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≡ WADA VIOLATIONS REPORT ≡
Doping violations were up in 2023. Up a lot actually, compared to 2021 and 2022, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Anti-Doping Rule Violation Report:
● 2021: 1,552 adverse findings
● 2022: 1,979 adverse findings (+27.5%)
● 2023: 2,301 adverse findings (+16.3%)
● 2021: 1,375 sanctions
● 2022: 1,672 sanctions (+21.6%)
● 2023: 2,005 sanctions (+19.9%)
So, coming back out of the Covid-19 pandemic:
● Adverse findings up 48.3%
● Sanctions up 45.8%
So, is WADA worried? Not according to Director General Olivier Niggli (SUI):
“The year-on-year increase of Anti-Doping Rule Violations, even allowing for the fact that more samples were collected in 2023, is a positive sign that the system is catching more violators.
“Improvements in testing and analytical techniques are assisting us in that process while we are also ensuring we can distinguish genuine cheats from those who are victims of contamination, and these figures are another positive step forward for the global clean sport community.
“In addition, research tells us that effective education and awareness programs are helping to prevent doping before it occurs, providing athletes with the tools and the knowledge they need to compete clean. It is very clear that in recent years anti-doping has become more sophisticated, including through non-analytical methods such as intelligence and investigations, and that this multi-pronged approach is having the desired effect on the ground.”
Niggli referred to the testing statistics, which did show an increase:
● 2021: 241,430 samples collected
● 2022: 241,143 samples collected (-0.01%)
● 2023: 271,775 samples collected (+12.7%)
What is also true is that the total number of actual sanctions is pretty small: 2,005 out of 241,775 samples is just 0.08%. Not close to even 1%, but how many athletes lost medals to those 2,005 sanctioned positives?
WADA collects data on much more than just Olympic sports, so just looking at summer Olympic (ASOIF) and winter Olympic (WOF) sports for 2023:
Olympic sports:
● 214,624 samples collected
● 1,363 positives (0.63%)
● 1,026 sanctions (0.48% + 66 cases pending)
Winter Olympic sports:
● 18,378 samples collected
● 56 positives (0.30%)
● 33 sanctions (0.18% + 3 cases pending)
The reduced number of sanctions vs. positive tests are due to a number of factors, including medical reasons or findings that there is no case to pursue (including Therapeutic Use Exemptions).
The leading sports with doping positives are no surprise, based on past experience:
● 270: Athletics ~ out of 41,477 tests (0.65%)
● 182: Weightlifting ~ out of 12,078 tests (1.51%)
● 120: Cycling ~ out of 24,781 tests (0.48%)
● 69: Wrestling ~ out of 7,280 tests (0.95%)
● 60: Football ~ out of 34,884 tests (0.17%)
Among the winter sport, only ice hockey had more than five, with 20 (out of 3,597 tests or 0.56%.
In terms of total countries and total positives (not just Olympic and winter sports), the leaders in analytical (test positives) plus non-analytic (investigations) :
● 222 (217+5): India
● 209 (109+100): Russia
● 109 (63+46): Italy
● 81 (72+9): Kenya
● 62 (56+6): France
● 59 (57+2): Kazakhstan
● 57 (49+8) Brazil
● 57 (46+11): United States
● 42 (41+1): Norway
● 41 (41+0): South Africa
Many of the Russian sanctions were from the recovery of the Moscow Laboratory data from the state-sponsored doping program from 2011-15.
Despite the low percentage of positives and sanctions, there is still a lot of doping going on. As Athletics Integrity Unit head David Howman (NZL) said at the recent World Conference on Doping in Sport:
“[T]he system has stalled. Intentional dopers at elite level are evading detection. We are not effective enough nowadays in catching cheats. We have great education programmes which help but they don’t impact the intentional rule-breakers in elite sport.”
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