In a piece posted by the New York Times earlier this week, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed the terrifying results of a study done on exactly what percentage of athletes are using performance-enhancing drugs.
The Study
WADA distributed anonymous surveys to 2,000 track and field athletes in 2011. After poring through the results, they determined that roughly 29% of the athletes at the 2011 World Championships, and 45% of the athletes at the 2011 Pan-Arab Games, responded that they had doped in the past year.
So, in round numbers, more than one-in-four of the world’s top track & field athletes had doped.
That’s as compared to less than 2% of tests the year prior having come back as positive.
The coverup
The researchers hired wanted to publish their findings immediately, knowing the kind of impact it would have on the sports community. According to the New York Times piece, however, they held the responses (see the NYT piece for full details on how that happened – we won’t recreate the wheel).
The editorial
The test was on track & field athletes, not swimmers, but we have little reason to believe that swimming is any different. Taken into account, there’s a few clear conclusions.
One is that there is a huge amount of athletes in sports doping who are never even close to getting caught. The recent major league baseball exposing shows that the easiest way to catch dopers continues to be not with doping tests, rather through following the money. The sport would probably be cleaner if resources were invested more heavily in forensic accountants and private investigators than in drug testers (though that’s a scary leap to make).
Regardless, if athletes enjoyed doping and putting up mind-popping numbers, they all would have lied and just said “no, I’m clean.” At the end of the day, everyone is looking for assurances of a level playing field.
The results of this study might, in fact, only increase the number of athletes who are cheating. It might lead more athletes to seek out whatever is working to put themselves on an even playing field.
Secondly, the athletes seem to know how much of a challenge it is to get caught. In what reality would 45% of the athletes be doping if it weren’t fairly common knowledge within the sport that the odds of getting caught fell somewhere between slim-and-none.
And perhaps, the real story is that the results are an indicator that the athletes want it to end. If so many athletes were willing to admit to doping on promises of anonymity, even with how much trouble most of the sporting community has trusting their governing federations.
So, as tragic as they are for sports and the sports fan, maybe the recent mega-exposures in baseball and track & field that have left those sports on the brink of destruction are a good thing. Perhaps they have pierced this veil of invincibility and the numbers will go down. Ultimately, though, we have no idea if they will, because all we know is that even with these huge breaks, only a fraction of admitted dopers are being caught.
By the way: we’ve had sources tell us that at least one swimmer was a client of the anti-aging clinic that has been involved in breaking the massive baseball scandal, but have been unable to verify that vehemently enough to report that swimmer’s identity.
There was some talk among some coaches at Jrs in Irvine that USA Swimming should be testing at the meet. Even if you believe none of these kids are cheating (and I think some may be), It’s silly to think that kids aren’t at the very least pushing the envelope with supplements. It starts with pre-race energy drinks, and goes from there. As we all know, supplements aren’t regulated. These kids should at least have a healthy fear of the consequences to cheating.
And it was interesting to note that a portion of the Biogenesis scandal involved high school kids – not just ARod.
I don’t think there should be any banned substances. Take what ya want, go nuts.
And is this still a thing? Just heard about it, seems like quite the loophole for some.
It’s a difficult question whether or not there should be prohibited substances. On the one hand we can say it’s similar to taking an advantage of better financial resources, suit, know-how concerning regimen of exercise, diet and such things. Where do you draw a line as to unfair benefit? On the other hand some of the means could be unhealthy and even risk users’ lives. Because of the latter argument I am not willing to unleash the utilization of all means available.
I’m not underwriting everything on the following paper but it has a practical view on the topic at hand:
http://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/latest_news/2013/?a=28410
The philosophy behind the ban of particular PED should be not because it helps performance, but because it is health/life risks.
It’s scary when there is still a major loophole in drug testing when it comes to testosterone. I believe WADA still goes by the arbitrary 4:1 T/E ratio. If someone goes above the 4:1 ratio, it is deemed a positive test. The problem is that a normal healthy person has a T/E ratio of 1:1. So, it’s possible to use synthetic testosterone and stay just below the 4:1 threshold without even raising alarm bells. And certain fast acting testosterone can clear your system very fast.
