The drug testing program enforced by the Olympics and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is oppressive and ineffective. What’s worse, it’s dishonest.

Dishonest

The Olympic Games aren’t as ‘drug-free’ as many would claim them to be. Whilst most athletes make best efforts to comply with the WADA code of conduct, a significant proportion of athletes take WADA-noncompliant enhancements, supplements, and medications. Indeed, a 2011 WADA commissioned study (granting guaranteed anonymity to respondents) found that 43.6% of ‘WADA-compliant’ elite athletes had used banned supplements in the past year, commenting that “doping appears remarkably widespread among elite athletes”.

Oppressive

Under WADA’s current system, all athletes (even minors) need to be able to provide blood and urine samples at any given point in time, without notice. Athletes must continually provide their location, notifying WADA of their ‘whereabouts’. Whilst we understand the sentiment behind this Orwellian practice, we believe that athletes have a right to privacy and bodily autonomy. (Source: WADA’s ISTI Guidelines for Sample Collection.)

Ineffective

Further undermining WADA’s drug testing program is its ineffectiveness. A 2022 report commissioned by WADA and conducted by Prof. James Skinner of Loughborough University found that “anti-doping policies are not implemented consistently across nations”, as “the depth of policy implementation and compliance varies significantly between [WADA] Code signatories”. 

Jamaica’s failed drug-testing regime is a powerful case study for the inconsistent implementation of the Olympics’ WADA-compliance. Renee-Anne Shirley, formerly the executive director of the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission (Jadco), disclosed in 2013 that “only a single out-of-competition test had been conducted by Jadco between March and July before the London Olympics”. (Source: The Independent.)

It may be of interest to note that Olympians competing for Jamaica have won 86 medals in track & field athletics, and that the current ‘natural’ world record for the 100 metre sprint was set by a member of the Jamaican Olympic team, with the WADA regulations enforced by Jadco. As the drug-testing program for members of the Jamaican Olympic team is significantly worse than the testing program enrolled by wealthier countries (like the United States and Australia), global competitions like the Olympics are inherently unfair.

It is time for the sports world to seriously reconsider its stance on performance enhancements.