Posted: February 8, 2006

Drugs in Sport: Athletics Most-Tested U.S. Sport In 2005

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced their final drug testing totals from 2005, and track and field athletes were by far the most-tested athletes in all of Olympic sport.

Of the 7675 domestic doping controls the agency carried out in 2005, 1423 were for track athletes, representing 18.5% of the total. That is nearly double the number of tests conducted on the second most tested sport, swimming, which saw 743 tests, or about 9.7% of the total. Cycling was #3 with 537 tests.

Approximately 61% of the domestic tests were performed out of competition (OOC).

No doubt, the large number of tests in athletics stemmed at least in part from the large population of athletes within the sport, competing not only in-stadium but also at road races and cross country events. More road races have begun to request drug testing from USADA.

Of the 68 sports listed, which included 22 paralympic sports, twelve had fewer than ten tests throughout the year, and three (netball, paralympic boccia, and paraylmpic powerlifting) had no tests.

"USADA reached all of its goals for both event and OOC tests in 2005," said USADA CEO Terry Madden in a press release. "U.S. athletes were consistent in their commitment to drug free sport by providing whereabouts information for the OOC testing program at a rate exceeding ninety percent."

There were only 22 anti-doping rules violations in 2005, including four non-analytical positives (athletes are convicted of doping based on other evidence, like testimony or documents) and three test refusals. Removing the non-analyticals, only about 2/10ths of one percent of the 7675 tests led to a violation.

USADA also carried out an additional 500 tests on U.S. and non-U.S. athletes within the United States on behalf of other anti-doping organizations, including the World Anti-Doping Agency. Testing was stepped up in the fourth quarter in advance of the Torino Olympics, which open on Friday.

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