Elite cheats slip through net as anti-doping system has ‘stalled’, says AIU

The global fight against doping has “stalled”, with athletes evading detection systems that are failing to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated cheats, a leading anti-doping official has warned.

Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Chair David Howman had already delivered a stark assessment at last week’s World Conference on Doping in Sport, declaring that despite his organisation’s proven track record of identifying rule-breakers, they are “not catching enough of them”.

The number of international disciplinary cases brought by the AIU has increased from 62 in 2021 to 100 in 2024, according to the body’s annual reports, while national cases went up from 185 to 305.

“Let’s be honest and pragmatic … intentional dopers at elite level are evading detection. We are not effective enough nowadays in catching cheats,” said Howman, who previously spent 13 years as director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Among the elite athletes banned or suspended this year was women’s marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich after the Kenyan admitted to anti-doping rule violations.

Chepngetich was banned for three years, but her record will remain on the books as it was set before her positive test.

Others include the United States’s Olympic 100 metres silver and bronze medallist Fred Kerley, who was provisionally suspended in August for whereabouts failures, and world 100 metres silver medallist Marvin Bracy, who accepted a 45-month sanction for anti-doping rule violations last month.

Howman’s blunt admission highlighted a troubling reality for clean sport advocates. While education programmes help deter some potential cheats, he said they are powerless against the most determined rule-breakers at sport’s highest levels.

“We have great education programmes which help, but they don’t impact the intentional rule-breakers in elite sport,” Howman acknowledged.

The AIU chief warned that the system’s inability to outsmart the cheats is undermining public confidence in anti-doping efforts.

“Our ineffectiveness in dealing with those who are beating the rules is hurting the anti-doping movement’s credibility, with the resulting risk that our clean-sport message falls on deaf ears,” he said.

Howman also called for a fundamental shift from mere box-ticking compliance to supporting “ambitious anti-doping efforts” that could actually catch clever cheats.

“A renewed focus on scientific research with closer alignment between WADA and cutting-edge ADOs [anti-doping organisations] on research priorities and opportunities would be beneficial,” he added.