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≡ ATHLETICS INTEGRITY UNIT ≡
“These are unprecedented levels of testing in athletics; tremendous improvements, and we are very pleased to have attained them in an Olympic year, with the highest prizes at stake.”
That’s Athletics Integrity Unit Chair David Howman (NZL), speaking to the testing regimen realized for the anti-doping effort for track & field athletes prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
According to a Tuesday statement, a voluminous 7,102 out-of-competition tests were carried out on the 1,879 Olympic track & field athletes over the 10 months prior to the Paris Games:
● 2,714 by the AIU on its registered testing pool
● 4,388 by National Anti-Doping Organizations
By the time of the Paris Games, 89% of all T&F athletes who competed in Paris had been tested out of competition, a far better rate than the 73% for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest (HUN), or the 67% for the 2022 Worlds in Eugene, Oregon.
Moreover, the statement noted that 66% of all Paris T&F entries had been tested out of competition three times or more (!) times, also way ahead of Budapest 2023 (45%) or Eugene 2022 (44%).
When including in-competition tests, a Paris track & field entrant was tested an average of 5.4 times in the 10 months prior to the Games.
The testing stats get even stronger for the 319 athletes who placed in the top eight in an individual Paris final:
● 88% (279) were tested three or more times out of competition
● 10% (33) had 1-2 out-of-competition tests
● 2% (7) had no out-of-competition tests
When considering in-competition tests as well, only four Paris T&F participants who finished in the top eight had not been tested prior to Paris.
In terms of who was tested the most, the U.S. had the biggest team and took the most out-of-competition tests, but the most heavily-tested teams were Kenya, China and Ethiopia:
● 1. 546 tests on 117 athletes: United States (4.7 avg. per)
● 2. 495 tests on 52 athletes: China (9.5 avg. per)
● 3. 379 tests on 42 athletes: Kenya (9.0 avg. per)
● 4. 341 tests on 73 athletes: Germany (4.7 avg. per)
● 5. 315 tests on 31 athletes: Ethiopia (10.2 avg. per)
Both the U.S. and China had every athlete receive at least one out-of-competition test.
Said Howman:
“It is critical, for the integrity and credibility of athletics, that we are transparent about our testing and the strides we are making to protect the sport from doping. These detailed statistics show consistent progress is being made in leveling the playing field.
“It is the AIU’s policy to be as transparent as possible when it comes to how anti-doping works in our sport and we encourage other international sports to do likewise and publish their own testing figures.”
The testing effort did yield positives:
“[T]he AIU’s intelligence-led anti-doping programme resulted in 32 Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs), with 17 further cases still pending. Out of these 49 cumulative cases, 17 Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs) are from OOC tests while 32 are from In-Competition tests.”
Howman explained:
“The work we have been doing – monitoring, evaluating and publishing domestic testing levels in our sport – has borne critical fruit. We have seen the responses of various Member Federations and [National Anti-Doping Organizations] to the requirements in athletics and most have really risen to challenge of ensuring they meet reasonable minimum testing requirements for their nation’s athletes competing in Paris.
“The increase in domestic OOC testing ensures that the AIU can maintain its sharp focus on intelligence-led target testing of the elite competitors who are at the top of the world rankings, while being confident that the next tier of athletes is subject to a reasonable level of control via domestic testing programmes.”
The Athletics Integrity Unit was formed by World Athletics in 2017 and is funded by World Athletics, but maintains separate offices, staffing and operations.
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