Since the beginning of the year, an average of 55 procedures per month have been revealed in top-level sport. This figure has been rising steadily for two years.
While more and more international federations are making public the anti-doping procedures undertaken in their disciplines, some national anti-doping agencies remain very quiet on the issue. This is no longer the case for NADA India or ADAK Kenya, which have recently made the choice to be transparent. These revelations obviously have a strong impact on our barometer, which we have published several times a year since 2014. At the end of the first four months of 2023, India is in first place for the first time, in terms of the number of cases revealed, ahead of the usual “leaders”: Russia and the United States.
The large number of procedures reported has forced us to analyse each one on a case-by-case basis – as we only include procedures related to high-level or professional athletes, revealed by federations, anti-doping agencies, the courts or the media. Since 2018, we have included cases of fraud and corruption that concern the staff who are involved with athletes, but also match-fixing that may implicate athletes directly.
So far, there have only been three proceedings revealed by the UCI website, concerning continental road teams (Portuguese and Italian). Two of the three riders involved are former World Team and Pro Team members who had signed a contract with a lower level team.
None of the cases revealed involved an MPCC member team. Our movement includes 40 first and second division pro teams (men and women) and only 16 continental teams. We strongly encourage these semi-professional teams to join the MPCC, in order to put their ethics and credibility at the heart of our sport.
