The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has released its blood and urine test figures for 2014 covering all sports. Findings indicate positive tests were down by 10% on the year before even though a sharp increase in the number of tests was carried out.
A similar decrease was recorded in the amount of samples with ‘adverse analytical findings’ which does not necessarily mean evidence of doping after rises in the previous two years. The latest figures can, in part, be directly attributed to all athletes now having a biological passport. Altogether, 283,384 tests were carried out in 2014 with 3,800 failed tests recorded. Samples came from sports governing bodies all over the globe that were tested at the organisation’s 32 labs.
Athletics had the second highest test levels with 25,830 samples taken and 261 or 1% coming back as positive for banned substances or suspicious findings. Boxing, cycling, weightlifting, golf and equestrian recorded results of 1% of more.
Anabolic steroids and stimulants were, unsurprisingly, the two most popular banned substances discovered in failed tests, followed by masking agents which are often a sign of doping. China and Russia topped the charts for the amount of tests taken with 13,180 and 12,556 respectively while the United States, despite having population sizes similar to both China and Russia, only provided 7,167 samples. UK Anti-Doping, which is responsible for all drug testing of sportspeople in the UK, conducted 5,160 tests of which 0.7% returned positive results.
Athletes sanctioned for doping in 2014 include French hammer thrower Quentin Bigot, Russian long jumper Svetlana Biryukova, Russian hurdler Tatyana Dektyareva, and former 400m world champion Amantle Montsho, who tested positive after the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. GB stars Gareth Warburton and Rhys Williams were also handed bans for taking banned substances although it was accepted both athletes had been the victims of contaminated supplements.
You can see the WADA report in full here.
