In the battle against drug use at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the International Testing Agency (ITA) will employ a streamlined, high-tech approach to identify and target cheats. The agency has at its disposal the Athlete Biological Passports for reference as well as a mountain of data, as reported on July 3 in the Gulf Times.
The International Testing Agency
Additionally, the ITA has upgraded software, possibly using artificial intelligence. The ITA an investigative unit aided by whistleblowers was making inroads with increased cooperation with sports bodies and police.
The ITA runs the anti-doping program for the Olympics and more than 65 international organizations. Meanwhile, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) focuses on the sport of athletics. Most nations have an anti-doping agency for all sports within that country, for example, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK). The national agencies are governed by the World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA and its compliance code and its published list of prohibited substances and practices.
Anti-doping body sharpens its tools for Paris Olympics
— Anti-Doping Database (@Dopinglist) July 4, 2024
In the battle against drug use at the Paris Olympics, the International Testing Agency (ITA) plans to deploy a more streamlined, high-tech approach to identify and target potential…https://t.co/51hwgrkkAx
Dr. Sisa with ADAK noted recently that the agency has tested more than 4,135 athletes. They have also reached 16,512 stakeholders, with 8,500 in the sport of athletics alone, leading up to the Paris Olympic Games.
“We have been working closely with the WADA Africa office which has been supportive of our programs. We are also working hand in hand with the regional anti-doping organization to advance the fight against doping,” said Sisa.
“We have been doing a lot of testing for athletes over the past year to ensure that we deliver a clean team to the Olympics. We have also undertaken both testing and education for the athletes and their entourages and the program is taking shape considerably well.”
Perhaps the ITA will determine how clean the Kenyan team will be. Currently, the athletics juggernaut has approximately 90 athletes who are suspended. The infractions include positive doping tests, Athlete Biological Passport anomalies, whereabouts program failures and tampering.
Recent doping cases
American sprinter Erriyon Knighton tested positive for the performance enhancer trenbolone during an out-of-competition test in March, according to USADA, which revealed details of the case Wednesday. USADA’s arbitration panel determined the substance was ingested from contaminated meat. This is the same reason used by Shelby Houlihan when she claimed that her positive test came from contaminated meat she digested from a burrito. WADA has the right to challenge USADA on the Knighton case.
On June 21, the AIU announced the two-year suspension of Kenyan marathon runner Jackline Jeptanui for testing positive for the presence of triamcinolone acetonide.
Three days prior, on June 18, the AIU announced the suspension of three Kenyan runners. On June 21, the AIU announced the suspension of two more Kenyans and a Bolivian athlete. This was just two weeks after the ADAK published a press release about suspending 33 athletes, 26 of them runners. On June 5th, Athletics Illustrated reported that Kenyan Rhonex Kipruto, the world 10,000 metre championships bronze medallist was suspended for Athletics Biological Passport anomalies. The 24-year-old received a six-year suspension.
On May 17, Rodgers Kwemoi Chumo of Kenya was suspended for six years. The Commonwealth Games 10,000m gold medallist was blood doping.
On May 20th, Kenyan marathon runner, Kemei Elias Kiprono, was provisionally suspended by the AIU, for testing positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug, Trimetazidine.
Nine days later, 35-year-old marathon runner Josephine Chepkoech was banned for seven years for her second offence. She was initially suspended from March 2015 for two years for the presence of norandrosterone, a potent anabolic steroid. At the 2024 Seville Marathon, she tested positive again, this time for testosterone.
As Dr. Sisa claims, the anti-doping efforts have increased. It will be interesting for fans of the sport of athletics if the ITA finds more positive tests during the in-competition testing done at the Olympic Games. The ITA is a separate body and in-competition testing can be very different from out-of-competition testing, where athletes have allegedly gamed the whereabouts program by not being available once or twice during a 12-month period to allegedly avoid a positive test result.
