Should we be happy about it? Not sure. But the facts are there: the year 2016 marked a “turning point”, no less, in the fight against doping in sport. The expression is not a journalistic invention, it is suggested by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the supreme authority on the matter.
A turning point, therefore. WADA experts came to this historic conclusion as they finalized their annual report. The 2016 version was published Thursday August 24, 2017. It is available only in English, only in digital format, “in accordance with our efforts in terms of sustainable development,” specifies the Montreal-based institution. The French version will be offered in the coming weeks.
Analysis by Craig Reedie, WADA President: “The results of WADA's independent investigations and the actions taken by the Agency and its partners have made the fight against doping a very public issue. In retrospect, however, we believe that 2016 will be seen as a turning point in the fight against doping and as a year which reinforced the conviction of our partners that a strong and independent WADA is essential to achieving the ambitions of athletes. »
It is difficult, in fact, to ignore doping and its contingent of victims when remembering an Olympic year where the cheaters were often more publicized than the winners. Beginning with the revelation of the Russian Maria Sharapova's positive test for meldonium, the year 2016 continued with the damning report produced by Dick Pound on the situation in athletics. Before reaching a new historic peak with a second report, called McLaren, entirely dedicated to state doping in Russian sport.
“The Russian doping scandal was one of the most destabilizing events in recent sporting history,” suggests WADA. Not false.
Now the details. They leave you perplexed. In its report, the AMA points to an ever-larger project, increasingly complex and numerous missions... but resources that bear little relation to the task at hand. Its budget amounts to $28,3 million, a sum provided equally by contributions from the public sector and the IOC. But the organization specifies: its budget “has experienced a slight increase over the last five years (from 2012 to 2016), with an average increase rate of 1,4% per year”.
In terms of figures, WADA reveals that 328.086 samples were analyzed in 2016 by laboratories benefiting from its accreditation, a decrease of 0,1% compared to 2015. Blood sample collections increased by 9,8%. (23) compared to 253. Among all these checks, 2015 were carried out out of competition, an increase of 161.456%.
The cheaters? On the rise, too. But this time, inflation is in double digits. In 2016, the number of samples reporting an abnormal analytical result increased by 26,4%. Phew. Their number reached 4, compared to 814 the previous year. A dizzying increase caused in part, but only in part, by the addition of meldonium to the list of banned products, dated January 3.809, 1. The drug brought down 2016 high-level athletes during the 497 months of the Olympic year.
For the rest, WADA wants to retain from its 2016 year a set of measures intended to clean up sport and protect clean athletes. Let us cite, at the top of the list, the creation of an investigation and intelligence unit, composed in particular of two investigators and two data analysts, or the strengthening of the computer security of the localization system, the now famous ADAMS.
