Dealing with doping. A plea for better science, governance and education

Abstract

First paragraph: A participant from the ancient Greek Olympics stepping into Tokyo's Olympic Stadium at the opening of the Games on 23 July 2021 would find the pageantry and competition familiar. Since doping-like behavior was prevalent at the time, the athlete would be confused by the efforts to detect the use of substances in the body fluids of his fellow athletes. The anti-doping lab at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro operated on a 24-hour basis, requiring 5'500m2 of space for its 30 mass spectrometry instruments and 700 staff. Tokyo's organizers have announced an even more elaborate operation. Current anti-doping efforts are extensive, expensive, and complex. They not only concern the Olympic Games but competitive sport in general, also targeting non-Olympic athletes and, increasingly, amateurs.