Wada chief warns of anti-doping fatigue

DRUGS IN SPORT: LESS THAN six months before London 2012, the World Anti-Doping Agency fears fewer than one in five drug cheats is being caught and urged against complacency from governments and sporting bodies in tackling the problem.

David Howman, the Wada director general, said despite ever more sophisticated testing, a major research project undertaken by the global body had indicated more than one in 10 athletes were tempted to cheat but only between one per cent and two per cent were caught. “We think the annual statistics show that maybe between one and two per cent of athletes who are tested are cheating. By conducting these research projects, the results of which will be made known later this year, we think those numbers are more into double digits,” said Howman. “That’s a concern. If more than 10 per cent of the athletes in the world are being tempted to take a shortcut via taking prohibited substances then we’ve got an issue that is not being confronted as well as it should be.”

London 2012 organisers recently unveiled the most comprehensive testing programme in the history of the Games and warned that cheats would almost certainly be caught. But Wada said while athletes who cheated in major events were likely to be caught, outside of competition too many tests were being conducted “selectively” with more expensive blood tests for EPO and human growth hormone not being carried out often enough.

“You can’t test for human growth hormone unless you get a blood sample. In 2010, of the 258,000 samples collected there were 36 positive tests for EPO,” said Howman. “EPO is probably one of the preferred substances of those athletes taking shortcuts and to have only 36 positives in one year is very disappointing.”

It is feared that of the 258,000 tests conducted, as few as two per cent of them include the blood tests that can catch the use of human growth hormone. The scale of the problem is being masked by the fact that in many cases the contracts between anti-doping organisations (ADOs) and laboratories are confidential. Too many were testing for a “selected menu” of drugs rather than the “full menu”, said Howman.

Wada welcomed this week’s court of arbitration for sport judgment in the Alberto Contador case, in which the Spanish cyclist was banned for two years and stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title. The decision backed Wada’s “strict liability” stance.

But Howman and the Wada president, John Fahey, also warned “anti-doping fatigue” could impact on the battle to catch “sophisticated” dopers, particularly as governments and policy makers considered the new scourge of illegal betting and related corruption.

“In times of economic hardship other issues start to occupy the ground we try to keep for anti-doping. Anti-doping fatigue can set in,” said Fahey.

Wada is increasingly working with Interpol and customs agencies to attempt to infiltrate those who traffic and supply prohibited substances.

Guardian Service