Documents allegedly containing the leaked blood test data of thousands of athletes claims to show that the use of performance-enhancing drugs, blood doping, or other methods of cheating has reached “extraordinary” levels internationally.
The leaked files, which Mashable reported were handed over to The Sunday Times and German broadcaster AMD, appears to include the result of 12,000 tests from 5,000 athletes, showing that one-third of the medals awarded to endurance runners at the Olympics and world championships between 2001 and 2012 went to athletes with “suspicious” test results.
While The Sunday Times said that no athletes have yet been stripped of their medals, Australian doping expert Robin Parisotto said he had never before seen such an “alarmingly abnormal set of blood values” before, telling the newspaper that it was “damning that the IAAF [International Association of Athletics Federations] appears to have sat idly by and let this happen.”
The reports indicate that more than 800 athletes (one-seventh of those featured) recorded blood tests deemed abnormal or suspicious of PED use or blood doping, which increases the endurance of an athlete by improving their ability to transport oxygen through the body. The most frequent offender was Russia, with “a remarkable 80 percent” of medal winners reportedly recording one or more suspicious tests throughout their careers.
Athletics organizations, doping agencies respond to charges
In a statement, the IAAF said that it aware of the allegations, which they said were “largely based on analysis of… private and confidential medical data which has been obtained without consent.” It said that a detailed response was forthcoming, and would “reserve the right to take any follow up action necessary to protect the rights of the IAAF and its athletes.”
On Sunday, Sir Craig Reedie, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said in a statement that he was “very disturbed” by the allegations, and that the accusations “require swift and close scrutiny to determine whether there have in fact been breaches under the World Anti-Doping Code and, if so, what actions are required to be taken by WADA and/or other bodies.”
“As always, WADA is committed to doing what’s necessary to ensure a level playing field for clean athletes of the world,” he added. The documents cited in the reports would be handed over to an independent commission formed last December in the wake of similar charges.
In an interview with BBC News, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said that currently the reports are “nothing more than allegations” and that the group had to “respect the presumption of innocence.” If the claims are proven and found to involve results at the Olympics, however, he said that the IOC would respond “with zero tolerance.”
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