Doping has now emerged as a global problem that follows international sporting events worldwide. International sports federations, led by the International Olympic Committee, have for the past half century attempted to stop the spread of this problem, with little effect.

       The world Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published its third annual report on Violations (ADRVs) Report, which is the first set of Anti- Doping Rule Violation statistics under the revised World Anti-Doping Code.
 
       The report illustrates doping offences committed in global sport during 2015. It highlights that there was a total of 1,929 ADRVs recorded in 2015, involving individuals from 122 nationalities and across 85 sports.

       Russia returned the most positive drug tests in 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed after the organization published their Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) Report.

       A total of 176 ADRVs were reported from Russia, which was found to have operated an “Institutionalized conspiracy” to cheat to win medals at international competitions between 2011 and 2015.

       A total of 48 of these came in athletics, with 32 in weightlifting and 27 in powerlifting.

       The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has been non compliment with WADA since November 2015 following the Independent Commission report into the suspected widespread doping in athletics.

       Italy was second on the list behind the Russians with 129,

closely followed by India on 117.

       Bodybuilding was the sport with the highest amount of ADRVs during 2015, the year when the updated WADA Code came into effect, with a total of 270. Athletics followed with 242, three more than weightlifting’s 239. Cycling was also in the top 10 with 200, with 110 ADRVs uncovered in powerlifting and 108 in Football.

       The WADA report revealed there were 1,929 ADRVs in 2015, involving individuals from 122 nationalities in 85 sports. A total of 1,649 came from adverse analytical findings, while 280, Including 28 athlete support personnel, resulted from “evidence based intelligence” non-analytical findings.

     According to WADA, this “represents an increase in non-analytical ADRVs, and is in line with the anti-doping movement’s increased focus on investigation, intelligence gathering and whistleblowing”. The number of punishments handed out in 2015 was an increase of 14 percent compared with the previous year.
  
       WADA this month launched its “Speak Up” secure digital platform for athletes and others to report anti-doping violations. Asked whether the world might be facing another big scandal, after Russian track and field athletes were banned from last year’s Rio Olympics, Craig Reedle, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said he did not know but hoped not.

       He said a decision on Russian athletes’ participation at next year’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea needed to be made as early as possible and they could expect an aggressive program of targeted testing in the run-up. 

       It was expected that, with educational programs, 

testing, and supportive medical treatment, this substance –abusing behavior would decrease. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. In Fact, new, more powerful and undetectable doping techniques and substances are now abused by professional athletes, while sophisticated networks of distribution have developed. Professional athletes are often the role models of adolescent and young adult populations, who often mimic their behaviors, including the abuse of drugs.

       The creed of the Olympics state: “The important thing in games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing is not conquering, but fighting well”.

       There are literally hundreds of known doping substances and an equal number of designers, veterinary, and yet to be identified drugs and techniques abused in sports today. Modern sports and the media’s misplaced fixation on fame, fortune and winning at all costs have unintentionally created a growing market for doping substances.

       These substances, once only abused by elite athletes, are clearly spreading into our schools and health clubs worldwide. They are being accepted by a whole new generation of young customers who see reports daily in the newspapers of sports icons accused of abusing drugs only to continue playing, breaking records and claiming fortunes. These same performance-enhancing drugs are also abused by adolescents and weekend athletes and non-athletes who have wider behavioral and health risk problems.

       Even though doping is a really serious issue, nobody has a permanent solution to this problem. Competition is good. But it should be healthy. Never do we compete with others without thinking about our own future.