Anti-doping technology to catch the cheats

In August 2015, Ashi Cakir Alptekin of Turkey had to hand back the 1500 metres gold medal she won at the 2012 Olympic Games in London after admitting to blood doping- one of the latest examples of drug-related cheating in sports, a problem that had grown enormously since 1968, when the Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall became the first athlete to be disqualified from the Olympics for a doping offence. He had drunk a few beers to calm his nerves, which was banned under new regulations set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). With every subsequent edition of the quadrennial competition, more substances have been banned, more athletes have been selected for screening, more sports federations have officially adhered to global anti-doping regulation and more sophisticated performance-enhancing drugs and doping methods have been developed. The technology designed to expose the cheats has become more advanced, too, with the result that more are being caught. In just one example, Russia as a nation was banned from international track-and-field events in November 2015 for systematic doping. For every new drug or doping scheme that becomes available, a new test technology or procedure has to be developed, validated and implemented by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the independent organisation set up in 1999 to standardise and coordinate international policy initiatives in the battle for clean sport. While the quantity of the job at hand might look as arduous as that done by a software antivirus company that has to chase several new threats a week, the quality of the results produced by the latest biochemical technologies is growing exponentially. This means that the detection of prohibited drugs, hormones and metabolic modulators at the Rio Olympics will be possible for both lower concentrations and longer time windows than in London 2012.