WADA sees jump in abnormal drug test results

In a year that coincided with some major sport disciplines introducing the use of biological passports to track blood samples in elite athletes, the World Anti-Doping Agency has released a report showing that “adverse” or “atypical” test results across all sports jumped 20 per cent in 2013 from 2012.

During the same time period, the number of total tests conducted increased less than a single per cent, meaning the increase in abnormal results was not just a result of more testing being done.

In total, the sport of athletics, which encompasses track and field and road running, along with other running events, has a rate of 1.2 per cent of tests come back abnormal. This was lower than the total rate of test conducted, which came in at 2.2 per cent, but higher than the rate of Olympic sports disciplines, which was 0.97 per cent.

The Olympic sport with the highest rate or adverse test was weightlifting at 3.4 per cent.

An adverse test is counted as any sample that returns a positive result for a banned substance, or a metabolite or marker of a banned substance. An adverse result does not always signify a doping violation. Some athletes have therapeutic use exemptions for some banned substances or sometimes both samples do not return positive results.