The International Swimming Federation (World Aquatics, formerly FINA) is playing it safe. It revealed the figures of its anti-doping program for the year 2022, realized in collaboration with the International Control Agency (ITA). During the twelve months of the year, a total of 5,835 samples (3,766 urine and 2,069 blood) were taken from 1,428 athletes from 101 national federations in all aquatic sports: swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming, open water and high-flying. Just over half of the tests were conducted on female athletes (50.7%). Europe accounted for 56.6% of the tests, followed by America (21.6%), Asia (10.9%), Oceania (7.7%) and Africa (3.17%). Unsurprisingly, swimming race was the discipline with the highest number of tests (66%), ahead of water polo (14%), open water (9%), artistic swimming (5%), diving and high flying (4%). According to World Aquatics, the doping testing program was not significantly affected by the effects of the war in Ukraine. The number of out-of-competition tests performed on Russian athletes was in line with the ITA’s original plan, with 293 blood tests, down only 16% from 2021.
