A whistleblower has leaked the blood test data of thousands of athletes and alleges that doping and performance-enhancing drugs at the Olympics is rampant. Those test results of 5,000 athletes apparently show that a large number of track and field medals at the Olympics were tainted due to the doping or drugs taken by the winners.
The data was apparently taken from the world athletics governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
A third of the medals “î including 55 golds “î won in endurance running events at Olympics and world championships between 2001 and 2012 are held by competitors whose results appear problematic. Robin Parisotto, an Australian doping expert, who along with Michael Ashenden was consulted about the tests by the news outlet, said he had never seen such an “alarmingly abnormal set of blood values,” according to new reports.
Ashenden compared the state of athletics in light of the revelations to cycling in the Lance Armstrong era. He said it was a “shameful betrayal” by the IAAF of its duty to clean up the sport.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said that blood doping is when athletes use substances to increase their red blood cell mass, benefiting their stamina and athletic performance. An abnormal result is generally considered one that has a less than 1 in 100 chance of being natural.
The next IAAF World Athletics Championships is set to take place in Beijing in late August.
Jeffrey Newman represents whistleblowers.
