out completely the wrong message,” Briton Lewis added.

“He should have got at least two years and I am disappointed there aren't harsher punishments being given to these athletes."

Not only that, but athletes who miss out on medals due to someone else riding high on the doping wave often suffer drastic consequences, ramifications that have an impact not just on their sporting career but also their lives.

They can lose funding, their coveted place on the team and general motivation to keep training day after day.

After all, what is the point if you stand no chance of beating someone who is clearly doping?

An element in the doping furore that grates with me personally is how people convicted and banned from sport, for whatever period of time, are allowed to not only compete again but in some cases, are welcomed back with open arms into the coaching fraternity.

The coaching aspect is one that I find baffling - why should dopers then be allowed to develop and train rising young talent?

Surely just their association with an athlete arouses suspicion from the get-go?

Gay’s American teammate Justin Gatlin is the poster boy for where we are going wrong, particularly in athletics.

He is a divisive figure in sport as he has been banned twice for doping offences - twice - yet if he runs quickly enough, which seems a distinct possibility following a blistering run of 9.74secs at the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting of the season in Doha, he could proudly don his nation’s vest once again at next year’s Olympic Games in Rio.

To those outside of the bubble that envelopes all sporting governing bodies across the world, what to do with these cheats may be crystal clear - rid them from sport and don’t look back, perhaps - but Warner, who offered some particularly interesting views on the Russian doping scandal, says it is not that easy, comparing the reintegration of an athlete back into the sporting arena to that of a prison convict into society.

"It’s proving a really difficult issue. There are some that say once they have served their time they should be allowed back,” the businessman turned sporting administrator told insidethegames at the event in London.

"It’s similar to someone coming back into society from prison, you think that they have a right to try and rebuild themselves.

"If a British sprinter tests positive for example but then comes back and runs the qualifying time we have to look at picking them.

"Banning athletes for life could cause legal problems down the line and I just don’t think there’s an appetite to truly out the cheats.”

A worrying view which suggests it will be some time before we will be talking about doping in sport as merely a thing of the past.