SAN FRANCISCO, December 23, (THEWILL) – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has decided to knock off the so-called “aggregated data” from its annual testing figures report. By doing so, WADA has reduced the number of samples included in the report by more than 20 per cent based on figures from 2018.
The Montreal-based agency disclosed that the move was a reflection of the “increased focus on signatory results for WADA, the [World Anti-Doping] Code and international standards.”
WADA indicated that none of the data excluded is reported into the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS) and that it was “predominantly from professional leagues and universities in North America.”
A 5.5 per cent increase was reflected in the newly-published 2019, from 263,519 to 278,047, in the number of samples analysed and reported into the ADAMS format.
However, on the other hand, there was said to be a decrease in the proportion of Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs), or positive tests, from 1.05 per cent in 2018, when AAFs totalled 2,774, to 0.97 per cent in 2019, when there were 2,702 AAFs.
As a contrast, in the original 2018 report, which included the now knocked off “aggregated data”, the number of samples analysed was put at 344,177 and the number of AAFs, or positive tests, at 4,896.
A recalibrated 2018 figure with deductions from those originally reported, carries the implication that it will be that 80,658 (i.e. 344,177 minus 263,519) samples from the now excluded aggregated data that were analysed.
That amounts to 23.4 percent of samples included in the original 2018 report which any new reports from WADA going forward will now exclude as a result of the removal of “aggregate data” from WADA reports.
This may not be unconnected to the bill signed into law early on Friday, December 4 by the U.S. President Donald Trump, just a month after the November elections, to allow U.S. prosecutors go after doping schemes in international sports events that involve Americans.
It is called “the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act,” after acclaimed whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, a former director of an anti-doping lab in Moscow who then fled to the U.S. in 2015 and played an important role in revealing the scandal of the Russian government sponsoring doping programmes to illegally boost Russian athletes’ performances across sporting events.
The new law proposes to fine those who participate in doping schemes up to $1 million and serve them prison sentences of up to 10 years with no specific definition of how the term “scheme” will be applied.
WADA had expressed its strong displeasure with the signing, especially after they invested so many lobbying efforts trying to prevent it from being passed and signed which was why it took as long as two years to become a law.
“We are not against this law. However, it’s all about the details. The first is the principle of extraterritoriality. Americans can race anywhere in the world. It is taking the role of a gendarme who wants to take control of the entire system. The act undermines whistleblower protection, which is one of WADA’s actions,” said Witold Banka, president of the WADA.
Though WADA did not specifically link the removal of aggregate data from its reports to the signing of the law, it has not hidden its fierce disagreement with the very essence and need of a specific North American anti-doping law even with the existence of WADA created for the specific purpose of riding the world of sporting cheats across borders.
