Doping in Sports: Statistics You Should Know in 2021

Jun 22, 2021
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Doping and sports go hand in hand. From ancient Greek athletes who ate sheep testicles and drank opiate-laced “energy drinks” to state-sponsored doping programs in Germany, Russia, and the United States, professional athletes have always looked for ways to squeeze the last ounce of performance from their bodies. Despite the efforts of organizations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency to curtail doping in sports, statistics show that using illegal substances is still a common practice among professional athletes worldwide.

Editors’ Choice: Doping in Sports Statistics

  • The first officially recorded use of doping dates back to the 1904 Olympics.
  • The first dope tests at sports competitions were held at the 1966 European Athletics Championships in Budapest.
  • The World Anti-Doping Agency was established in 1999.
  • According to Wada’s drug testing statistics, less than 1% of all anti-doping test samples return positive.
  • More than 30% of athletes in the 2011 Olympics and 45% in the Pan-Arab Games admitted to using doping during their careers.

Doping History

1. 19th-century French cyclists used coca leaves and wine to stave off fatigue and hunger.

(Hastings Center Report, The Coercive Power of Drugs in Sports)

The so-called “wine for athletes” or Vin Mariani was a popular mixture of coca leaves and wine, which many French athletes, including lacrosse players, used in the late 19th century.

2. The first officially recorded use of doping dates back to the 1904 Olympics.

(The Guardian)

Thomas Hicks won the Olympic marathon after consuming a dangerous mixture of strychnine and brandy, which nearly killed him. Back then, doping in the Olympics wasn’t yet illegal, and athletes took all sorts of medicines that were thought to enhance performance and increase endurance.

3. Benzedrine was widely used in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

(Liquisearch)

A brand of amphetamine called Benzedrine became Hitler’s favorite drug, which he and the entire German Olympics team used excessively during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Benzedrine use would later see Italian Fausto Coppi break the world cycling record in 1942 and Everton take the 1962-63 season title in the English Premier League.

4. Anabolic steroids were introduced to sports in 1958 and erythropoietin in the late 1980s.

(ThinkSteroids) (FitPeople)

Although many anabolic steroids stats pages credit Dr. John Ziegler for creating the drug, he simply introduced Dianabol (the world’s first commercial anabolic steroid) to the US weightlifting team, after which it quickly spread to other sports. Erythropoietin - a substance normally secreted by the kidneys to stimulate red cell production - is harder to track, with some experts pointing to the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics as the first likely suspect for mass EPO use. The drug didn’t get into the public eye until the 1998 Tour de France scandal, which prompted the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency the following year.

5. According to statistics for doping in sports, the first dope tests at sports competitions were conducted at the 1966 European Athletics Championships in Budapest.

(Howitworksdaily) (ProCon.org)

This was followed by the 1968 International Olympic Committee tests at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France. The same year saw Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a Swedish modern pentathlon team member, disqualified for excessive alcohol use after allegedly taking two beers to “calm his nerves” before the pistol shooting part of the event.

6. The World Anti-Doping Agency was established in 1999.

(Wada)

When it comes to drug use in sports, statistics that we have today are almost exclusively the work of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Formed in 1999 due to the 1998 Tour de France scandal, Wada was created to coordinate and promote the international battle against doping in sports. It was sanctioned by the IOC and works as a foundation that includes members from both the sports world and intergovernmental organizations and public authorities. Wada drug testing is the most rigorous form of anti-doping testing currently performed in sports.

7. In 2019, Russia received a four-year ban from all international sporting events due to a doping scandal.

(CNN)

If we had doping statistics by country over the years, Russia, Germany, and the US would probably be at the forefront of most scandals in the past. As is, Wada has only recently started cracking down on institutionalized and state-sanctioned doping, and Russia is the only victim so far. The ban has since been reduced to two years. Still, the entire event remains the largest sports scandal since Lance Armstrong was stripped of all his Tour de France titles and banned from competing by the US Anti-Doping Agency in 2012.

Notable Doping Statistics

8. According to Wada’s drug testing statistics, less than 1% of all anti-doping test samples return positive.

(Wada 2019 Anti-Doping Testing Figures) (Wada 2018 ADVR Report)

The number is steadily decreasing, with only 2,702 positive results from 278,047 samples in 2019 (0.97%), compared to 2,774 positive results from 263,519 samples in 2018 (1.05%). However, with drug use in sports, statistics can be very misleading. Most cutting-edge technologies for doping have not yet been discovered, so the real-world numbers are likely a lot higher.

