Great chart. These numbers appear to come from
2024 report on 2022 data, specifically the number of Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs) recorded by National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADO) accredited by WADA (Table 8: Total Samples by TA Category). Regarding AAFs, the report notes:
So what we
really want is the ADRV (Anti-Doping Rule Violation) report for the same timeframe, which would exclude TUEs and include
non-analytical adverse findings such as athletes evading test protocols or being found in
possession of prohibited substances. Unfortunately that corresponding ADRV report has not yet been published. There is, however, an
ADRV report published in 2023 based on 2020 data. The worst offenders in that report are Russia (135 ADRVs), India (59) and USA (57). China had 25 and Japan...1. Half of the Russian ADRVs were based on non-analytical findings, which illustrates one of the limitations of the AAF data used in the chart.
Back to the 2024 AAF report. One thing that leaps out is how few tests are attributed to USADA. The UK, Italy, France and German NADOs all record more tests administered than USA despite being much smaller nations, as do Russia and China. Of the nations that conduct thousands of tests each year, India is indeed a clear outlier with 3.2% AAFs. One has to give a special shout out to Syria, however: achieving an extraordinary 50% AAF rate based off two tests.
