Chambers failed an out-of-competition drug test in 2003, subsequently admitting to the use of performance-enhancing substances for which he was banned from athletics for two years and from the Olympics for life. The 30-year-old is back competing and is favourite for the 60 metres gold at the European Indoor Championships that begin in Turin on Friday, having run the fastest time of his career over that distance in Sheffield last month.

The timing of the revelations in his autobiography, Race Against Me: My Story , the serialisation of which will be published in the Daily Mail , is sure to cause enormous distress in the athletics world as Chambers admits just how comprehensive his drug use was. Describing a moment where he arrived at customs at a US airport, Chambers reveals his fears of perhaps being caught.

"Checking in at Miami International Airport I noticed the couple in front of me were having their hand luggage searched. Shit, what if they search my bag? There were enough drugs in there to kill an elephant and I didn't have a clue whether they were legal or not," he writes.

"I was a walking junkie. I had tubes of stuff that were known only to me as 'The Clear' and 'The Cream' along with a few bottles of EPO and HGH, which were in ice packs as they needed to be kept cool.

"They had been labelled by Victor Conte, the founder and president of Balco, the man who put me on his training programme, as 'flaxseed oil' and 'joint cream'."

Chambers, whose return to athletics has been dogged by controversy, reveals how he was introduced to the world of performance-enhancing drugs by his Ukrainian coach Remi Korchemny, who in turn set up the meeting with Conte, regarded as the pioneer behind the banned steroid THG, tetrahydrogestrinone.

In his autobiography, Chambers also describes the moment in April 2002 when drug testers first visited his home. Chambers said he was applying a masking agent known as The Cream when the tester arrived, which allowed him to pass the test despite being at the height of his drug use.

Chambers also reveals just how easy it is for drug cheats to beat the system and avoid the testers who arrive at athletes' homes unannounced for out-of-competition testing.

"There is an easy way around the system and one that is foolproof," Chambers writes. "Quite simply, you hide."

That may be less simple now.

Guardian News and Media