IAAF IN WAR OF WORDS
‘Sensationalist’ claims of doping
Athletics’ governing body Tuesday hit out at “sensationalist and confusing” reports that cheating is widespread within the sport, insisting it had “done everything within its means” to get rid of doping.
Issuing an angry 4,000-word statement in response to allegations made by The Sunday Times and German broadcaster ARD last weekend, the International Association of Athletics Federations vehemently denied being complicit in a doping coverup.
The IAAF found itself thrust into the centre of a doping storm when the results of 12,000 blood tests taken between 2001 and 2012 were leaked, with anti-doping experts suggesting they showed an “extraordinary extent of cheating ” in the sport.
The IAAF reserved particular ire for the whistleblower who released what it says is “private and confidential medical data that was obtained from the IAAF without consent.”
Insisting that an internal investigation had confirmed the data was not leaked by an IAAF staff member, it said that police had been notified and it would “pursue all legal means to expose the circumstances of the disclosure.”
Reports suggested the IAAF was aware of hundreds of athletes providing suspicious samples without acting on them, but the governing body yesterday insisted it “did everything it possibly could to pursue anti-doping rule” while stating that to suggest anything else was “false, disappointing, and misinformed journalism.”
The IAAF also hit out at the World Anti-Doping Agency’s claim that it was “very disturbed by these new allegations,” responding that it was “very surprised by such comments” because the existence of such data was “no secret” to the organization. It said WADA had known about the pre-2009 data, while all post-2009 data is shared directly with the organization through a single database.
Claiming that a third of all endurance event medallists from recent Olympic Games and World Championships had provided suspicious blood test results, two anti-doping experts commissioned by The Sunday Times and ARD had accused more than 800 athletes of providing samples that were “highly suggestive of doping or at the very least abnormal.”
However, the IAAF argued that the experts’ verdict was “unscientific” and they had “no authority” to make such a judgment.
“Ethically, I deplore public comments coming from colleagues on blood data that has been obtained and processed outside of the strict regulatory framework established by WADA,” the IAAF quoted its own anti-doping expert, Giuseppe d’Onofrio, as saying. “There is no space for short cuts, simplistic approaches or sensationalism when athletes’ careers and reputations are at stake.”
Instead the governing body argued that the results referred to were not positive tests and every single blood test result considered to be atypical was followed up “vigorously and consistently”.
“ARD and The Sunday Times admit in their reports that the scientists’ evaluation of the data cannot constitute proof of blood doping — with which the IAAF respectfully agrees — and they have otherwise run a statistical analysis of the likely prevalence of blood doping in athletics which is not dissimilar to the study which the IAAF conducted itself (and published externally) almost four years ago,” read the IAAF statement.
“What the IAAF cannot accept under any circumstances from the ARD/Sunday Times, or the scientists whom they have retained, is an accusation that it has breached its primary duty to act in the best interests of the sport of athletics.
“The experts have never worked for the IAAF and are therefore in no position to make any comment regarding what the IAAF has done or not done in the development and implementation of its blood and urine target testing programme.
“To do so is simply guess work on their part. The IAAF categorically refutes all allegations made by ARD and The Sunday Times and, specifically, that it failed in its duty to pursue an effective blood-testing programme at all times.”
As well as insisting that the leaked data had already been “openly reported, reviewed and analyzed” in an IAAF publication in 2011, the organization pointed to the fact that, since implementing the biological passport in 2009, more athletes have been banned for cheating than all other sports federations and national anti-doping agencies put together.