As insidethegames reported on Tuesday (February 24), new Dutch analysis had estimated that the prevalence of doping in elite sport is "likely" to be between 14 and 39 per cent.

It also quoted Olivier de Hon, scientific affairs manager at the Dopingautoriteit, the Dutch national anti-doping organisation (NADO) and one of the new review's authors, who argued that, "If governing bodies were more active and transparent in this area, we should be able to build a much better idea of the true prevalence of doping in elite sport".

De Hon said that, while doping prevalence studies were rare, a number had been conducted without their results having been made public.

One New York Times article, published in August 2013, referred to an exercise it said had been undertaken by a team of researchers convened by WADA in 2011.

The article continued:

"More than 2,000 track and field athletes participated in the study, and according to the findings...an estimated 29 per cent of the athletes at the 2011 World Championships and 45 per cent of the athletes at the 2011 Pan-Arab Games said in anonymous surveys that they had doped in the past year."

Trinidadian sprinter Semoy Hackett was one athlete to be retrospectively disqualified for doping following the 2011 IAAF World Championships ©Getty Images



David Howman, WADA's director general, said: "At WADA, we are aware of the Prevalence of Doping Use in Elite Sports: A Review of Numbers and Methods study that was recently published in The Netherlands.

"We acknowledge that analytical studies over the years have suggested that the prevalence of doping is considerably higher than the current one-two per cent adverse analytical findings range typically reported in our annual testing figures report.

"Through the development, and now introduction, of the revised World Anti-Doping Code, WADA has introduced enhanced measures that we hope will present a more accurate reflection of the state of the prevalence of doping in sport.

"Quality-driven, sport-specific testing programmes that focus on testing the right athlete for the right substance at the right time, and a greater emphasis on gathering and sharing information that help piece together doping cases; the emphasis is on anti-doping organisations across the world to practice their anti-doping programmes effectively so that we are provided with a clearer picture of the level of doping in sport.

"Furthermore, with the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System, or another approved system, becoming mandatory in 2015, we hope that Anti-Doping Organisations will enter their full results management information including anti-doping rule violation statistics.

"If organisations take on full responsibility in doing this, only then will they have the opportunity to produce a full picture of global sanctions data."

The focus on establishing an accurate gauge of the true prevalence of doping comes as WADA is conducting an independent investigation into allegations of systematic doping in Russian athletics.

De Hon also told insidethegames that a new study, using the Randomised Response Technique (RRT) of posing questions was currently being conducted among Dutch national elite athletes.

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