Over 40% of Irish athletes ‘personally know others’ who have doped

Just under 0.40 per cent of the anti-doping tests carried out by Sport Ireland last year resulted in a rule violation, while over 40 per cent of those surveyed in the same report claim to personally know others who used banned substances.

There is no easy way of equating those figures, although clearly something doesn’t add up. And not just numerically. Not that any anti-doping report will ever tell the whole story or indeed nothing but the truth.

It is the blinding contradiction of the 2016 Irish Anti-Doping Review, now in its 17th year, presented at the National Indoor Arena in Dublin: while overall testing numbers are up – plus the now hefty €1.76 million taxpayer spend – the number of rule violations remain somewhat impeccably low.

Only four of the 1,003 tests carried out, across 25 sports, resulted in a rule violation, and of those, only boxer Michael O’Reilly, who failed an out-of-competition test on the eve of the Rio Olympics, is considered high profile.

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When balanced against the findings of a new survey, also carried out as part of the report, the problem of doping in Irish sport would appear to run worryingly far beyond that: of the 148 elite sportspeople surveyed, across 14 sports and representing six teams and eight individuals, not only did over 40 per cent claim to know somehow who had doped, six per cent admitted they themselves had used a banned substance.

Within those six per cent, almost all cases were for a banned recreational drug (cocaine, marijuana, etc), although this still suggests the testing is falling considerably short. Indeed those surveyed put their perceived prevalence of doping in Irish sport at 10 per cent, and 18 per cent when considering it globally. The testers, in their words, would appear to remain quite a few steps behind the cheats.

Peter Smyth, director of research for Sport Ireland, who carried out the survey, described some of these findings as “pretty scary”, especially that over 40 per cent who admitted to knowing others who used banned substances.

Dr Una May, long-serving member of Sport Ireland’s anti-doping committee, agreed it painted a more worrying picture of the problem. “The important thing for us is that we weren’t going to hide anything that came out of that,” she said. “We want to be very transparent about it.

“There’s are a couple of ways of looking at it. Number one, it is a small world, and anyone in athletics would know personally for example Steven Colvert [the Irish sprinter who tested positive in 2014]. So straightaway that knocks out all the athletes. That’s certainly one possible explanation.

“But it is a concern. We do have our report doping line, and we’re keen to encourage people to use it, and we may look at how we re-word it so that it’s more positive, ‘speak-up’, that Wada are encouraging. It is important we take this information back, to focus groups, delve a bit deeper, but it is a generalised thing in that it’s a small world we all live in.

“That recreational drugs element skews it a bit as well, but it was quite a good turnout, quite a good return, so we do have athletes willing to engage and talk to us.”

Of the 1,003 tests carried out in 2016 (separate to the 275 ‘user-pay’ tests), athletics remains by far the most tested sport (250), ahead of cycling (155), then rugby (113), while other sports such as GAA (97) and soccer (44) are found further down the list. Why soccer remains so low, despite such high participation rates, is down to “risk management”, says Dr May.

“We’ve said all along we have to do the risk management thing. Nobody is saying there is no doping [in soccer, or else we wouldn’t be wasting those 44 tests, the risk is low, we have to manage the resources we’ve got in the best and most sensible and intelligent way, and pouring tons of tests into a sport just because there’s lots of participants isn’t necessarily the answer.”

Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE’s) – given a somewhat dirtied reputation thanks to the Russian sporting hackers Fancy Bears – are actually down: the overall number of TUE applications (71) was seven per cent less on the previous year, and of those received, only 46 actually required a TUE, as in the other cases, the ‘exemption’ substance was no longer on the banned list.

Of those, rugby players applied for (12) and were granted (11) TUEs – more than any other sport; GAA players were granted just eight TUEs in total, and athletes just four. The “whereabouts” issue is still a matter of some concern, and while the number of unsuccessful attempts on the registered pool of athletes was up five per cent, this didn’t result in any sanctions.

The other rule violations, meanwhile, along with O’Reilly, were motocross rider Ross Fanning (cocaine), Paralympics cyclist James Brown (refusing a test), and a still pending case described by a Sport Ireland spokesperson as “nothing earth shattering”.

Not that it would necessarily reflect the scale of the problem even it if was.

PANEL

National Governing Body/Total doping tests carried out 2016

Athletics Ireland 250

Camogie Association 4

Canoeing Ireland 29

Cycling Ireland 155

Football Association of Ireland 44

Gaelic Athletic Association 97

Gymnastics Ireland 4

Hockey Ireland 6

Horse Sport Ireland 19

Irish Amateur Archery Association 3

Irish Athletic Boxing Association 61

Irish Judo Association 2

Irish Ladies Golf Union 1

Irish Martial Arts Commission 2

Irish Rugby Football Union 113

Irish Squash 2

Irish Tug Of War Association 4

Ladies Gaelic Football Association 4

Motor Cycling Ireland 12

Motorsport Ireland 8

Paralympics Ireland 51

Rowing Ireland 32

Swim Ireland 61

Triathlon Ireland 35

Weightlifting Ireland 4

Total 1,003

Blood testing figures increased by 10 per cent

Out of competition tests accounted for 82 per cent in the National Testing Programme

‘User Pays’ programme tests increased by 21 per cent