The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released its 2021 global testing numbers on Thursday. WADA said that despite problems presented by COVID-19, the agency has been able to maintain “close to normal” testing around the world.
In 2021, 256 anti-doping organizations collected 274,254 samples, compared to 305,881 samples collected by 253 anti-doping organizations in 2019. In contrast, only 168,256 samples were taken in 2020.
The samples include urine and blood samples.
WADA qualified the discrepancy between the 2021 and 2019 numbers, stating that there were less events in 2021, so there were actually more out-of-competition samples taken in 2021 over 2019, with the difference being primarily in-competition samples.
“The latest testing figures show that the anti-doping community has managed to maintain high levels of testing despite a return of severe restrictions in many parts of the world due to Omicron and other variants of the virus,” said WADA president Witold Bańka in a news release. “This demonstrates great resilience, collaboration and innovation as we continue to protect athletes in the build-up to next month’s Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing.”
2021 Testing Figures
| Samples taken in competition | Samples taken out of competition | Total samples | |
| January | 4,251 | 10,127 | 14,378 |
| February | 5,855 | 11,973 | 17,828 |
| March | 7,786 | 15,320 | 23,106 |
| April | 7,708 | 14,709 | 22,417 |
| May | 9,404 | 17,244 | 26,648 |
| June | 10,416 | 19,189 | 29,605 |
| July | 8,074 | 17,451 | 25,525 |
| August | 9,229 | 13,620 | 22,849 |
| September | 10,847 | 13,402 | 24,249 |
| October | 11,308 | 13,230 | 24,538 |
| November | 9,657 | 14,720 | 24,377 |
| December | 7,968 | 10,766 | 18,734 |
| Grand Total | 102,503 | 171,751 | 274,254 |
WADA emphasized the ability for anti-doping organizations to use the International Olympic Committee’s long-term storage program, where samples can be stored for up to 10 years after their initial analysis and still retain the same legal impact.
The agency cited long-term analysis of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics samples, which have yielded over 130 violations of the Anti-Doping Rule Rules.
“But it is not all about testing.” Bańka said. “As we look ahead to the Beijing Games, WADA has also encouraged and supported Anti-Doping Organizations worldwide to use all tools at their disposal, including in particular education, intelligence and investigations, and the Athlete Biological Passport, to ensure the best possible anti-doping programs.”
After watching Icarus, and seeing the heads of doping control agencies and testing centers essentially say that it’s so easy to cheat the system now that it’s practically just for show at this point, I just struggle to have faith in the testing system at all, but one can hope
Weed should be allowed
Until they start using a bio passport for blood work there will always be people getting away with it.
I also agree with one of the other posters that they are overly concerned with testing for PEDs with minimal performance enhancement instead of investing in more testing for actual steroids (i.e. compounds that change the endocrine system) which as it stands now are harder to test for and easier to get away with.
People can be showing blood work that shows testosterone on the high end of “normal” but in reality be on a pretty significant dose of exogenous testosterone. Without a bio passport we have no idea what their baseline should be and thus can’t really flag it as… Read more »
We need to catch guilty athletes, not athletes who have a few parts per million of some banned substance in their blood, such small amounts as to have no performance effect, acquired through random vitamin or supplement use.
The thing is, very small traces could be indicative that they are using. But it could also be completely innocent. There’s no perfect system.
With the way anti-doping technology has improved, if you’re caught with even a trace amount of a banned substance in your system, there is a 99.99% chance you put that in your body. Tests rarely lie nowadays. This isn’t 2000 anymore where high vitamin levels can set off positive steroid tests–doping maneuvers have become extremely sophisticated, but so have anti-doping protocols, even if it is a step behind.
There is definitely a lot of work to do, however. I recall this one story of a UFC fighter admitting to USADA testers that he had taken hGH recently, yet during the blood test, they couldn’t find it within his system. Peptides, hGH, EPO, and the like are still VERY hard… Read more »
Totally OT Any other Firefox user having problem with the comment section ( enormous + and – taking the whole screen etc…) ?
Shining sun will rise again… King of the 1500!!
Let’s talk about TUEs (No, not Caeleb Dressel’s 8 TUEs).
Pernille Blume = Sun Yang = Cate Campbell = Caeleb Remel
Man you said this last time where you get this info from
It is unverified information leaked by the Russian hacking outfit Fancy Bears c. 2016.
Yes but they were right on other mentions . In fact for Simone Biles , it did her a service in that she finally got the power to get off the Ritalin . When non Americans challenged this use of mind drugs , they were told off & called names & that poor Simone needed them.to function . She did not & was simply pharma enslaved.since 9 years old .
TUEs should be transparent . We currently are in a social phase where every body bleats about their personal & medical issues anyhow , so what’s the big deal ?
Please explain.
I think he’s refering to therapeutic use exemptions, I heard that Dressel had asthma so that might be were it stems from
At the 2013 Winter Juniors, Dressel had an asthma attack and he had to miss an entire session of the meet. I’m pretty sure he has a valid claim to be using an inhaler.
Athletes will claim they have an injury, and obtain a medical exemption for various performance enhancing substances and recovery aiding substances like corticosteroids, stem cell injections, amphetamines, asthma medications, adhd medications etc. Some of those athletes are Kyle Chalmers, Kaylee mcKeown, Cate Campbell, Kathleen Baker, pernille blume, Yulia efimova, jack conger etc. (I’m sure there are many more, but these are off the top of my head.)
Reminds me also of Ariarne Titmus and her cortisone treatment for her shoulder injury and them boom, she was close to breaking 2 WRs at Aussie trials.
I was interested to read recently that Ariarne Titmus revealed she had Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) orthobiological injections in both the shoulder AND hip for a “shoulder injury” in the lead-up to the Olympics (Swimming World reporting, not Fancy Bears).That would seem highly unorthodox as injections of blood/growth factor spun out in PRP are supposed to go to the injury site in a PRP regimen. Knew that she had a rugby trainer brought in for “extraordinary treatment” late in the game (supposedly for a subscap shoulder tear)–guess that “extraordinary treatment” is all coming a bit more into focus now.
If it’s a breach of the rules you should tell WADA about it. If it’s not then you should probably stop whining
You think Chalmers is just “claiming” to have an injury? I guess he had shoulder surgery for funsies
Chalmers had surgery after previous PRP treatment (PRP often creates internal scar tissue).If ever there were a need for WADA-ITA to use its investigative resources, it’s to take a close look at AUS women’s swim team, especially given the recent AUS independent commission report and its 46 recommendations (but with general info nonetheless all being kept secret by SA despite the Commission recommendation for full disclosure!!) Anti-doping is as much for their protection as for that of other swimmers.
Aussie women start doing well and suddenly they all need to be investigated by WADA. Pathetic lol
. Ash Barty just serially wiped the court of Americans . Thru .quarters , semis & finals Ash 36 games 6 sets 3 matches . US 13 games 0 sets 0 matches.
Be Best!
Follow the news, get head out of sand. AUS women swimmers themselves called for a full investigation (by other Australians) of the entire AUS swimming culture–supplement use, misogyny, weight-shaming, abusive coaches, eating disorders, militarism, discrimination against female coaches. Result: 46 recommendations disclosed, but refusal for some reason by Kieran Perkins to release full report. Cheating? If Perkins gets his way, we’ll never know I guess.
So you’re assuming that the women in Australian swimming are accusing SA of cheating without actually seeing the report? Ok