The study and the accompanying presentation revealed that international doping control is not as efficient and successful as initially believed.

 

There are 202 NOCs that all have accepted the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) and are undertaking anti-doping work, however, there are only about 20 of them which meet all requirements set by WADA.

 

- Considering this fact, is it really correct that only one to two percent of the athletes use performance-enhancing drugs? Perhaps the low number is due to the lack of efficiency in the doping control itself, or analysis methods that are not yet good enough, Hanstad says.

 

Lack of trust
The study also showed that there is a considerable lack of trust between national anti-doping organizations (NADOs) and international federations (IFs).

 

NADOs have suspected IFs to have protected their own sports and athletes with the main purpose of avoiding doping scandals while the Ifs in return claim that NADOs are not operating efficiently enough. IFs are concerned that NADOs are not able to carry out no-notice tests in a satisfactory manner.

 

In addition, there is a considerable waste of resources and knowledge about who is testing who.

 

- It would be a waste of resources and very annoying for an athlete in athletics to be tested both by the IAAF, WADA and the NADO in the course of two to three days. This actually happens quite often, he says.

 

No-Advance Notice and Advance Notice
When ADOs in the study were asked how they understood the term ‘no-advance notice’, they referred to the WADA definition. However, it can be discussed whether all the tests that are carried out under this category actually belong here.

 

A source states: “To be true, no-notice testing probably makes a very small percentage of tests simply because it is very unlikely that the athlete is the first person the DCO comes in contact with.”

 

Improvement of working climate needed
The real, critical question in current anti-doping work is, of course, the lack of well functioning NADOs and ADOs in the international federations, Hanstad says.

 

Hanstad’s study and presentation, which was worked out together with professor and NSSS-Chancellor Sigmund Lolan, can be found at the website sportsanalyse.com.