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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif" alt="The New York Times" align="left" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0"></a>
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<div class="">August 22, 2013</div>
<h1>Study Revealing Doping in Track Strikes Hurdle </h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span><span>TIM ROHAN</span></span></h6>
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<p>
Doping experts have long known that drug tests catch only a tiny
fraction of the athletes who use banned substances because athletes are
constantly finding new drugs and techniques to evade detection. So in
2011, the World Anti-Doping Agency convened a team of researchers to try
to determine more accurately how many athletes use
performance-enhancing drugs. </p>
<p>
More than 2,000 track and field athletes participated in the study, and
according to the findings, which were reviewed by The New York Times, an
estimated 29 percent of the athletes at the 2011 world championships
and 45 percent of the athletes at the 2011 Pan-Arab Games said in
anonymous surveys that they had doped in the past year. </p>
<p>
By contrast, less than 2 percent of drug tests examined by WADA laboratories in 2010 were positive. </p>
<p>
The researchers were eager to publish their results, which they believed
would expose a harsh reality of modern sports: that far more athletes
are doping than might be imagined, and that current drug-testing
protocols catch few of the cheaters. But after a final draft of the
study was submitted to the antidoping agency, the organization
ultimately told the researchers they could not publish their findings at
this time, according to three of the researchers, who requested
anonymity because they signed nondisclosure agreements with the agency.
The agency said track and field’s world governing body needed to review
the findings first, the researchers said. </p>
<p>
“It was going to be a really sensitive issue, and they needed time to
figure out how to deal with it,” one of the researchers said. “What was
going to be the international response?” </p>
<p>
Nick Davies, a spokesman for track’s governing body, the International
Association of Athletics Federations, said in an e-mail that the
original study “was not complete for publication,” adding that it was
“based only on a social science protocol, a kind of vox pop of athletes’
opinions.” Davies indicated blood tests from the world championships
this month in Moscow would be combined with the previous research to
produce what the I.A.A.F. believed would be a more comprehensive study.
</p>
<p>
In an e-mail, WADA confirmed “the position as set out by the I.A.A.F.” </p>
<p>
The researchers said that their work was important and sound enough to
stand alone, and that it made little scientific sense to combine their
work with that of a study they did not conduct. </p>
<p>
The project began in 2011 when the researchers created a
randomized-response survey, a common research technique that is used to
ask sensitive questions while ensuring a subject’s confidentiality. The
researchers conducted their interviews at two major track and field
events: the world championships in Daegu, South Korea, and the Pan-Arab
Games in Doha, Qatar. </p>
<p>
Athletes at the events answered questions on tablet computers and were
asked initially to think of a birthday, either their own or that of
someone close to them. Then, depending on the date of the birthday, they
were instructed to answer one of two questions that appeared on the
same screen: one asked if the birthday fell sometime between January and
June, and the other asked, “Have you knowingly violated anti-doping
regulations by using a prohibited substance or method in the past 12
months?” </p>
<p>
The study was designed this way, the researchers said, so only the
athlete knew which of the two questions he or she was answering. Then,
using statistical analysis, the researchers could estimate how many of
the athletes admitted to doping. </p>
<p>
The researchers noted that not every athlete participated, and those who
did could have lied on the questionnaire, or chosen to answer the
birthday question. They concluded that their results, which found that
nearly a third of the athletes at the world championships and nearly
half at the Pan-Arab Games had doped in the past year, probably
underestimated the reality. </p>
<p>
The team examined its data and in the spring of 2012 had a manuscript it
was prepared to publish. But when the final draft was submitted to
WADA, the agency told the team not to publish. WADA wanted it to do more
research at another event. The agency’s reasoning was not exactly clear
to the researchers, who mostly opposed the idea, the three researchers
said. </p>
<p>
For the next several months, the team and WADA exchanged correspondence,
debating whether to publish. In January 2013, after WADA gave
permission, an inquiry was sent to the journal Science, which decided
not to consider the study for publication. The researchers said it was
rejected because the subject matter did not fit. A spokeswoman for
Science said she could not comment specifically, but said the journal
declined the vast majority of submissions. </p>
<p>
WADA expressed support in submitting the study to other journals. Then,
in March, the researchers said, the agency told them not to publish but
to wait for the I.A.A.F. to review the findings. The researchers said
they were blindsided. </p>
<p>
John Hoberman, a University of Texas professor who is an expert on
performance-enhancing drugs, said the study’s findings dispelled the
notion that doping was a deviant behavior among a few athletes. </p>
<p>
“Either the sport is recruiting huge numbers of deviants,” he said, “or
this is simply routine behavior being engaged in by, more or less,
normal people.” </p>
<p>
He added, “That’s dangerous for WADA, because that’s a character issue.” </p>
<p>
In May, Dick Pound, a former WADA chairman, presented a report, ordered
by the agency, on the current state of drug testing. In part, he and his
team concluded, “There is no general appetite to undertake the effort
and expense of a successful effort to deliver doping-free sport.”
</p>
<p>
Pound said in a telephone interview Thursday: “There’s this
psychological aspect about it: nobody wants to catch anybody. There’s no
incentive. Countries are embarrassed if their nationals are caught. And
sports are embarrassed if someone from their sport is caught.” </p>
<p>
Don Catlin, a prominent antidoping scientist, said he was not sure that WADA had the resources to rein in doping. </p>
<p>
“Those are profound numbers,” Catlin said about the researchers’ findings. “It’s disturbing. I’m not surprised, though.” </p>
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