Photo: Contributed
A whistleblower has come forward with accusations of mass doping among Olympic athletes.
The World Anti-Doping Agency is alarmed by "wild allegations" made by two European media outlets of widespread suspicious drug tests in track and field, and is asking an independent body to investigate.
WADA President Craig Reedie said Sunday he was surprised by the scale of the allegations, including that one-third of medals in endurance races at the Olympics and world championships over a 10-year period were won by athletes who recorded suspicious doping tests.
German broadcaster ARD and The Sunday Times newspaper in Britain said they obtained access to the results of 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 athletes.
The files came from the database of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were leaked by a whistleblower, according to the reports.
The IAAF and WADA were already investigating accusations made in two previous ARD documentaries of alleged systematic doping and coverups in Russia.
Reedie said the material from the new ARD program and The Sunday Times would be turned over to WADA's independent commission for investigation.
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."
"So many athletes appear to have doped with impunity, and it is damning that the IAAF appears to have sat idly by and let this happen," Parisotto told the Sunday Times.
Ashenden compared the state of athletics in light of the revelations to cycling in the Lance Armstrong era, saying it was a "shameful betrayal" by the IAAF of its duty to clean up the sport.
Blood doping is when athletes use substances to increase their red blood cell mass, benefiting their stamina and athletic performance.
Russia holds the honor of fielding the most suspicious results revealed in the leak. TheSunday Times said "a remarkable 80 per cent" of Russian medal-winning athletes had recorded a suspicious result at one point in their career.
