The chair of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), David Howman, has expressed his dissatisfaction with the anti-doping policies of other major sports such as football, rugby and golf. He said that many athletes in team sports would go through their careers without being tested once, and that some sports organisations were only interested in ticking the boxes in terms of in-competition testing.
AIU introduces new technique to detect steroid use
Howman made his remarks on a day when the AIU announced a new technique being used for the first time at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. The technique, called the blood steroid passport, collects information on markers of steroid doping using blood rather than urine samples. This would enable the AIU to better detect the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone among athletes.
The AIU said that the blood steroid passport was a very effective tool that would become more powerful over time, as more data was collected. The technique has two new modules attached to the athlete biological passport (ABP), which was introduced in 2009 to monitor changes in blood parameters that could indicate doping.
The first module, called blood serum, measures the levels of testosterone and other steroids in the blood. The second module, called endocrine, measures the levels of hormones such as human growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-I, which are also used to enhance performance.
Howman calls for more proactive approach from other sports
Howman praised the AIU’s proactive approach to catching cheats, and said he wished more sports would follow their example. He said that not many of the big sports had a robust anti-doping programme, and that some were reluctant to adopt new techniques or share information with other anti-doping agencies.
He was especially critical of football’s approach, saying that Fifa was isolated from the rest of the world in terms of anti-doping. He said that Fifa only focused on in-competition testing, which was easy to evade, and that it was difficult to conduct out-of-competition testing on football players.
He also said that some sports were more vulnerable to doping than others, and that team sports were often overlooked by anti-doping authorities. He said that many athletes in team sports would never be tested during their careers, and that some sports had a culture of tolerance or ignorance towards doping.
He urged other sports to adopt a more transparent and independent anti-doping system, and to cooperate with the AIU and other agencies to ensure a level playing field for all athletes.
