This archive report was first published on 20 December 2019.
On Thursday, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released its latest report detailing doping offences in 2017, showing a significant 13.1% rise in anti-doping rule violations (ADRV).
The report counted 1,804 cases, a sharp increase from the 1,595 recorded in 2016, although down from 1,929 in 2015.
Italy topped the list with 171 violations, followed by France with 128 and the United States with 103.
Notably, Russia, which was recently banned from international sporting competition for four years over doping, ranked fifth with 82 violations.
WADA director general Olivier Niggli attributed the progress in the fight against doping to improved investigation and intelligence-based testing.
Of the 1,804 ADRVs, 1,459 were positive tests, while 345 were classified as non-analytical, where no prohibited substance was detected but investigations found athletes or their support staff in violation of the WADA Code.
“While in and out-of-competition testing remains critical to detect doping, events have recently shown that investigative work is becoming even more important as we look to protect clean athletes’ rights worldwide,” said Niggli in a statement.
WADA collected a total of 245,232 samples in 2017, with the 1,804 ADRVs coming from 93 sports and disciplines involving athletes from 114 countries.
