Athletes and officials in the world of disabled sports have long campaigned for more respect and recognition. They point out that disabled athletes work as hard, devote as many hours to training and are in most ways the equal of their able-bodied counterparts.

Events at this summer's Paralympic Games at Barcelona confirmed what officials have been saying. For the first time, disabled athletes tested positive for banned drugs at their most prestigious competition. The drug scandal offers proof that--just like able-bodied athletes--some disabled athletes are willing to cheat to win.

In the first full-scale testing conducted at a Paralympic Games, one athlete was disqualified after being found positive for anabolic steroids and another tested positive, though his gold medal was reinstated. In the strangest case, David Kiley of San Dimas took a painkiller that contained banned substances, and the entire U.S. men's wheelchair basketball team lost its gold medal.

Even before the Games, three Canadian weightlifters were found to be drug-positive at a national training camp and were not sent to Barcelona.

These cases illustrate the double-edged sword of drug testing: catching athletes who take performance-enchancing drugs, such as steroids or amphetamines, and penalizing unsuspecting athletes who take cold preparations, asthma medications and mild painkillers.

These are the problems that the able-bodied athletic world has been struggling with since drug testing was introduced at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Now the perplexing questions of drugs and the proper penalty for their improper use have been inherited by the community of disabled sports. The events in Barcelona also have raised the question of the appropriateness of not allowing painkillers and muscle relaxants among disabled athletes--medications many disabled persons require on a daily basis. Both types of drugs are on the International Olympic Committee's banned list.

As a result of the controversy, many of the sport's administrators wish they had never heard of drug testing.

"In retrospect, we should have paid more attention to the whole question of drug testing, especially the pitfalls," said Paul DePace, chairman of the National Wheelchair Athletic Assn. and head of the U.S. delegation in Barcelona.

The case of David Kiley best illustrates the pitfalls.