Study: Track & Field Has A Big Doping Problem

The still unpublished results of a 2011 athlete survey are very telling.

According to a study that has yet to be published, track & field’s doping problem could be worse that originally feared.

After analyzing the results of an anonymous survey that polled more than 2,000 track & field athletes at the 2011 IAAF World Championships and the 2011 Pan-Arab Games, 29 and 45 percent of the athletes, respectively, admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs in 2010.

Less than two percent of all samples tested by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) labs that year tested positive.

The study, which was first organized by WADA, was submitted to the anti-doping body in the spring of 2012. WADS rejected it, saying it wanted to conduct a survey at another event and collect more data before publishing the findings.

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An agreement was finally made, however, to send the study to the journal Science, which researchers did in January. But the publication rejected the offer to publish the study. Two months later, WADA told researchers not to pursue any further suitors and wait for the IAAF to review the results.

Published or not, the study’s results demonstrate that sports have a big doping problem on their hands.