World Anti-Doping Agency releases 2015 Anti-Doping Rule Violations Report

An anti-doping rule violation refers to cases where Athletes or Athlete Support Personnel commit a Code violation and thus expose themselves to certain consequences or sanctions.

The Report reports doping cases committed in world sport in 2015. It reports that a total of 1 ADRVs, affecting people of 929 nationalities and 122 different sports, were recorded in 85. Of this total, 2015 1 ADRVs come from Adverse Analytical Findings (AARs), also called “positive results”, which constitutes two-thirds of the 649 AARs listed by WADA-accredited laboratories. The 2 non-analytical ADRVs, of which 522 were committed by athletes and 280 by athlete support staff, come from intelligence. This represents an increase in non-analytical ADRVs and justifies the increased focus of the anti-doping movement on investigations, intelligence gathering and whistleblowers.

“It will be particularly interesting to read the 2015 ADRV Report in conjunction with WADA's 2015 Doping Control Data Report released last November,” said Sir Craig Reedie, WADA President. “What is particularly striking about the 2015 ADRV Report is that we are starting to see the first effects of the revised Code, including a marked increase in the number of intelligence-led ADRVs. The Agency is paying increased attention to this type of ADRV and is also strengthening its investigative and intelligence-gathering capacities. Testing remains of course essential to detecting doping, but recent events have shown that investigations play an increasingly important role in protecting the rights of clean athletes around the world, ”he added.

“In addition to our efforts to detect doping and deter athletes from using it, the 2015 VRAD Report reminds us of the importance of preventive education strategies in the fight against doping”, said Olivier Niggli, Managing Director of WADA. “Promoting a values-based education is one of our top priorities, which is why we raise awareness among athletes by discussing what can motivate them to stay clean, why they should avoid doping and how to protect themselves from it, ”he added.

The ADRVs Report is divided as follows:

•   THEpreview includes an introduction and summary of the Report, highlighting key information.
•   sections 1 and 2 take stock of the results management (including ADRVs) of all AAR cases detected by WADA accredited laboratories, from samples taken from in-competition and out-of-competition athletes and received by these laboratories in 2015 These data are classified by sport and by discipline (section 1), then by supervisory authority (section 2).
•   La section 3 includes ADRVs resulting from non-analytical evidence committed by athletes (data presented by sport and nationality) and by their support staff (data presented by nationality).  
•   La section 4 presents the total number of ADRVs identified in 2015, which includes both the RAA constituting a violation and the non-analytical violations; these data are classified by sport and by nationality and according to the type of sample (urine or blood), the type of test (in competition or out of competition) and the athlete's gender.

Why does WADA publish the 2015 statistics on ADRVs fifteen months after the end of the statistical period?
The process of managing results (anti-doping records) takes time. This process involves many steps and begins with the finding of a potential analytical or non-analytical violation. This is followed by the reporting of Adverse Analytical Findings (AARs) and other other steps, including investigation, decision making, a potential appeal, and publication of the decision. A large number of cases could be concluded before the writing of this Report, based on reliable and representative data for the year as a whole. At the time of compiling the data for the Report on ADRVs (31 January 2017), WADA had received 92 ° /_o of the 2015 AAR decisions.