Now, the good news. There is a test that can detect whether there is synthetic testosterone in your system, no matter what your T/E ratio says. It is called Carbon Isotope Ratio testing. I believe… Read more »
I’m pretty sure USADA/WADA/etc don’t do CIR testing. Only VADA (a voluntary organization who’s starting to pick up steam, led ironically by Victor Conte) does. But you’re correct, it’s currently so expensive that you rarely see it used, unfortunately.
USA may not be doing it systematically, but they are one of the big players in this whole ordeal.
Preface: I have no proof of athletes doping.
The swimming community needs to take off the rosy colored glasses. Cycling. Track and field. Swimming. They are all the same. Dirty through and through. The Olympics are a farce of a clean competition.
In general I don’t think swimming community are ignorant about the PED in swimming.
Swimming has been among the greatest affected by PED in in the 70s/80s (Soviet bloc especially east german) and mid 90s (China), and many swimming personalities are very vocal about the issue.
If you want to see “rosy colored glasses” you should check out professional tennis. The (lack of) tests and the belief among most tennis fans that no top tennis players use PED is beyond ridiculous.
Road cycling and athletics are often viewed as “dirty” mainly because of the doping scandals that have marred both sports recently unlike swimming.
However I’ve noticed something upon reading a WADA’ report. Both sports governing bodies (UCI & IAAF) carry out much more anti-doping tests than FINA does. The difference is even more striking when comparing OOC Blood tests (or EPO tests) which are thought to be more effective.
Now, I can understand than FINA why does not test as much as the UCI or IAAF (Athletics governing carries out a lot of test in participating countries that do not have a very functional national anti doping agency through a “target” testing pool).
But if we look… Read more »
Athletes are going to do whatever to give them a competitive edge and are going to find ways to get around rules or testing. You can’t stop that.
My concern is if some countries are doping their athletes systematically. If an adult swimmer or track and field athlete wants to dope, fine, that’s their own risk. But it concerns me when a 16-year-old Chinese swimmer tests positive for EPO. Or when a 14-year-old Russian swimmer receives a warning for a substance violation. America or Europe could be doing it as well, but I hope not.
While many of us have speculated on the “cleanliness” of the sport, it’s kind of a bummer to start seeing literature come out (though not directly implicating swimming) about the prevalence of doping in other Olympic sports. Hopefully the young NAG record-breaking kids coming through the ranks are/will stay clear of this kind of thing.
Or (and this is a terrible thought), some of those age groupers are already into it.
I don’t think age groupers are doing it mainly because of the fact many don’t have the means if they wanted to and there’s really no great incentive for them as compared to an elite swimmer who’s vying for sponsorships and medals. I think what we’re seeing is natural progression more or less.
Two decades ago, when I was a teenager, there were several people at the Junior National level I personally knew were doping. It’s completely naive to think that it’s not going on at nearly every level.
naive to think it’s not possible
I don’t think the kids would do it on their own, neccessarily… I think some parents would do it. Not even with swimming in mind. Just athletic excellence and I think it might start at puberty. It disgusts me to even think about it, but it would be completely naive to think that it isn’t happening.
I think one of the biggest reasons for this is the lack of organizations like the USADA in other countries. While I’m sure that plenty of American athletes cheat I would bet that it is a smaller percentage due to the USADA being able to show up at any time and demand a test. Countries like Russia are more likely to come up with an injury if they think a star athlete will test positive at an international competition to avoid a potential four year ban. Storing blood samples and testing them as technology improves my be our best hope for now though.
Sean S – every country in the world follows the same anti-doping rules, including out-of-competition testing. That’s not unique to USADA.
minor correction– all have the same rules but that doesn’t mean all follow the same rules.
Jamaica’s sport governing bodies, track & field in particular, and anti-doping are coming under huge scrutiny right now after a Sports Illustrated story this week where their former anti-doping head admitted that they had a total of one out of competition test for T&F athletes in the 5-6 months leading up to London 2012. Not one test per athlete, one OOC test among that whole athlete pool.
And then a number of athletes from their 2012 Olympic team have recently tested positive when the country’s anti-doping did get their act together, forcing them to miss the 2013 World Championships. At this point the IAAF is trying to put out huge fires regarding mass numbers of positive tests in Russia,… Read more »
With the cost of an university education in the US going through the roof, a scolarship is as good as many prize or sponsorship money.
Hahahahahahha it’s funny because it’s…not.
This is a fact that I never considered before.
The total budget for all NCAA scholarships must be huge.
This is very strong incentives to use PED among age group swimmers in the USA