9. More than 30% of athletes in the 2011 Olympics and 45% in the Pan-Arab Games admitted to using doping during their careers.

(BBC) (Springer)

The study commissioned by Wada brought some eye-opening revelations. Although this was now over 10 years ago, the discrepancy between the 1%-2% in Wada’s official findings and statements issued by the athletes themselves show that anti-doping agencies are still behind the curve in detecting drug abuse in sports.

10. 59% of positive doping tests result in sporting bans.

(Wada 2018 ADVR Report)

Why not 100%? Statistics on doping in sports often miss one crucial detail: Due to medical reasons, some athletes are allowed to use certain substances that cause the tests to come back positive, so the real figure to look at when analyzing Wada reports is the number of anti-doping rule violations. In 2018, these accounted for 59% of positive doping results, so roughly 0.6% of all athletes tested were officially banned for failing the Wada test procedure.

11. Bodybuilders (21%) and cyclists (17%) have the highest percentages of anti-doping rule violations in sports.

(Wada 2018 ADVR Report)

According to WADA’s drug use in sports statistics, bodybuilders and cyclists are the biggest offenders, with 21% and 17% of all anti-doping rule violations, respectively. Athletics, powerlifting, and weightlifting are also hotbeds for doping scandals, while football (4%) and aquatics (3%) are on the low end of the scale.

12. Russia (144) and Italy (132) had the highest number of anti-doping rule violations in 2018.

(Wada 2018 ADVR Report)

The two nations combined accounted for nearly a third (31%) of all violations in dope testing resulting in Wada bans in 2018. France was third with 113 (13%), followed by India (107 or 12%), Ukraine (78 or 9%), and the United States (73 or 8%).

13. The overall number of Wada-analyzed samples rose by 5.5% from 2018 to 2019.

(Wada 2019 Anti Doping Testing Figures)

In the fight against doping in sports, statistics often look more promising than the reality on the ground. That’s why conducting more tests is crucial in discovering potential problems before they become full-blown sports scandals. Considering that 60% of Wada-accredited laboratories saw an increase in the total number of samples analyzed and reported year-over-year, things are looking promising for Wada. The issue of getting around sophisticated doping mechanisms remains, however.

Sources:

BBC CNN FitPeople Hastings Center Report How It Works Liquisearch ProCon.org Springer The Guardian Slate Wada

FAQ

What percentage of athletes use doping?

Determining what percentage of athletes use performance-enhancing drugs is not easy. Over 30% of those participating in the 2011 Olympics admitted utilizing some sort of illegal performance boosters at some point in their careers. A Wada report from the same year found even greater numbers at the World Championships in Athletics in South Korea (43.6%) and Pan-Arab Games in Qatar (57.1%). Official numbers are much lower, with Wada routinely reporting adverse analytical findings of only about 1% each year.

Do Olympic athletes get tested for drugs?

Absolutely. Drug testing at the Olympics dates way back to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. In discussions about performance-enhancing drugs in sports, statistics still don’t show the complete picture, as many crafty athletes have avoided bans in the past. Countries like Russia even had state-sponsored doping programs, which were difficult to discover.

What are the benefits of doping in sports?

There are numerous benefits, depending on the drugs used. The most common type is anabolic steroids, which allow for faster muscle definition gains. Other stimulants enable athletes to train harder and feel less fatigued, while masking agents and diuretics can hide other drugs in the system or rapidly drain fluids from the body, to make a weight test in boxing, for example. While stats about steroids show a general decrease in use over the years, advanced doping agents such as erythropoietin are still used by many athletes to boost strength and red blood cell growth.

How does doping affect athletes?

There are plenty of adverse effects of performance-enhancing drugs. These include risks of infertility, hypertension, liver and kidney dysfunction when using anabolic steroids, myocardial and cerebral infarction when using hormones, insomnia, and hallucinations when using stimulants.

What are the types of doping in sports?

When it comes to doping in sports, statistics most commonly focus on steroids and hormones, but many more drugs and supplements can be classified as doping. We’ve already mentioned erythropoietin and anabolic steroids. Some athletes take somatotrophin - human growth hormone - and purified proteins or hemoglobin-based chemicals that can carry oxygen. Blood and gene doping and insulin are commonly used as well.